My goal is to eventually be an RN in a NICU or PICU somewhere, so it's important to me to do well and learn a lot in this peds rotation. I'm a 40 year old male with 2 beautiful grand daughters. I spent about 15 years working as a correctional officer and correctional supervisor on death row and in administrative segregation and gang prevention with the state prison system.
So, your job: convince me that a big old burly dude who spent most of his adult life in a prison environment can be good and safe in a pediatric facility. Hurry, there's not much time!
God...Imagine all the things that can go wrong!
(My grandkids love me and babies smile at me in public, so I'm hoping that's a sign.)
I'm not scared of either the kids or the nurses...I'm just a little intimidated because I picture treating children to be more complicated than treating adults. I can just imagine all the mistakes you could make that'd kill someone's kid.
I'm a very (sometimes overly) confident person, and I've done really well in all my classes as well as clinically so far throughout NS. I just need to relax until class starts and I actually see what's what.
I think it's all because I don't really know what to expect in Peds. I've seen adult nursing, as a patient/family member of a patient, and from being married to an ER nurse, so med/surg, etc didn't bother me. I haven't, though, been through any kiddo hospitalization more complicated than childbirth and grandchildbirth.
What are you more afraid of, the kids or the other nurses? The kids are usually pretty universal in their acceptance or nonacceptance of their nurse and it has little to do with gender. I have a coworker who is over six feet tall, and about 210. He's an imposing figure until he starts talking to the kids and then his real persona comes through. There are very few people who don't respond favorably to him, kids, parents or staff. And of course the boys love him to death. We like it when he has a few shifts with the more demanding kids, because at the end of his stretch, they're suddenly more reasonable. I like having him around when I've got the big kid with the head injury, purely for his superior upper body strength! But seriously, I think you've got all the right characteristics to be a fabulous peds nurse. Please let us know how your rotation goes. And relax, the nurses don't bite, but the kids might.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Bortaz, kids are a lot tougher than they look. If you remember that medication doses are based on weight, and you look up the doses before you give them to make sure they're appropriate, and you can do basic math, that part will be easy. If you remember that with kids they almost never have a cardiac arrest that isn't preceded by a respiratory arrest, that'll be good. Airway and breathing are always most crucial in kids since their airways are small, very malleable and funnel-shaped. Don't wait for a change in BP to be suspicious that things are going sideways. If they look like they're deteriorating, they are. Those are the complicated parts of peds nursing. The rest is growth and development, knowing how to talk to kids and how to get them to cooperate. The rest is pretty much the same as for any patient. Oh, and taking tape off is about the worst thing for kids! Much bigger than being jabbed!
Okay, I start Monday as well, only my first semester. We've got a little in common. I'm 39, former mec. infantry, combat medic and all that fun stuff. And I'm looking forward to peds/OB more than you can imagine.
It's the polar opposite of what my experience is, but I want that now. I've done the manly, aggressive, bang-bang-boom-aaaaahg! stuff and I'm ready for a change.
Interestingly, I'm also considering correctional nursing. I prefer the autonomy I had as a medic, and the prison nurses seem to have a bit more autonomy than most.
But we'll see. I've got a year and a half to figure it all out. No decisions yet. Good luck with the kids!
Absolutely! Why couldn't a big old burly dude work in pediatrics?
Pediatrics rotation: Starts Monday, Aug 25.
My goal is to eventually be an RN in a NICU or PICU somewhere, so it's important to me to do well and learn a lot in this peds rotation. I'm a 40 year old male with 2 beautiful grand daughters. I spent about 15 years working as a correctional officer and correctional supervisor on death row and in administrative segregation and gang prevention with the state prison system.
So, your job: convince me that a big old burly dude who spent most of his adult life in a prison environment can be good and safe in a pediatric facility. Hurry, there's not much time!
God...Imagine all the things that can go wrong!
(My grandkids love me and babies smile at me in public, so I'm hoping that's a sign.)
Well, finished my first week of lecture, and my first two days of clinical. Everyone's still alive and in pretty much the same condition as I found them. :)
My clinical experience ran the gamut from 2 hours spent restraining an adolescent who bit his nurse, ripped out his IV and proceeded to tear crap up on the peds floor (he was a transfer from the behavioral health hospital) while their security officers stood around playing pocket pool, to getting to spend 2-3 hours taking care of a beautiful little 4 month old boy with a spiral fracture to his femur (supposedly happened at day care, and got me (inside) quite riled for a few seconds). The hours spent with that wonderful baby completely wiped away any negative feelings I'd developed from anything else I experienced.
Welcome to the wild and woolly world of pediatrics. There will be days when you'll wonder if you've actually left corrections (Pt #1), and there will be days you might wish you were back there (Pt #2), but it will never be boring. I was hoofed in the head last night by a teenager with a head injury who was what we call "neuro-restless" and totally unaware of what he was doing. I saw the knee coming in enough time to roll with it so it didn't hurt, but his dad was mortified. The patient in the other bed in that room was a ten year old also with a head injury but several days further out. This kid was obviously the apple of his mother's eye; she treated him like a toddler and made excuses for him when he whined and complained and she made me grind my teeth. I can't feel bad for her because his behavior had nothing to do with his injury and everything to do with her encouraging it. There was another kiddie, maybe six years old, who had cardiac surgery yesterday morning. She was so polite and sweet! I walked past her bed and she honored me with a great big grin so I stopped to talk to her for a few minutes. Not a single complaint out of her. I wish they could all be like that!
Hey, the OP said "old" not me! LOL, I was just going along with what he said. I'm not that far "south" anymore, 40's seem younger and younger all the time.
LOL! :chuckle On behalf of all of us who are "north" of 40, I'll forgive you for the reference to "old"!
:chuckle On behalf of all of us who are "north" of 40, I'll forgive you for the reference to "old"!
Bortaz, MSN, RN
2,628 Posts
I'm not scared of either the kids or the nurses...I'm just a little intimidated because I picture treating children to be more complicated than treating adults. I can just imagine all the mistakes you could make that'd kill someone's kid.
I'm a very (sometimes overly) confident person, and I've done really well in all my classes as well as clinically so far throughout NS. I just need to relax until class starts and I actually see what's what.
I think it's all because I don't really know what to expect in Peds. I've seen adult nursing, as a patient/family member of a patient, and from being married to an ER nurse, so med/surg, etc didn't bother me. I haven't, though, been through any kiddo hospitalization more complicated than childbirth and grandchildbirth.