Peds Nurses: How does Pediatric HH experience look on a resume?

[HopefulRN7]

Hi fellow nurses!

I have been a LPN for a little over a year now, currently at the tail end of RN school- will graduate next spring (yeeehaw!) and I've been working with Pediatrics in the home health setting for almost a year now. I plan on continuing in this field as an RN but would like to move into the hospital setting- preferably oncology or neurology to start with since that's been the majority of my experience so far. I never thought I would be strong enough, emotionally- to handle the situations I've been in but surprisingly, it's been incredibly fulfilling for me and I can't imagine working with another population. My question is, how does this experience in the home care setting look on a resume? Although I have no acute care experience I would hope the autonomy I've had in the home health setting would mean something plus the fact that I would have 2 years of nursing experience (as a LPN) > new grad RN with no bedside experience. The hospital I am interested in applying at does not have a minimum experience requirement however they do prefer 2-3 years of Pediatric experience.

Advice/Recommendations/Guidance is very much appreciated!

Please also add if you think PALS certification will be a plus or if I should wait until I'm in the acute care setting before becoming certified.

[LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN]

Having Peds experience helps, even if it is not acute care.

When I have been part of an interview panel, I look at "why Peds? And have they worked with children doing healthcare?"

A lot of answers are "i have always like kids....ect"

Have you worked with kids?

No

But I like kids

Hmmm

I always like to see that the applicant not only likes kids but is aware it is not only rainbows and butterflies and can be emotionally mature when taking care of sick kids, so have a Peds back ground in private duty or home health certainty helps

[HopefulRN7]

Having Peds experience helps, even if it is not acute care.

When I have been part of an interview panel, I look at "why Peds? And have they worked with children doing healthcare?"

A lot of answers are "i have always like kids....ect"

Have you worked with kids?

No

But I like kids

Hmmm

I always like to see that the applicant not only likes kids but is aware it is not only rainbows and butterflies and can be emotionally mature when taking care of sick kids, so have a Peds back ground in private duty or home health certainty helps

Thank you! Would you recommend getting PALS certification? Is that something most applicants have already, prior to applying?

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

PALS is "nice to have" but really, unless you're working in a very acute setting, it's going to be hard to integrate into your knowledge base. There are a good number of nurses at the children's hospital where I'm a PICU nurse who work on the peds floors who have PALS, but aren't able to actually put it into practice when there's a code on their floor. They're still doing basic CPR and let the code team do the real resuscitation. Oh, and PALS isn't mandatory or required to work in our PICU... Just my 2 cents.

[LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN]

Depends on where you take it.

I took PALS through a local community college, they did the course per the AHA they taught it ok and I learned.

Then when I got hired at my current facility which is a children's hospital. They teach their own PALS courses they followed the AHA but then went much deeper into it and the MD teaching the course broke down the mega codes to you see how you start to apply the knowledge and how you would use PALS even on the floor.

So much of PALS is knowledge of preventing a cardiac arrest. Knowing the early signs of sepsis and respiratory before the child decompinstates.

Sooo long answer depends on where you take the class.... Now if it helps in a job interview? Sure, in my facility you have 6 months to get certified, but if you already have it, one less thing to worry about