Advice for CNA in Peds?

[GingerRN17]

I havent found any threads so far about CNA's working on Peds. I hope its ok to post this here!

I had my PCT 10 years ago, and only had gotten 3 month of experience back then before I quit to raise my babies.

Now I am 29, pre-nursing, hoping to start my BSN program next year. I just landed my first CNA job in a decade, and it is in Peds. I got hired for my soft-skills and having some managerial experience from running my own business and managing a large ground of volunteers at a non-profit.

Does anyone here have any advice for me? The tiny amount of experience I have was in a long-term rehab hospital. Lots of nursing home patients, lots of death, very depressing. I know Peds is hard. I have been a foster mom, volunteered at the shelter, have seen what kids go through in that aspect, so I am very aware that Peds is NOT all sunshine and rainbows and cute kids like so many people think.

What do you look for in your CNAs? What are some things that I need to be prepared for making this transition into Peds? What can I do to prove myself, and show that I want to learn and grow and work my ass off?

I think dealing with the parents scares me more then anything. I can handle bio-parents on the foster care system, I have had to supervise visits while parents were high or fighting, knowing that they saw me as the enemy since I had physical custody of their children and was their child's parent at the moment...but the thought of a hurting family watching their child sick, scares the crap out of me.

Any advice?

[GingerRN17]

Anyone? :)

[RunnerRN2015, ASN, RN]

I was an NA on a peds floor for 2 years before transferring to another unit. It's a lot more fun that adults! It's still the usual q4 vitals, I&O, ADLs, linens, etc but the parents take care of a lot of it, esp for kids with chronic issues. My floor had newborns through teenagers with acute and chronic problems. It was a great variety and never boring.

[GingerRN17]

thanks! That makes sense that it might be better at times then adult care! This floor also takes some surgical overflow, so we will still have some adults, but most are in decent shape and only there for a couple days from what I understand! I hadn't thought about parents helping with kids, that will be nice. That makes sense tho, if my children were in the hospital, I would do a lot of the care myself.

Thanks for your input!