CLC172

I've worked with quite a few male pediatric nurses and I think they're great! I have a male friend who is an LPN, pursuing his RN and I keep trying to convince him that peds is the way to go. :) Do NOT let your gender dictate which area of nursing you should enter. You'll be respected as a collegue by your peers either way. St. Judes is probably quite competitive, but if that's your goal, go for it! I started my career at a world-class children's teaching hospital and I had NO prior healthcare experience. I only had a few months of volunteer time under my belt. I was very aggressive about pursuing that position, and it paid off for me. I learned a ton and I've never looked back. Good luck to you!

Thank you all for your responses. I apologize that it's taken me so long to get back to you. I usually attempt once, maybe twice, and chart "Unable to obtain BP, pt kicking", as a night nurse. We have found literature that states that taking children off of their schedule, and waking them up in the middle of the night for vitals can be detrimental to their overall health. What I found was in the PALS study book. Basically it states that even for fluid deficit, BP is generally the last vital to go. Heart rate, cap refill and urine output are much more important signs to look out for in evaluating for shock, as BP will generally remain the same, or possibly even slightly elevated, until the patient is REALLY going downhill. So, I have to agree with samadams8, that the whole picture is much more important than BP. Other vitals, respiratory rate, heart rate, temp and even pulse ox can be taken much more easily and less invasively than a BP. I only come from teaching hospitals, and my background is mostly neurosurgery and general surgery. If I'm concerned about a neuro status, yes, the BP can be very important with peds. I've yet to see a patient be diagnosed with hypertension as an illness on its own in a hospital. Hypertension in the pediatric population is definitely a serious concern, but I think it's something that's going to be diagnosed by their PCP, rather than in the hospital. Generally my patients' BPs have been unusually elevated in the hospital due to anxiety or pain, and wouldn't be a good indicator of chronic hypertension.

I work for a hospital that recently opened a general pediatric unit. My background is in pediatrics, but only at large Children's teaching hospitals. Our director has insisted that the standard of care for our patients is to do vitals, including a BP, on ALL of our patients, even at night. Although she is a great nurse and a good boss, she does not have any pediatric experience. Many of the nurses here with pediatric experience claim they have not always done BPs on all patients, every 4 hours. Those who have worked in General Peds say that the standard was generally TPR every 4 hrs and BP every shift. In my experience, it was tailored to the patient's diagnosis and baseline status. And on those who are difficult to obtain a BP on, such as infants and toddlers, I was happy to just get one good BP reading during my shifts. I am trying to find some written sources regarding the best care for general pediatric patients, regarding BP frequency. I was wondering if anyone has researched this topic and found anything pertinent? I am trying to compile some information to bring to our director. I have a couple of articles so far. Thanks for all your help in advance!

I'm work in a pediatric hospital in the medical/surgical arena. I've been a nurse for just over two years. I'll tell you, for me, it's a different kind of stress. Nursing school is stressful because you feel like you've always got someone on your back, watching you, critiquing you and you have all sorts of care plans and assignments due, tests, etc. Nursing in real life, well that's extremely stressful, but in a different way. I still have deadlines to make, such as inservice training and qualifications, on top of my normal schedule. When decisions need to be made, it's all on my shoulders. If I make the wrong choice, or if I miss something critical, I could harm someone, lose my license, and all that I've worked hard for. I feel like I have a billion things to remember, and forgetting something may mean that I seriously alter someone's life. We have to chart EVERYTHING we do, and on time. There's so much computer and paper work. I also feel like I'm constantly learning something new. This is good and all, but it just reminds me of how much I don't know. I'd say the first 6-8mos of nursing was even more stressful because I felt like I didn't know ANYTHING about my specialty and I constantly felt lost and was looking things up. Learning to manage care is a lot of stress too, getting meds and procdures done on time, handling difficult or "chatty" patients that can suck up time, getting patients to and from procedures, etc. That takes time to develp the skill. It's still stressful two years later, but I feel like I've got a grip on it now, whereas there was a time when I wondered whether I could really ever make it as a nurse, it was so difficult. There's just a lot that nursing school doesn't teach you or prepare you for. Nursing is a high-stress job. It's worth it if you love it. I truly believe nursing is a calling. I don't do it because it's easy. I don't do it to be rich. It's just who I am. It can be a lot of fun and very rewarding a lot of the time, even when it's stressful.

