Peds Experience for Nursing Students?

[nurse1920]

Hi everyone,

I'm in nursing school and I want to be a pediatric nurse.  My program does not have a clinical rotation in peds, and with the pandemic I'm nervous that I won't be able to choose my placement for my last semester.  I've tried to sign up for volunteer and shadow opportunities, but they've all been shut down due to the pandemic.  I completely understand why, but I need advice on how to gain experience with this population when I can't volunteer.  I also looked for CNA/PCT positions but have not seen any available.  If you are currently a peds nurse or are a manager on a peds unit, what are some of the activities you did to gain experience in peds?  What helped get you to the peds unit?  What do you wish more nursing students did?  I'll appreciate any and all advice!

Thank you!!

[pineappleupsidedowncake, BSN, RN]

This may not be exactly the advice you are looking for, but I did a Summer of camp nursing right after graduating nursing school. Of course, this all depends on covid and the area you live in. It was a medical camp, so I did gain some experience AND it was a lot of fun. I felt like this helped when I started looking for pediatric jobs. I do work in a school setting though and camp nursing was essentially the same thing!