No Peds clinical site- does my school suck?

[Ihearthearts]

I am just starting my OB/Peds semester, and it seems that we do not have a clinical site for pediatrics (due to low census at the small hospital we were assigned to). This is a huge disappointment for me and many of my fellow students who were really looking forward to working with children this semester. The rumor is that our school didn't turn it's paperwork in on time, and all of the other schools in the area have all the good sites :/ Furthermore, I am paying ALOT to go to a private school and get a bachelor's degree. In summary, we will be going to pediatric dental clinics and doing health teaching at a middle school, and spending more than a few days in our SIM lab to achieve a "clinical" experience. I am frustrated, especially after reading other posts about how great other SN's peds clinicals were. So my question is- how common is this? Should we be outraged? Does this happen frequently at other schools? Any perspective would be very much appreciated!

[green34]

My peds clinical site is the referral in my area of the state for pulmonary issues so we are never short of children.

Would the lack of peds clinical sites at a hospital affect you transferring to another state?

[ChrisMarie09]

We don't have the opportunity due to a number of factors. We are a consortial program so we are farther away from the larger metro hospitals (30-60 minutes, I don't think that is that bad) but in previous years when they did offer the change to do a pediatric clinical, the students in the program complained about having to drive so far. That was the case of having several unit options at several different hospitals and they willingly picked the pediatrics one 45-60 minutes from campus. After several years of similar complaints, they stopped offering it. Also because we have a large children's hospital in the area, the majority of the other hospitals don't even have a designated peds unit and if they do, its usually pretty empty so we do not even have the opportunity to shadow during a clinical day.

I want to work in pediatrics so I spent my summer shadowing at all the children's hospitals within a 90 minute drive and I work with children at my job. I also volunteer with a student organization that works with our local children's hospital so I do get to spend a lot of my free time (because I have so much of it) on the units with the children and their parents. I take my shadowing and volunteering opportunities to network and get to know all of the staff.

[Stephalump]

My peds clinical site is the referral in my area of the state for pulmonary issues so we are never short of children.

Would the lack of peds clinical sites at a hospital affect you transferring to another state?

We still have peds hours - they're just done in simulation or clinic settings, so it isn't an issue.

[llg, PhD, RN]

We still have peds hours - they're just done in simulation or clinic settings, so it isn't an issue.

It actually is an issue -- and a very BIG issue -- for anyone in your program who wants to specialize in peds after graduation. You are not getting any inpatient peds experience. Outpatient and inpatient can be very different. While most students won't want to specialize in peds (and therefore won't mind the lack of any inpatient peds experience), you and your classmates will be at a big disadvantage for some jobs.

[Stephalump]

It actually is an issue -- and a very BIG issue -- for anyone in your program who wants to specialize in peds after graduation. You are not getting any inpatient peds experience. Outpatient and inpatient can be very different. While most students won't want to specialize in peds (and therefore won't mind the lack of any inpatient peds experience), you and your classmates will be at a big disadvantage for some jobs.

The poster asked if it's an issue transferring your license to another state. It's not.

As far as peds jobs go, I suppose that remains to be seen. I think there are a couple people in my cohort who really want to work with children, and I can see how limited acute peds clinicals could make it hard to land a job in that area. Fortunately for me, I'd my desire to work in peds somewhere around a -1,000.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

The poster asked if it's an issue transferring your license to another state. It's not.

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I would call the other state's BoN to be sure about that. Some are pretty definite that they want students to have experience in all areas.

[Stephalump]

I would call the other state's BoN to be sure about that. Some are pretty definite that they want students to have experience in all areas.

We do have experience - the very minimum areas in the hospital every semester + simulation hours + outpatient pediatric placements, which count as clinical hours. We just don't doa full semester peds rotation in a hospital. The only schools around that do are programs actually located in the med center with access to the children's hospitals

[OCRN3]

I had a small short lived peds rotation in School where all we did was observe. Then they didn't want students there at many parents requests. That was more than 15 years ago.

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[DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN]

We did (1) 8 hour shift in Peds. Truth is, statistically not many nursing students will end up working in peds so it may not end up being the best use of your clinical time.

I love kids and I was excited for this rotation, however , I found it to be dull because we were not allowed to preform ANY skills on patients nor could we be alone in the room with the kids. It was a very passive day.

[Mopples]

I'm in Australia, so things are a little different here. We have blocks of placement. When it came time for the unit that related to paeds, it was combined with rural health, maternity & community, so we could choose either of these settings to do the 2 week placement in. I chose maternity, so I haven't done a paeds placement.