Help! I want to become a pediatric Nurse.

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I just graduated nursing school this May and did my preceptorship on a pediatric med-surg floor and I fell in love with it. I love children and find growth and developement absolutley fasinating. It is the only area of nursing that I am truly passionate about and can see myself doing it for the rest of my life. I did interview for position on the floor after graduation and unfortunately I did not get one of the few positions avaliable, even though I felt like I was well like by the staff and had a letter of recommendation from the charge nurse on the floor who really like me. I was completely crushed when I found out I did not get the job and it is the only childrens hospital in my area. I looked all over my state for a posible position elsewhere with no sucess. I did get a position on and adult med-surg floor that I will be starting in a month, but as my start date nears I am feeling extremly anxious and fearful that I will go to work every day and hate my life. I have been trying to remain poitive and hopeful that it will be a different experience working with adults now that I am on my own. I know jobs are few and far between now with the way the economy is so I figured any experience is better than no experience at all, and everyone says that you should do med-surg first, but I feel like this is old fashioned. Does anyone have any advise about how I can transition into pediatrics after I have a year of med-surg experience??? Or any advise on what I can do in the mean time to keep up on my pedi skills. I really want to go back to school to become a PNP but I need at least a year of experience before they will look at me. Help!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Right now I would definately take the job with the economy being the way it is. I graduated a little over a year ago and got a peds job in a children's hospital right out of college (I now realize how lucky I am). The experence you will gain from med/surg will be very benifical to you. Of course always be on the look out for peds jos but I think you will be in a much better position to be hired once you get that critical one year experience behind you.

I would also look into volunteerig at a childrens hopspital. Its a great way to sort of 'get your foot in the door' to network with people who may be interested in hiring you. This is how one of our volunteers got hired on recently. SHe was an RN who volunteered to feed babies or just spend time with them on her days off. She was doing adult med/surg but peds was her calling.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I agree with pediRN1. Get whatever experience you can get and keep working towards your long term goal by working with children in whatever capacity you can (e.g. volunteering, perhaps picking up a peds home health client on a part time basis after getting settled into your med/surg job, etc.) You might also network by attending regional educational programs targeted to pediatric nurses to meet nurses in the field.

In time, there will be some peds opportunities that you can apply for -- and with your strengthened experience and professional connections, you'll have a better chance of being hired. Sometimes we don't get everything we want right away: sometimes we have to wait a little longer that we'd like. But if you keep moving in that direction, eventually, you'll get there.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Definetly take the job you have been offered. Go into it with an open mind and take it as a learning experience to get you where your going. Keep your eyes open for openings on the pedi floor and see if you can transfer once your time is up.

I understand you love for peds. I can't imagine doing anything else!!!

Good luck in your new job.:up:

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I COMPLETELY understand what you are going to. I worked at a nurse's aid on a pedi floor all through college and even had my practicum on the floor. When I graduated last may I interviewed for a new grad position on their floor but there were 2 other aids who also had graduated and had been working there longer so I didn't get the job. :( I did however land a job on an adult med-surg floor. I really didn't want to take it but i didn't want to work as an Aid with an RN, BSN so i I took it. I've been at the job about 6 months and I very much miss the Children's Hospital I was at everyday. I was number 1 in the country, so it was hard going from that to a hospital that is so behind in technology and not well staffed. I am applying all the time to pedi jobs all around, but haven't gotten any calls back. I am hoping it is because I only have 6 months experience. I hope that in 6 more months those gates will open but in the mean time I feel really restless and miss pedi so much and know it is what I am meant to do. Therefore, I am in the process of getting PEARS and PALS certified, to help me land a pedi job back at the children's hopsital once I've had a year experience. I also plan on staying in touch with my old nurse manager through e-mails, nurses i used to work with, as well as the Children's Hospital HR. Hope this helps, I definatly know how you feel! You are not alone! We will get there someday soon and once I land that pedi job at Children's Hospital Boston I'm never going to leave!!!!

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Did you ever end up getting a pedi floor? I just noticed this post was made in 2009 so i'd be curious to see what happened.

