Pediatric or Adult Nursing for New Grad

Specialties Pediatric

Published

I will be graduating in December 2005 and am very interested in pediatric nursing. I am living near a top notch pediatric facility and I'm sure if I worked there, I would get a lot of really good experience. What I'm wondering is this...is it better to get experience with adults first? I know that it takes some special skills to be able to work with pediatric patients...the art of distraction, special communication techniques, etc. I wonder whether getting used to nursing as a new career will be enough of a challenge without adding the extra skills required to take care of pediatric patients. I love kids and I relate well to them so I really think that I would ultimately be interested in pediatric nursing, but I want to go down the right path so that I am fully prepared to take on the challenge. Any words of wisdom out there? Thanks in advance.

Lisa

Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.
I will be graduating in December 2005 and am very interested in pediatric nursing. I am living near a top notch pediatric facility and I'm sure if I worked there, I would get a lot of really good experience. What I'm wondering is this...is it better to get experience with adults first? I know that it takes some special skills to be able to work with pediatric patients...the art of distraction, special communication techniques, etc. I wonder whether getting used to nursing as a new career will be enough of a challenge without adding the extra skills required to take care of pediatric patients. I love kids and I relate well to them so I really think that I would ultimately be interested in pediatric nursing, but I want to go down the right path so that I am fully prepared to take on the challenge. Any words of wisdom out there? Thanks in advance.

Lisa

Hello, Lisa,:balloons:

There will be those who are of the opinion that you should go into adult care, such as med-surg.

I believe that you should pursue your own personal ambitions. If you are truly drawn to this field of nursing, I say GO FOR IT!!!!

Specializes in Pediatrics.

On my peds unit, many many of the nurses I've talked to started out in peds as new grads and never had any desire to work with adults, but some of them did start out with adults and moved to peds later on. I don't know whether peds will be my nursing choice forever cause I like elderly too, and some other things, but if you love peds, there are so many options for you, peds is specializing more and more every day with new nursing careers, and I think you should go ahead and start with peds if you are as passionate about kids as you sound. Of course I am a new nurse myself so my opinion shouldn't count for a lot in your decision!! ;)

Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.
On my peds unit, many many of the nurses I've talked to started out in peds as new grads and never had any desire to work with adults, but some of them did start out with adults and moved to peds later on. I don't know whether peds will be my nursing choice forever cause I like elderly too, and some other things, but if you love peds, there are so many options for you, peds is specializing more and more every day with new nursing careers, and I think you should go ahead and start with peds if you are as passionate about kids as you sound. Of course I am a new nurse myself so my opinion shouldn't count for a lot in your decision!! ;)

Hi, Rayrae,:balloons:

But, your opinion can shed light on the fact that new grads can and do choose to go to the peds unit. So, your opinion actually carries weight here. Don't sell yourself short.:)

If you know you want to do peds, then go for it! Choose a med-surg floor at a chldren's hospital-that will give you the largest base of knowledge as a new grad

If you know you want to do peds, then go for it! Choose a med-surg floor at a chldren's hospital-that will give you the largest base of knowledge as a new grad

Exactly... I second the recommendation for general peds med-surg. I understand, and usually support the idea that some med-surg experiience is good vs a highly pecialized specialty, but I also think that a med-surg experience is a med-surg experience regardless of the pts' ages. You'll still learn the basics of care and organization on a general peds floor. I started in general peds and believe me, you'll still be confident enough to carry that back-ground anywhere, even if there are no adults (and I'm not a confidant person by nature!)

Specializes in Pediatrics, Nursing Education.

I've worked in peds since graduation. I worked as a student as a NA in medical / ONC and ICU.

In my opinion, peds nurses can be (depending on your work situation) the most well rounded nurses available. We care for children from age birth to 18 years. I also have been trained to take postpartum patients and we occasionally get adult medical / surgical overflow. As a peds nurse, I have done surgical, ortho, neuro, medical... a little bit of just about anything outside of PICU and Peds Onc that you can think of we have an opportunity (where I work) to get our hand in at least occasionally. I would LOVE it if I worked near a large pediatric facility... however, I am not so lucky. I'm soooo jealous! Go for it!

Thank you everyone for all the words of wisdom. I have a couple of interviews set up this week in the local pediatric hospital. I will be interviewing in the NICU, a general med surg unit and a monitored bed unit. After speaking with the recruiter at the hospital and hearing more about the orientations etc., I really think that even though I don't have peds experience, I will be prepared to care for them after the orientation. This facility is very "new grad" friendly and highly prepared to nurture us in our new career. So we'll see what happens. I appreciate all the advice. It really helped me to make a decision and go for it.

Lisa

I too agree with many of the above posts, if pediatrics is what you want to do GO FOR IT! I started out on an Adult Med/Surg unit many years ago and once I was through my orientation period was pulled to the pediatric unit on many occasions and the more I worked down there the more I knew this was where I wanted to be. A good place to begin is as someone said a Med/Surg unit and then branch out into a speciality area if you so choose. Pediatrics can be hard because it is hard to see children who are sick but many times with just the words they use they brighten up your day and you feel so great when they are able to go home.

:saint: Nurses are angles on loan from above

The Hamilton Collection

Specializes in Pediatrics.

Lisa,

I'm PMing you....

I am only an occasional Pediatric nurse (when assigned to Peds ER :imbar and it makes me nervous).

If you really like and want to work with kiddies, and enjoyed your clinical pediatric rotations, I'd say go for it.

Best wishes with your future career:)

Specializes in NICU/L&D, Hospice.
Thank you everyone for all the words of wisdom. I have a couple of interviews set up this week in the local pediatric hospital. I will be interviewing in the NICU, a general med surg unit and a monitored bed unit. After speaking with the recruiter at the hospital and hearing more about the orientations etc., I really think that even though I don't have peds experience, I will be prepared to care for them after the orientation. This facility is very "new grad" friendly and highly prepared to nurture us in our new career. So we'll see what happens. I appreciate all the advice. It really helped me to make a decision and go for it.

Lisa

How did the interviews go? Do tell!!!!!

Lisa

event.png

+ Add a Comment