what pediatric specialty do you have?

I also work at a free standing pediatric hospital. I work on a floor with respiratory, neurology, renal. Those are our main ones but we do get other things also. We get a mix of stuff. I love the kids but right now, we are really sort staffed on our floor and it's causing a lot of stress. But I do like the hospital though just not some of the staff I work with at times.

I'm a PCT in a peds only hospital (will be GN in Aug) I'm on a unique unit that gets all adolesants as well as all diabetics, regardless of age. We can get other stuff as overflow, but I love endocrine!

I work on a specialty floor with Trauma, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and neurology patients. Overflow too, i.e. RSV.

As a patient I have been on a neuro floor (my surgeries are due to tumors around nerves and the one that they operated on is my optic nerve so they put me there.

Transplant ward (it is also short term stays)

SICU (when my tongue swelled up after one of my surgeries due to horrible blood loss, ended up needing 4 units that time)

and Cardiac ICU when there was not room in anyother ICU I was little and do not know why I was there

THis is all at a free standing peds hospital

I work in a residential facility for kids with behavior and psych issues. I am the nurse manager and love it love it love it!

.....

A general medical floor. Mostly respiratory illnesses or other infectious diseases, a lot of CF patients, and a lot of "chronic" patients. I love the kids (and most of their parents :) ) but sometimes the staffing or other issues gets to me. But the kids themselves, are great.

What hospital do you work at?

i wanna work with CF pts.

Hey there,

I'm wondering, if you have your RN, do you get to choose an area to specialize in? I am debating between going for my RN or BSN, etc...would be keen to work with the kiddos. If possible to choose with RN, when in the studies do you begin to focus on one particular area?

There should just be one huge guide book on how to do all this stuff....choosing a degree, choosing a school, choosing a specialty,...:uhoh3:I feel like I'm always dancing in circles, getting different answers from different folks. But, that is all part of it I suppose!

:bowingpurEnjoy and thanks for your time

EliseM-

Glad you are considering becoming a nurse! Just to clarify some...RN isn't a degree, it is a license. There are several ways to be eligible to take the RN licensure exam. A BSN is a 4 year degree. There is also the Associate's Degree, which is usually 2 years plus a full year of prerequisites. Some states still have diploma schools which last usually 3 years, but do not award a BS or AA degree. These programs allow you to take the licensure exam also. For nurses who already have an LPN license, they can take a bridge program to earn an associate's degree and take the RN licensure exam. Likewise, RNs with associate's degrees can earn their bachelor's degree by completing a bridge program. Confusing?! In other words, several education/degree options, one licensure (RN).

All of these education options prepare you to pass the board exam, not to specialize in a particular area of nursing. Many BSN programs offer a "capstone" experience during the last semester where you can choose a specialty area to complete many clinical hours; sometimes graduates get hired in the very place they got their capstone experience. Most nurses specialize by either getting hired right in or transferring to their area of interest after a year or two of more general experience. After getting some experience in the specialty area, most specialties offer a certification exam that provides "certified" credentials in that area (for example: CDE= certified diabetes educator, CCRN= critical care, etc.) Hope this helps!

And some programs screw over their students by deciding half way through their BSN degree that they're not going to have a choice of specialty area for transition (capstone). Grrrrr.

For our BSN program, only the students who reached a certain level of competency on a practice med-surg NCLEX-type exam get to choose a specialty, everyone else has to do med-surg.