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Specializes in Pedi.
I COMPLETELY understand what you are going to. I worked at a nurse's aid on a pedi floor all through college and even had my practicum on the floor. When I graduated last may I interviewed for a new grad position on their floor but there were 2 other aids who also had graduated and had been working there longer so I didn't get the job. :( I did however land a job on an adult med-surg floor. I really didn't want to take it but i didn't want to work as an Aid with an RN, BSN so i I took it. I've been at the job about 6 months and I very much miss the Children's Hospital I was at everyday. I was number 1 in the country, so it was hard going from that to a hospital that is so behind in technology and not well staffed. I am applying all the time to pedi jobs all around, but haven't gotten any calls back. I am hoping it is because I only have 6 months experience. I hope that in 6 more months those gates will open but in the mean time I feel really restless and miss pedi so much and know it is what I am meant to do. Therefore, I am in the process of getting PEARS and PALS certified, to help me land a pedi job back at the children's hopsital once I've had a year experience. I also plan on staying in touch with my old nurse manager through e-mails, nurses i used to work with, as well as the Children's Hospital HR. Hope this helps, I definatly know how you feel! You are not alone! We will get there someday soon and once I land that pedi job at Children's Hospital Boston I'm never going to leave!!!!

You can have my job. Tomorrow's my last day and since I gave my notice, 2 more people have resigned and there are about 10 additional people on my floor looking to leave. Don't be fooled by the #1 ranking though... #1 in US News and World Report does not mean #1 place to work.

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Were you working on the CICU at Children's Hospital Boston??

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And I have worked there, I worked on 6 west and loved every second of it. Don't let one floor fool you either.

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Specializes in Pedi.

I didn't work in the CICU, I worked on a floor and I'm not going to say which one because you never know who's reading these boards. I worked there for 5 years, I'm not fooled by my floor- though it left much to be desired but in my time there I also floated to several different floors and most of them have the same issues. In the 5 years I was there, I saw raises dwindle to almost nothing, health insurance costs more than double while coverage was slashed, money spent on painting elevators to advertise the hospital's #1 ranking while basic patient care suffered because we didn't have functioning thermometers or feeding pumps available to us in the middle of the night (how can you be #1 if you can't even feed a G-tube dependent patient who's admitted to the floor at 3am because "there are no feeding pumps left in the hospital"?) and heard countless arguments of how poor the hospital was while seeing millions of dollars spent on expansion and who knows how much spent on changing the hospital's name on a whim.

Working as an aide somewhere is also different than working as a nurse there. Working as a nurse there means if you're there charting until 9pm after being at work since 7am, you've worked 2 hours unpaid (because nurses are "salaried"- HA), you frequently work 48 hrs (or more) in a week with no overtime pay, you don't get any extra differential for weekends/nights and you make significantly less than any other Boston hospital because Children's has no competition and can do whatever it wants. And have they mentioned that it's a privilege to work there?

If you want to work there, go for it, but as of right now they're only hiring new grads because of the "budget".

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I've been a peds RN for almost 3 years and Children's Hospital Boston was my dream job.....until I actually worked there. It was such a huge disappointment. I've worked at a few different hospitals and CHB has been the worst experience of my career, thus far.

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Specializes in Pedi.
I've been a peds RN for almost 3 years and Children's Hospital Boston was my dream job.....until I actually worked there. It was such a huge disappointment. I've worked at a few different hospitals and CHB has been the worst experience of my career, thus far.

Yup. It was the only job I applied for when I was a new grad- my "dream job". I should have left a year sooner than I did. My favorite thing that ever happened during my time there was that I was asked to attend a "meeting" with several leadership people to discuss (dismiss) some concerns I had. After pretending to listen to me, the outcome was "well we're not changing the way we do things here" which pretty much sums up their attitude about everything.

The day after I left, I felt like I'd risen from the depths of hell. I worked there for almost 5 years and every experienced nurse that I saw come in that time was gone before I left. That place is a revolving door as far as staff is concerned- my old floor has lost 12 nurses (about 25% of our staff) in the last 10 months.

Read the reviews on glassdoor.com for a good laugh.

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