NICU to pediatric oncology?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Oct 21, 2008

When I first contemplated becoming a nurse, I thought NICU would be my dream job. So many things happened between that time and my graduation from nursing school, including 3 1/2 years of chemo and radiation treatments for my son... Sound familiar? My interests wavered a lot, between NICU, peds oncology and PICU. So I tried 'em all and chose PICU in the end.

NICU didn't live up to my impressions as a mom of a sick newborn once I started working there. The sameness, the lack of autonomy, the rigidity just wasn't for me. Peds oncology also didn't give me the degree of autonomy I craved, although no two shifts were ever the same and the interactions with the kids and their families were very special. There is a lot to learn about the different treatment protocols, the variability of prognosis depending on ephemeral criteria, end-of-life care and the whole ball of wax. I only scratched the surface. I can tell you that the staff turnover on peds oncology units is startlingly low, which tells me that the nurses there love what they're doing. Because you've experienced things from the other side of the bed, you would be smashing as a peds oncology nurse. You know first-hand what families go through and how you did it. You can give them a roadmap through uncharted territory in a way that few of your coworkers could. If you want it, go get it! There's nothing that says you can't try it for a while and then return to NICU if you find it isn't what you expected. You've only got this life...