How is it working in Peds when you have young children?

[adpiRN]

My speciality is L&D but I'm interested in breaking into Peds.

The problem is I have an almost 2 year old son and I'm an anxious mom and I know it would be very hard for me to see a critically injured or terminally ill child because I would imagine the same thing happening to him.

NICU may be my safest option at this point since he's past the newborn stage and we're not planning on any others. And I find it a fascinating field.

Maybe I need to wait 10-15 years before moving into some of my other interests like PICU, pediatric surgery or pediatric oncology, just for my sanity.

How do other nurse/moms handle it??

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

I think it just depends on you. I've worked with nurses who had little kids at home & were fine working Peds and I've worked with a handful who identified too much with patients who were the same age as their own kids. Those nurses didn't stay in Peds long. The only way you'll really know if you can handle it is to try.

[WoosahRN, MSN, RN]

Most of my coworkers in PICU have kids both before they worked there and many who have worked pregnant and have babies and young kids. And whether or not you have kids or not, you still have patients that get to you. And then there's other times you can come in and help when another coworker maybe needs support and doesn't feel they can care for a patient. We help each other out but we always get the patient taken care of. That acute burnout doesn't happen too often and people will say (and be offered) when they need a break from a certain assignment. We talk about patients that affect us, we sometimes go home and cry, but the main reason people leave is more just for a change or they are just wanting something a little lower key or different than PICU. As for me, it's 7 years and I love it.

You can't relate to every patient and make it your story. Just like you care for your adult patients (they could be your sister, your friend, etc) you care for the kids. But every once in a while it could just hit you that "this kid is my child's age". I actually had a doc call another doc for help because the crashing kid we just got was his son's age and it affected him more than he expected. He still did everything for that child but reached out for some backup. If you stay self aware (but not hyper aware and looking for the bad) you can prevent burnout and enjoy the awesome things we do get to be a part of and the cool kids and families we get to be a part of.

[ScrappytheCoco]

I'm not a peds nurse specifically but I have taken care of many critically injured and ill peds pts in the ER. While taking care of the pt, I am totally in the zone, not thinking about the "what if's" at all, just doing everything I can to make sure the patient is fully cared for. However, in the after math (bad outcome) or on my way home I usually do have a good cry, in sympathy for the family thinking "that could have been one of my children." It's therapeutic and and I feel that it keeps me sane.