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[amazinga921]

Hello,

Im taking all my pre-requires to get onto the nursing list. My goal after i get my degree is to get a job in peds. or in the NCIU with the babies. Anyways i was wondering if there is anything i could do to help get experience in this department. So when the time comes my experience will look good for whatever job i apply for.

[Herrington]

Go to a hospital and look into volunteering with the pediatrics or NICU departments. Make some connections and get familiar with the environment. Doing so has the potential to help with finding a position later on.

[RunBabyRN]

Check out the Pediatric Nursing forum (under Nursing Specialties). You might get some good ideas there.

Even volunteering at a preschool or something can be good, so that you learn how to talk to kids and how to teach them things. You can even try teaching them about health!

Otherwise, you might be able to get a CNA position on a peds unit (I could be wrong), but I haven't seen volunteers or CNAs in the NICU. Even just getting CNA time and being in patient care would help. You could also try working as a CNA or medical assistant in a family practice clinic or peds clinic.

[amazinga921]

Thank you! i heard that sometimes you don't have to have a degree to get a cna job? is that true?

[RunBabyRN]

A CNA is a certification, not a degree, and depending on the type of experience you have, you don't necessarily have to get that. For example, I was a hospital corpsman in the Navy, where I had a very wide scope of practice, so I could have found work easily (and was offered a couple of jobs) as a CNA.