LoliLolly

When I worked PCVICU/PICU I used Home Page | Congenital Heart Disease - Cove Point Foundation | Johns Hopkins Children's Hospital Congential Heart Disease by the Helen B Taussig Heart Center...should sound familiar..BT shunt? Love the heck outta that website!

Hey there! I haven't worked adults as a nurse but I did throughout nursing school so I am a little familar with the craziness of adult med-surg nursing. I can't speak too much towards the transition; I was in my third year of nursing school when I went from adult cardiac-step down to PICU/PCVICU, but it did take some time to learn the different vital sign ranges for age groups, calculating adequate urine output, learning appropriate doses by weight (Everything is weight based in peds), etc, etc...But that stuff will come with time. If you're looking for reading material, a good place to start is Wong's Guide to Pediatric Nursing...If you'd like to transition from ICU to PICU, Hazinski's Peds Critical Care book is also an awesome resource. Units definitely vary hospital to hospital. My two cents? If you want to give yourself a true peds experience before making a leap, try and shadow a floor nurse and an PICU nurse at the closest children's hospital to you. You'll get a full pediatric immersion, perhaps see how codes are ran differently, how we involve Child Life Specialists in procedures, complex rounds of high risk patients, pick up tricks on how to draw blood and use therapeutic play during med passing and the like. You won't get the same experience by going to a small peds unit at your local community hospital; I've worked large peds hospitals, small units and in-between. Hope that helps! Good luck, feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

Hey all, so I have a predicament I'm hoping you experienced guys and girls can help me figure out what to do! Sorry this is so long!! I have a PICU background; I started off in the PICU/CVICU as a nurse tech for a year and worked on the floor in a nursing role for just under a year before I had to relocate states. I took a position with an organization that's rapidly expanding and one of the roles they wanted to bring to the clinics were pediatric nurses. Neat, I said. I applied and interviewed. I was told during the interview that the role was not clearly defined but that there was another nurse they had already hired who could help me. I was in a hurry to find a position as my move date was rapidly approaching and the prospect of defining a new role in pediatric primary was very interesting and exciting to me so I took it. Now, I've been with the clinic for only a few weeks and the tasks before me seem insurmountable. The pediatric providers have no idea what to use me for (they have MAs doing everything from rooming to paperwork/school forms), so they just ask me to call for ED visit follow-ups to see how patients are faring after D/C. I'm telephone triaging from time to time but there isn't a large established patient base yet so I'm not seeing many patients as walk-in or on the phone. My orientation has been pretty non-existent and self-driven (I've been asking to go to other clinics and shadow, going to another next week); The clinic manager oversees multiple clinics so he's never around, and the other nurse has no idea what to do either. I have spoken with the RN Manager, who told me it's "the nature of the beast" and it'll take time for everything to fall into place. I know I can't expect everything to be figured out instantenously, but when I haven't even been formally educated on the clinic's eMAR, I feel like I'm at a total loss of where to start. I'm starting to think I need to go back to acute care where things are more organized and familiar.... ;( Help!

This'll be my second time applying for the program. :) I picked Peds/PICU as my top two. I got into final interview round last time but wasn't chosen to interview (boo!). Good luck to everyone!

Welp, turns out I'll be staying in my home state for awhile...I got a RN residency position here in Michigan in the PICU! Good luck everyone, maybe I'll be working with you in a few years!

I'm late back to the party (took the NCLEX today...MOST GAWDAFUL TEST EVER.), but I too graduated with my BSN. I applied for a position in PICU, Peds, or ICU.

Hi all! I received this e-mail a few minutes ago... "Hello. We are excited to inform you of your continued candidacy for the Legacy Health Versant RN Residency Program! Hiring managers will contact candidates for the final round of interviews beginning Monday, June 23, 2014. Final interviews will be scheduled to take place between June 23 and July 10th. This notification does not signify a guaranteed final interview. Hiring managers will evaluate all application and pre-screen interview information. Although you are among the finalists for this program, managers will use the application and pre-screen interview information to determine whom to invite for unit based interviews. If you are selected to participate, a manager or member of the interviewing unit, will contact you between the dates of June 23 and July 9...." Woo, not out yet! Looking forward to hear from everyone else!

Haven't heard anything myself. Taking the NCLEX tomorrow though, so no time to worry!

I also had a pre-screen interview a few weeks ago, on the 21st on May. :) I was interviewed by the manager from Randall Children's ED (my top choices were PICU/Peds and ICU). I thought it went well! But yeah, this program is going to be very competitive, just based on the sheer amount of OOS names I saw on the e-mail list. Good luck to everyone! I'm not expecting much for myself, but it never hurts to be optimistic!