Pediatrics Clinical

Nursing Students Student Assist

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I will be in an Accelerated Second Degree Nursing Program, and I currently work in an Emergency Department. I am worried about my Pediatrics clinical. I'm an only child and I'm also the youngest person in my family, so I've never been around children. I don't do well with them now in the ED and I know if I don't get help I won't do well in my clinical either. Thanks in Advance :)

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Find someone in your department who does 'do well with them' and ask for some help.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

I remember in school having a 7 yr old girl who'd had a VP shunt revision. She was my only peds pt (no dedicated peds floors at the hospitals I had clinicals at), so I didn't get a lot of practice.

Anyway, a challenge that I noticed (and have noticed in the years since with my own 5 children): sick children are not themselves, and don't always cooperate! I remember trying to do a neuro check on this girl...she would neither speak to me, nor do what I asked her to do. Looking back, I know she was neuro intact -- she just didn't want to be assessed. ;)

Her mom stepped in to help me -- and I realized that is okay! The parent(s) is with the child most of the time, nobody knows that child better, the child inherently trusts them (in healthy families anyway), and in the case of chronically ill children -- as this girl was, having hydrocephalus from birth -- the parent knows the difference between that child's normal-sick behavior and abnormal behavior.

Don't hesitate to include the parent(s) as part of the care team. It's not cheating, any more than including an adult pt as part of his/her own care team.

Talk to your clinical instructor. Their job is to help acquire knowledge and ensure your competency. Plus, they KNOW that unless you were an LPN you have no nursing experience. If you were fully competent now, you wouldn't need to have clinicals.

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I had no special experience with children or infants when I was in nursing school, either, and I ended up doing just fine. Study the course content, pay attention in class and clinical, and you'll pick up a lot of stuff as you go. The whole point of going to nursing school is to learn stuff that you don't already know. :)

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I remember that the scariest moment that I had in any of my clinicals during nursing school was in Peds. Specifically, it was the very first time I had ever held a baby. It was only for 5 minutes while I fed him, but that was more frightening to me than any code or rapid response while in school. As you can tell, I'm not particularly comfortable with children/infants. But its just one clinical rotation and it'll fly by in no time.

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

Here's the thing about "doing well with children," treat them with respect and consideration and in an age-appropriate fashion and speak in simple, concrete terms...

And DON'T LIE TO THEM (e.g. "this won't hurt")

Likewise, don't stress them out needlessly (e.g. "I'm going be back in a few minutes to give you a shot")

Pick your words appropriately (e.g. depending on the age, "I'm going to draw your blood" is quite likely to be interpreted as a plan to make a picture of their blood)

Where possible, give them choices and control but don't draw it out... if they're not going to cooperate and it needs to be done (and the parents agree, obviously), force the issue and get it done as quickly as possible.

Ask the parents how to proceed.

Give the parents a choice... not all of them can handle being in the room for something unpleasant... it's ok if they want to step out and then swoop in to comfort after the fact.

Pray that your facility has a Child Life Specialist and get 'em involved early and often.

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