No patients again!

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This is my 4th week of clinical, two days a week on a peds unit. Tonight was the third time the unit was literally empty. I've only had two patients so far. What gives? Children need to start getting sick. Don't they know there are student nurses who need to learn? ;)

Has anyone else experienced this before? I'm getting tired of doing case studies...

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Yeah i had issues with my clinicals too. We have a smaller peds unit here. Ironically, I have had more peds cases after I got out of school than in it.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.

im at a level 1 pediatric facility, and everytime i had peds clinical my damn patient would be discharged!..i mean good for the kiddo but..uh, i wouldnt get any experience :( LOL

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Specializes in LTC.

Alot of peds rotations are like this. We were short of peds patients as well.

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Specializes in Electrophysiology, Medical-Surgical ICU.

this happend to me in maternity all the tiem :-( sucks right

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Specializes in Operating Room.

The hospital where I had my peds/nicu round had the same problems. They actually started to put ortho patients in those beds. Since I was tired of L&B and NICU, I asked a different instructor to go to her cite where they have plenty of peds patients. I really enjoyed it.

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Specializes in cardiac-telemetry, hospice, ICU.

Maybe hang around a nursery school and drum up business?

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Maybe hang around a nursery school and drum up business?

lol... you mean like get the flu then hang around there? or maybe i can bring my cat to a children's asthmatics meeting ;)

i actually had a patient last night. the mom was super nice, AND there was this awesome doctor who took us all in the room and showed us how to do an assessment on my infant patient.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

Fortunately for me we have 2 pediatric specialty hospitals in the area providing a rich clinical arena for the students at the local C of Ns. The good news is your chances of getting work on a peds unit fresh out of school is slim to none- even in this area. Case studies can go a long way to preparing you for NCLEX- that is how the test is written. I was so nervous in my peds rotation the panic factor blocked most of what I could have learned at first and after 5-6 days of clinicals, most of the class was so sick with kiddy-crud we didn't know our own names.

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Fortunately for me we have 2 pediatric specialty hospitals in the area providing a rich clinical arena for the students at the local C of Ns. The good news is your chances of getting work on a peds unit fresh out of school is slim to none- even in this area. Case studies can go a long way to preparing you for NCLEX- that is how the test is written. I was so nervous in my peds rotation the panic factor blocked most of what I could have learned at first and after 5-6 days of clinicals, most of the class was so sick with kiddy-crud we didn't know our own names.

There are several pediatric specialty hospitals in the city, only like 15 miles away. All the serious cases get sent there. The hospital we're at out here in the burbs tends to just get simple post-ops, RSV, asthma, jaundice, appendectomies, r/o sepsis, etc. We're actually pretty close to being done our peds rotation already. In a couple weeks we switch to OB. Luckily I have a 10 month old I can practice on. I shouldn't complain so much about the case studies - I do find them interesting and I enjoy group discussion. It's just that we have two lectures & a lecture/lab mondays and tuesdays so by the time our clinical days roll around I'm sick of sitting around talking about nursing and would prefer to be actually doing it! :nurse:

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
This is my 4th week of clinical, two days a week on a peds unit. Tonight was the third time the unit was literally empty. I've only had two patients so far. What gives? Children need to start getting sick. Don't they know there are student nurses who need to learn? ;)

Has anyone else experienced this before? I'm getting tired of doing case studies...

It's coming. They should just do Peds clinicals in the winter and early spring. The peds units will be PACKED. We are just starting to get fuller and fuller. Summer is the worse. We closed down our unit at least 10 times this summer. But now that school is starting we are starting to see some pretty sick kiddos. Mainly Asthma so far, a few DKA and RSV season is right around the corner.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Fortunately for me we have 2 pediatric specialty hospitals in the area providing a rich clinical arena for the students at the local C of Ns. The good news is your chances of getting work on a peds unit fresh out of school is slim to none- even in this area. Case studies can go a long way to preparing you for NCLEX- that is how the test is written. I was so nervous in my peds rotation the panic factor blocked most of what I could have learned at first and after 5-6 days of clinicals, most of the class was so sick with kiddy-crud we didn't know our own names.

Ironically I got hired into a Peds unit right out of school. :p It wasn't where I pictured myself. I did have clinical at this hospital but the patient load was so low I was in the ED one of the days and had 1 patient the other 2 days.

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