Pediatric Home Health Experience

[simplenerd]

Hello fellow nurses!

So I currently work for a pediatric home health agency as a private duty nurse and just started working on December 2017. My case is level I, which means my kid has g-tube (level 2 are trachs and level 3 are ventilators). The agency started me with a stable kid because I have less than 1 year of experience. I was terminated from my hospital after my internship because of performance issues, which goes in hand with patient safety. I have not done anything to endanger my patients at all it is time management and workload that got to me. I guess I was not cut out to be a med/surg nurse. However, I have always loved working with kids.

Anyway, I am currently enrolled at a RN-BSN program and should be done around May/June of 2018. I'm also planning to get my PALS in a few months (already have ACLS and BLS). So, my question is will pediatric hospitals even consider me for a position based on home health experience? I'm planning to stay with the agency until I get my BSN, but I'm worried that hospitals would not even look at my resume despite the BSN because my when I apply my experience would be less than 1 year in general and even less in pediatrics.

Thoughts, advice, and comments would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[caliotter3]

No sense in worrying about it. You are taking steps to improve your record by obtaining a BSN. When the time comes, apply for open positions, and take it from there.

[simplenerd]

Hi Caliotter3, thank you for the response! I do believe that I am on the right path. I just hope that when I am ready to apply at pediatric hospitals they just don't see the termination part of my nursing career, but rather the other parts too. Thanks again!

[caliotter3]

Strive to work with vent kids at your agency and emphasize that experience. Look for the more complex, RN level (vs. the usual LPN level) cases, so you can say that you were doing this instead of working LPN level stable cases.

[simplenerd]

That is actually on the plan Caliotter3. Once I'm comfortable with handling kids better my plan is to get trained on trachs and vents then take those types of cases. I'm just not sure when but maybe around March. Again thank you Caliotter3 for helping ease my worry about this!

[Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B]

Unfortunately in my area the hospitals don't consider non acute care experience. Your mileage may very. My advice is to continue to grow where you're planted. More complex cases and experience is always a plus. Get in a first name basis with case managers and directors as these folks often renter acute care as managers and will be more likely to hire you into their departments if they know your skills ability and temperament.

[simplenerd]

Hi Alex Egan,

Thank you for the response! Moving to higher acuity cases is definitely on the plan. As of right now I am on lower acuity cases because of the lack of experience. However, once I'm comfortable then for sure I'm going to ask to be trained on trachs and vents. I am in Dallas, TX and since I've applied to most of the places here I'm going to try somewhere further out once I get my BSN and PALS. Hopefully that will help with my hospital search. Again thanks for the advice, it was truly appreciated!