New grad pediatric job or adult nurse residency job?

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I am a new grad RN and was recently offered a position for an adult nurse residency program, rotate around different units for a year. Seems similar to nursing school but I'm sure it's good experience. I also just received an offer for a pediatric inpatient rehab job at a big children's hospital and would also do new grad orientation classes/skills for the first few months and deal with a wide variety of diagnoses. Pediatrics is where my heart is and what I ultimately want to do, but I'm not sure if inpatient rehab will allow me to advance to more acute care units within pediatrics after a year or so of inpatient rehab? I have no idea how any of this works, or which would be better. If I did the adult residency program for a year, would it be possible to switch to pediatrics soon after? Any advice on what route to go is helpful. Thank you!

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Also, the hospital that offered me the adult nurse residency position is strictly an adult hospital and does not have any pediatric/nicu, etc units at any of its locations.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

This is a toughie. In my opinion, you'll learn so much more about nursing children by working WITH children, even in a rehab setting. There's a lot of overlap between rehab and acute care, despite the seemingly wide gulf. Kids are always kids, and soft skills are huge in pediatrics, no matter where you work. The things you'd learn in the adult world would be worth learning, but most of them won't really translate well in peds. I'm biased, I freely admit... peds is IT for me!

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QUESTIONS to ask before the contract in both options?

1. How would you describe the general culture of the company and the

workplace?

2. Why did you choose this company?

3. Will there be any form of training provided?

4. What are some of the biggest challenges/successes facing the department

currently?

5. What process will be used to evaluate my employee performance?

6. Who will be my direct supervisor?

7. Are there many opportunities for professional development within the

company?

8. What is the usual time frame for making the hiring decision?

9. May I contact you if any further questions arise?

Once you have all this information it will be easy to decide. Good Luck.

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Thank you so much for your replies! Do you guys think that it would be easy to transfer (i.e. will someone hire me) to a more acute care floor in pediatrics after a year or two of peds inpatient rehab if that was something I wanted?

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

I do! I might be in the minority here, but if I was in charge of hiring, I'd be looking for any peds experience first, then looking at the 'kind' of experience it was. As I said before, those "soft" skills you pick up from working with kids aren't going to be any less valuable in a more acute setting... in fact, they're probably MORE valuable. You'd already be well-accustomed to weight-based med math, which is a significant benefit. Hands-on skills can be taught.

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Very true about the hands-on skills. Thank you so much for your input and advice! I truly appreciate it. ?

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