Preceptorship in pediatrics

Specialties PICU

Published

Hello! I'm starting preceptorship this semester on the pediatric unit. I'm very excited! ..But also very nervous! I was just wondering if anyone has any tips, tricks, suggestions, must know knowledge...etc that will help me out? :) I've already studied up on some things my preceptor suggested, such as pediatric resp. problems. Any help would be appreciated! Also, I am supposed to make couple learning objectives I want to meet by the end of my preceptorship. One I have in mind is simply to be able to be able to give complete care to a full load of patients. Any other recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Read through the topics in this forum and you'll get quite an education. Remember that growth and development will be the basis for most of your patient interactions.

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What kind if floor is it? When I switched to peds, I brushed up on respiratory stuff, sickle cell. I work ED and we see a TON of asthma, croup, bronchiolitis, etc

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What kind if floor is it? When I switched to peds, I brushed up on respiratory stuff, sickle cell. I work ED and we see a TON of asthma, croup, bronchiolitis, etc

It's just a general peds med-surg. Not very high acuity as we have a large childrens hospital not far

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Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.

Not a nurse, yet, currently tech peds ER. It's a bad RSV season, so def review resp. We also see a lot of kids w congenital issues coming in with respiratory stuff which complicates it. And, scd crises

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Did you start yet? How is it going?

I did my preceptorship on a general Peds floor in a children's hospital. It wasn't RSV season yet, but definitely review respiratory. I would recommend looking at VS for all age groups. When people think of Peds, they normally only think of toddler/school age, but I had a 5week old in one room and an 18year old in the next... way different vital sign requirements. Also every shift I had a new kid recovering from appendicitis. And remember Pediatric med dosing is typically all done by weight and has a different max dose that you should be aware of. For your learning goals, I think they should be up to you. Mine focused on patient/parent teaching, because I wasn't comfortable with that at the time. I also struggled with meds, so I made it a point to have the normal dosing for common meds (acetaminophen, ibuprofen,...) memorized.

Remember not to stress too much and see as much as you can, even if it's not your nurse or patient, if something interesting comes in ask if you can see/watch just for the experience, you are there to learn!

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