Pediatric nursing right out of school?

Nurses Job Hunt

Published

Has anyone started on a pediatric floor right out of school? I don't have enough experience in pediatrics, and was wondering if anyone had a hard time transitioning..

Thanks!

Specializes in Pedi.
I've yet to cath an adult, I'm sure its harder in a child. :nailbiting:

Most of the kids I've cathed in my 11 year pediatric nursing career had a history of myelomeningocele and no function/feeling below the waist. Most of the chronically cathed kids I took care of in my years as an inaptient nurse's parents cathed them while they were inpatient anyway, too. It wasn't something we had to do all the time. 5 years inpatient and I think I placed 1 Foley- and that was just because the one placed in the OR fell out. I think I probably only straight cathed a kid who failed to void post op 2 or 3 times too. Plus a lot of chronically cathed kids have mitrofanoffs and those are super easy to cath- I have an 11 year old patient who does it herself.

Also, you are not going to lose adult skills starting in pediatrics. As a student you don't really have skills to lose anyway. But peds jobs are competitive and unless you go into an interview with the attitude of peds is all I've ever wanted to do and I hope I never touch an adult in my career, I wouldn't consider you a strong candidate for a peds new grad position. Every job I held since I was 14 years old was with children (11 years old if you count babysitting) and I made sure I completed my preceptorship in pediatrics because I've known for a long time that I never wanted to work with adults.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

I went directly into Peds - PICU - as a brand new grad 12 years ago and have never looked back. I always knew prior to starting nursing school that I only wanted to take care of pediatric patients. There's nothing wrong with that!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PICU.

If you want peds, start in peds. Very few new graduate RNs have pediatric experience when they start. A semester or a practicum are great, but only give you a small taste of pediatrics. I have always wanted peds from the start of nursing school. Adult Med-Surg will prepare you for Adult Med Surg. Working in pediatrics everything is assessed differently, meds are calculated by mg/kg or whatever measurement/kgs. You have to learn what is bradycardia for different age ranges same for respiratory rate. So many things are special and unique to peds, medical play, communication, talking and teaching parents and children.

Working with peds has been a great expereince for me, I do not have a desire to work on an Adult unit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in 25 years NICU 5 years Telephone Triage.

I started in the NICU right out of nursing school. They trained me. I loved it. If you want pediatrics...go for it! You will be fine. I never wanted to work with adults. I loved that with babies everything is smaller...smaller poops and vomit! Babies don't curse you or hit you. You can swaddle them up and do what you need to do. they are innocent....same with children.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I would say just keep applying. I've always thought maybe I'd be good at Pedi but I've been out of work for about 5 years after getting hurt at work, so I'm pretty inexperienced too. I started back as a 1:1 School Nurse with an agency. My particular agency does staffing and home care and have mostly Pedi home care patients. They prefer you to have at least a year of nursing experience but I think they'd hire a new grad or someone inexperienced too. They offer Pedi training, and since my 1:1 position, I've been able to do sub school nursing which has been a good experience and has given me a little Pedi experience (albeit soft on actual "skills"). Maybe try home care or an agency for a little while to gain some experience. There are new grad programs now too. Something that wasn't around too much when I graduated. Good Luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Peds ED.

I started out as a new grad in peds. Despite it generally being a competitive field to get in to, it was actually the only job I was offered in a bad but slowly improving market. I went in to the interview full of enthusiasm and excitement about how all I'd wanted to do was work with kids despite that not being really true. As it turns out, I DO love pediatrics and when I went to a general ages emergency department to get experience caring for adults, realized I hate adult care.

I'm a firm believer in starting in the type of unit you want to work in. Everything is so specialized that there really aren't "starter" jobs. You'll learn skills specific to where you start and some will be transferrable and some will not be and if you transfer specialties at some point, you will be having to learn the new skills.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks everyone! We'll see how it goes, there are only a few openings..

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment