First Peds Clinical Advice

[futurern118]

Hey everybody! I'm currently in my second to last semester of my RN program and ever since I started nursing school, my dream has been to work in pediatrics. In fact, it's the reason I chose nursing. During high school, I knew that I wanted a career where I was making a positive impact on kids and the community. When I researched pediatric nursing further, I fell in love with it and to this day I know that it's my true calling.

I have my very first peds clinical coming up (acute care) in a few weeks and to be honest, I'm pretty nervous. I know that this is my passion, but I've never worked with kids in a clinical setting outside of school clinics. I'm not too concerned because I do have lots of non-clinical experience with kids/families, but I can't help but have a little stage fright.

For someone who wants peds more than anything, what kind of advice would you give me for my first clinical? I've heard it said that every clinical is a potential job interview. For those peds nurses out there who may have been in the field for a while, what's something you'd like to see more of in new grads coming into peds? What's something you wish students did more of (or less of) while on their rotations in peds? Any tips/advice/input would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!