No patients again!

[Clovery]

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...

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

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!

OK I do have to laugh at the using the word simple with RSV and Asthma kiddos. They turn bad VERY quick. In fact all the codes on my unit have been from respiratory kiddos. They make up majority of child death and when I child codes it will primarily be a resp. issue.

[Clovery]

OK I do have to laugh at the using the word simple with RSV and Asthma kiddos. They turn bad VERY quick. In fact all the codes on my unit have been from respiratory kiddos. They make up majority of child death and when I child codes it will primarily be a resp. issue.

I didn't mean to imply it's not serious... just that it's common and we usually get the mild or "rule out" cases. Severe cases that require ventilators or more intense care get sent elsewhere.