I don't like pediatric patients, am I normal?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello folks.

I have been worked at adult Med/Surg unit for 6years.

So, I have not much experiences taking care pediatric patients.

Always I have been facing to them, it is too hard coping with their tiny tiny little bodys,vessels and also calculating medicine doses and administration is big challenges. In addition, guardians are always sensitive with my nursing care, even though I am a skillful nurse. For these reasons, I really admire PED nurses :)

Here is my question.

I know a lot of my RN friends would like to be a pediatric nurse, such as NICU or PICU or just general pediatric unit. I am surrounding RNs who want to be a pediatric nurse. However, I never been want to be a pediatric nurse.

I just wonder that is there anyone likes me? In these days, even I feel like I am abnormal.

Please tell me your opinion. Thank you in advance.

Specializes in Pharmaceutical Research, Operating Room.
Nope, I wasn't nothing to do with the P's in nursing: Pregnancy, post-partum, and pediatrics.

I want NOTHING to do with any of these three areas of nursing - God bless those of you that deal with it! :yuck: It's not for me at all.......

Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.

I'm not a fan of geriatrics or most adults. So absolutely not abnormal. I have a bunch of friends who'd rather be unemployed than work in peds or OB also.

Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

In nursing school I said, "just get me through psych and peds rotations and I swear I'll never be back." I did med/surg and hospice for the majority of my first 15 years of nursing and guess what I do now...school nurse, K-8.

Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

And I thank God for those who are grown up nurses; I know there's someone out there to take care of my old "you know what." I was entering the last semester of nursing school and seriously contemplating dropping out. I just knew I had made the wrong decision to get into nursing because I didn't like the patient care. The last semester of nursing school was pediatrics, that saved me, and I've been there ever since. As with all pedi nurses, the hardest thing about pediatrics is that they have parents to deal with!! :yes:

The only thing worse than pediatric patients is pediatric patient family members. You are not alone.

Specializes in Behavioral Health.

I avoided peds like the plague, both in school and in practice, and now as a psych NP student I'm just keeping my head down and pushing through my peds clinical, waiting for Wednesday when I go back to my adult clinic and feel safe.

But then, I love psych, which most of my nurse friends can't fathom. So...

Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
In nursing school I said, "just get me through psych and peds rotations and I swear I'll never be back." I did med/surg and hospice for the majority of my first 15 years of nursing and guess what I do now...school nurse, K-8.

Hahaha! That was me my 2nd year. I dreaded it -- L&D, Peds, Psych - BAM! Little did I know how I would fall head over heels in love with pediatric nursing. :cheeky:

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Nope, I wasn't nothing to do with the P's in nursing: Pregnancy, post-partum, and pediatrics. I cry reading stories on FB about sick kids and my mechanic husband is more level headed when it comes to our own kids getting sick. I was a hot mess when my then 4 month old was hospitalized for RSV last winter, confirmed my suspicions that I am of no good in pediatrics.

None of the four P's for me, either! (Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pediatrics and Psych!) We do occasionally get 12 year olds in our CTICU. I was doing dialysis on a 12 year old with a ventricular assist device when she blew her pupils . . . . that was SUCH an awful situation! Her parents were about the same age as me, and they were totally ripped apart. I hate peds! I also took care of a 15 year old with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was an organ donor, and they flew him in from his small town hospital to our transplant center to harvest the organs. His mom was SUCH a nice lady, but that was a truly awful situation.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

One of my OB instructors told me that there was something psychologically wrong with me because I didn't cry after witnessing my first childbirth.

I tried to have as little to do with preggos when I worked in the ED. I always thought that if I had to choose between working in OB or Walmart, I would work in Walmart.

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I thought I'd want to go into nursery or pediatrics...then I had my pediatric rotation. It's not that I don't like children; working with ill kids just gets to me too much.

Specializes in Pharmaceutical Research, Operating Room.
One of my OB instructors told me that there was something psychologically wrong with me because I didn't cry after witnessing my first childbirth.

..........I literally just LOL'ed at this at work and now my coworkers think I'm nuts. This is hilarious - I sure as hell didn't cry when I witnessed my first birth in nursing school. It was a C-section, and I was too busy falling in love with surgery to be moved by the event. ;) Actually, I was able to get out of all the live lady partsl births that we were supposed to witness by volunteering to go to the OR for C-sections instead! :up: Then I went to work in the OR right out of school.......noticing a trend here? :D

You are normal for YOU. Some people want to be pediatric nurses, others would rather work with adults.

My unit is one where there are both adults and children, so I can't really be picky. I would say that I prefer to work with adults, though, because that's where I've had the most experience, so I'm the most comfortable. I'm hoping that once I become more confident with the peds patients I will enjoy that more, too. As for the parents/guardians more watchful of your care than other family members...that is to be expected. I completely understand why you would find that intimidating. While I have not received negative feedback from the parents of any children I have cared for, I have received more positive feedback from the family members of the adult patients. More likely, I am coming across as more confident with the adults than the peds, though.

There are plenty of options for nurses who do not want to work with children. It doesn't mean you're a bad person, or a bad nurse, or even that you dislike children or babies. I like children, but I connect better with adults, so therefore, I'm better for adult nursing. Nothing wrong with that.

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