pedirn1

I don't carry a whole lot around with me but you would find.....alcohol pads, scissors, pen, my "brain" (sheet with patient info) a sheet of stickers or two. I work on a medical unit at a children's hospital.

I drive about 68 miles one way (136 miles) round trip. It takes me about 1 hour and 20 min to get to work. I work at a children's hospital and love what I do and the people I work with. That is the ONLY reason I drive that far plus I work two 12 hour shifts a week so it is manageable. I hate the drive but would take that over working some where I hated or not like the people I work with.

Right now I would definately take the job with the economy being the way it is. I graduated a little over a year ago and got a peds job in a children's hospital right out of college (I now realize how lucky I am). The experence you will gain from med/surg will be very benifical to you. Of course always be on the look out for peds jos but I think you will be in a much better position to be hired once you get that critical one year experience behind you. I would also look into volunteerig at a childrens hopspital. Its a great way to sort of 'get your foot in the door' to network with people who may be interested in hiring you. This is how one of our volunteers got hired on recently. SHe was an RN who volunteered to feed babies or just spend time with them on her days off. She was doing adult med/surg but peds was her calling.

I drive 68 miles one way and work 7a-7p (takes me about 1 hr 20 min). I use to work 3-12's but recently went down to 2-12's a week. I am also married and have 4 young kids at home so all this driving is really starting to wear me down!

I don't know about Florida, but in Texas you can search the BON website and type in first and last name. It should be able to tell you if the person is a GN or RN....if a student didn't pass NCLEX then they loose their GN and you can no longer find their name on the website until they pass. I gradutated a year ago and I understand the stress!

libbyjeanne....I agree! I am also happy with my pay (one of the top salaries in my area for just 1 year experiance). Although as a whole, I do think nurses should be paid more than what they are.

Most of the volunteers at the children's hospital I work at get plenty of one-on-one time with patients. Volunteers are my best friend on a busy day. Esp. when children are alone in the room because parents have to work/or have other little ones at home to care for. They are a godsend when I have 2 out of 5 patients that are infants and need to be fed ever 2-3 hours or just entertained.

I know it's not considered 'new' but I think the area of antibiotic resistant bacteria (MRSA, VRE etc.) is likely to become an even bigger problem than it already is in our near future. I would do some reasearch on even newer bacteria that is starting to become resistant. I have always found intrest in this type of stuff (esp. since I work on an infectious disease floor). Good luck to you!

Yep

I say go for for peds if you know that is what you want to do. I graduated last May and always knew I wanted to do peds as well. I accepted a job at a childrens hospital and work on a medical floor. I still am able to gain general skills and work with children. I think that when working a job with a high burn out ratio, their is no reason to start in an area you are not passionate about.

I work at childrens hospital on the medical floor (although we refer to our floor as the respiratory and infectious disease floor.) We see a lot of RSV, Cystic Fibrosis, respiratory distress/failure (usually after they have been in the PICU and stable for the floor) and pneumonia. Other diagnosis we see a lot of is failure to thrive, sepsis or r/o sepsis, cellulitis, MRSA and VRE.

I know my decision is a personal one, but I am having a very hard time making my mind up on what to do. First of all I am a new RN (graduated in May 08) and took an awsome job at a chidlrens hospital 1.5 hours away from where I live. I took it because I want to pediatrics and my husband told me he would look for a job closer to where I work. Well six months and a bad economy later he has had no luck finding a job closer to where I work (he is currenlty a network admin and works five min. from our house). We also have 4 young children with the oldest being 8. I work full time days and getting physically worn down with all the driving, plus I feel that I never see my kids and on my days off I am completely worn out. I am considering quitting my job to find something closer, but am scared that since I just started this job it would look bad on my resume for qutting after 6 months. I just know I can't keep doing what I am doing. I am constantly in a bad mood, worn out, and dread going to work because of the long drive, but most importantly I feel that I am missing out of my kids life. I know that If I take another job closer....thats' if I can even find one it won't be in pediatrics (since I do live in such a rural community). I guess I am just complaining a bit and need someone to listen to me. My husband just doesn't understand how physically, mentally, and emtionally nursing is esp. being a new grad. I just wish I wasn't in this postition because I do like my job, but it is physically killing me!

I assume you are talking about Cook Childrens Medical Center. I graduated in May and I currently work there on a med/surg floor. Starting pay for days is $25.48 plus: $5.00 diff for week nights $4.00 diff for weekend days $9.00 diff for weekend nights So if you work weekend nights as a new grad you can make $34.48/hr.

Just to let you know I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just got finished taking the NCLEX and I am soo anxious. I had 75 questions with not kidding 27 'Select all that apply' !! No calculations, one ekg strip, lots of infection control. I left feeling pretty confident, and now after reading the boards, I here that may not be a good sign:mad: I took the Kaplan course and felt that the NCLEX questions were eaiser. On the Kaplan diagnostic test I scored a 69% and a 68% on the post test. Iam so nervous to find out my results!