Help! I want to become a pediatric Nurse.

[SammyJean]

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!

[wooh, BSN, RN]

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.

#1 place to work doesn't mean much either. Especially peds. In this economy. Management knows they can do just about anything they want. Peds nurses don't want to do adult nursing. And even if they were willing, who can get a job in this economy?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Very true. Children's hospitals know they can do whatever they want because there will always be pediatric nurses who want to work there. I am currently working 6 fewer hours/week doing home care/case management and bringing home the same amount of money even though I'm working 12 fewer hours per pay period.

Similarly, Children's hospitals can do whatever they want to their consumers as well because they know they have essentially no competition:

Children’s Hospitals As Health Care Cost ‘Juggernauts’ | CommonHealth

My former hospital's costs were exponentially higher than any other hospital in the city (they loved to talk about how it costs more to take care of children because of Child Life Specialists as if they pay their Child Life Specialists any kind of substantial salary and/or that the CLS's time was billed for and that they were paid from insurance reimbursement) and they paid their staff significantly less than any of those hospitals.