I'm so sorry it took me so long to reply to your entries. Thank you both for your comments and advice! I do love working in the hospital, but honestly, I don't see myself doing it forever, at least not full time. I've been interested in a few areas, and school nursing is one of them, mainly for the autonomy and schedule. And obviously, I love working with kids! I think I'm going to talk to my daughter's school nurse as well. She seems very nice (from the many times I've picked up my kiddo from her after one accident or another, lol). I've always been a little shy, but you guys have given me some confidence in checking it out. Do you ever do educational inservices for staff, or do you have the opportunity to do any sort of health teaching with students? I'm interested in the variety I might find with school nursing as well. Thank you again!!

hello, all. i just wanted to say hi. i'm a pediatric rn with 2 years of hospital experience in pediatric medical/surgical/endocrine nursing. i was wondering what you would say are the qualifications needed for school nursing. also, what are your opinions on the pros and cons to being a school nurse? do any of you continue to "moonlight" per diem in hospitals? i'll appreciate any advice, antecdotes and opinions given. thanks!

"I wanna say I heard they accept about 10-15% of the 100-150 that apply. I am interested but, they really are off the mark with the Aug start date for May graduates" Actually, that's pretty common for RN graduates for May anywhere. I work at ACH. I had a year of experience in a similar hospital in Chicago where I began my career. ACH is a great hospital to work for. It's definitely a good idea to start off as a tech here, as I know that my manager is sorta holding two spots for the techs that work on our floor who recently graduated nursing school... I work with another nurse who is a BSN, and never worked at ACH before being hired into the RN residency program, though.

I was very blessed, right out of nursing school, I worked in a very specialized pediatric unit in a "prestigious" pediatric hospital in a large city. It was tough at first, I had a hard time adjusting the first couple of months to the fast pace and high-acuity patients, but I settled into the night shift nicely and I really enjoyed my job. Unfortunately, my husband left my daughter and me 6 mos into working there. My parents and sister live in another state, so I decided to try to move closer to them for more support. I eventually found a job at another children's hospital near them, and I moved there, after a total of 11 1/2 mos of nursing experience. I would be oriented to days first and then my normal shift would be nights. Well, when I started, things were great, I got along well with my preceptor, and my progress was documented with nothing negative. Then I started with a new preceptor and I thought things were going well. She would ask me how I thought it was going and I would tell her my thoughts, mostly good. She never said anything negative to me in the two weeks we were working together. Then, yesterday, I sat down with the director of the floor, who told me that my preceptor had all sorts of negative things to say about me, and that now I will have to extend my orientation on days 2 more weeks. First of all, I'm upset that my preceptor never said any words of constructive criticism to me and I had to hear it for the first time from my director. Second, this is humiliating, as now I can't imagine what all my co-workers, both day and night, think of me because it's going to be obvious my time on orientation was extended. Third, now I'm feeling terribly inadequate as a nurse, like maybe all this time I wasn't doing as well as I thought I was. I didn't even want to move. I didn't want to get divorced. This has been a rough year for me. Work has been my escape from my personal life, which has been so difficult lately. And now I feel terrible going there. I don't know how to handle all of this....

I was hired as a new grad to a Magnet teaching hospital with an ADN. I didn't work as a CNA prior to graduating, but I did volunteer at this hospital, to get my foot in the door. Good luck!

I feel the same way, and I'm just glad I'm not alone. Your story sounds like mine, great last semester, everyone's really nice, but I know I'm not doing things as well as I should be, even though I'm trying really hard, and questioning whether I'm really cut out to be a nurse. I hope things look up for you soon!!

Go ahead and apply. I'm a new grad ADN and I didn't think I had a prayer to get hired at the hospital I recently started working for in their RN Internship program. I did volunteer for them for 6 months to get my foot in the door, and to get to know people. Nowadays, getting hired at ANY hospital is at least partly dependent on who you know. This is a Magnet-designated teaching hospital in a very large city, located right next door to a large university with a nursing BSN program. That being said, out of the 25 new grads the hospital hired, 5 of us were ADNs. But you'll never know if you don't try!! Every community hospital I talked to required not BSNs, but experienced RNs for pediatrics. Good luck!

LOVE my Ultrascope! I have an adult one, but I'll soon be purchasing the dual pediatric/neonatal or just the pediatric one soon. I have used other people's Littman's before and they were awesome as well, but I'll admit, I like the cute picture in the Ultrascope as well, especially dealing with this population. It puts the little ones at ease...

I'm a new grad and about to start working nights. I'm really excited, but also really nervous about how this will affect my mental and physical health. The posts I've read on here so far have been positive and encouraging. Any extra advice would be greatly appreciated. I really want to make this work and make it a positive experience for my first nursing job. I'm thrilled that I got the first nursing job I applied for, at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. I feel so lucky and I want to do a great job!!

I totally agree! The human body "knows" what it's doing as far as labor and delivery goes, and I believe in the vast majority of cases, the least amount of medical intervention, the better! Looking at statistics of other countries, with much lower rates of c/s, just confirms this belief for me...

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