Questions about Pediatrics...

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Hello all!

I am very new to the site (first post) and I am so happy that I have found it. I am 20 years old and trying to decide what I should do with my life. My first choice was to work with animals as a Veterinarian as my whole family work's with animals and it is a passion of mine. Lately I have been strongly considering nursing, pediatric nursing in particular. I REALLY want to work with children. My question (first on many!) to all of you...Is it difficult to work in PICU or NICU? Do I need special certification after I graduate from NS and take the boards? Thanks for reading!

P

(I also posted this in the Pediatrics forum but there seems to be more traffic over here)

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Specializes in M/S, Infectious Dieases, Pediatrics/NICU.

I work on the peds med-surg , Er and get pulled to the nicu from time to time. The only thing you will need for a PICU is your PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) and the hospital will help you get that. I DO NOT reccomend doing it on your own, get some experience first. And the NICU (at least in the area I live) you have to have your NBR (New Born Resusitaiotn) cert. Which again work for them first to get the experience. The only bad side is, IF you have thoughts of going to adult care, it is a BIG shock. I came form adult med-surg and tried to go back for overtime (after a year of working peds) and got lost in the shuffle. Good luck and remember in peds you are treating the child, but taking care of the parents.

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I work on the peds med-surg , Er and get pulled to the nicu from time to time. The only thing you will need for a PICU is your PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) and the hospital will help you get that. I DO NOT reccomend doing it on your own, get some experience first. And the NICU (at least in the area I live) you have to have your NBR (New Born Resusitaiotn) cert. Which again work for them first to get the experience. The only bad side is, IF you have thoughts of going to adult care, it is a BIG shock. I came form adult med-surg and tried to go back for overtime (after a year of working peds) and got lost in the shuffle. Good luck and remember in peds you are treating the child, but taking care of the parents.

Thanks for responding! Would you mind elaborating on why it would be a shock going into adult care from peds? Also, how long/what's required to get your PALS and NBR certification? Again, I appreciate your response. Have a great evening!

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

The NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Provider) takes one day to get. Along with BLS, that's all you need certification wise to do NICU.

It takes a special breed to work NICU. Those of us who do, rarely leave for other specialties. We love working with our babies!

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Specializes in NICU Level III.
Thanks for responding! Would you mind elaborating on why it would be a shock going into adult care from peds? Also, how long/what's required to get your PALS and NBR certification? Again, I appreciate your response. Have a great evening!

Lab values, vital signs, disease processes, meds...EVERYTHING is different in neo. I learned nothing about the NICU in nursing school didactic courses and pretty much everything on the job (and in my final clinical in school, but only two of us out of the whole school had NICU clinicals).

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Specializes in M/S, Infectious Dieases, Pediatrics/NICU.

The inital PALS course is 2 days, one day going over information. The second doing the mock codes,where you are a team leader and tell people what to do and do a triage type situation. With children it is VERY important to check IV as they go bad faster (in my experience) and the child (if young enough) may not cry until it gos beyond a certain threshold. and if a child is in any distress (resp, cardio) they compensate alot better before going down VERY fast. Not as many meds with peds/nicu either. On adult med-surg your pt has 6-18 meds a day and it is alot faster pace(not saying that there are not hospitals who have a high census and get really busy with peds) But in our hospital we take a max of 5, if it gets bad with admissions, then we may take a sixth IF the pt is of very low acquity. Hope this helps.

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Well, I appreciate you guys taking the time to respond. This is all very helpful.

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

I work in the PICU and we also float down to the NICU....both are very different places to work IMO. In school try to shadow or do clinicals on both areas and see which one fits your personality and style of nursing better :)

For PICU we have to have PALS (two day course) and like someone else said most of it is on the job training because they just don't teach you much peds/neonate in nursing school!

PICU we have ages 0-21 years old with most being babies and toddlers/school age kids. NICU in contrast is all neonates predominately.

You don't need a special certificate to start. I got hired right out of nursing school. I think NICU and PICU do take a special person cause it isn't easy to see children die or suffering and dealing with the family and what they are going through. I absolutely love it though :)

I think it would be good for you to apply to be a nurse extern or something like that while in nursing school.

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.
Not as many meds with peds/nicu either. On adult med-surg your pt has 6-18 meds a day and it is alot faster pace(not saying that there are not hospitals who have a high census and get really busy with peds) But in our hospital we take a max of 5, if it gets bad with admissions, then we may take a sixth IF the pt is of very low acquity. Hope this helps.

Our PICU holds a lot of kids and it is very very fast paced. We are also the only level 1 trauma hospital and it is a teaching hospital so that might make a difference. A smaller hospital that is not a trauma center would be totally different obviously.

As far as meds a lot of our kids are on a lot of meds, some of the sicker ones on a *multitude* of gtts (especially the heart kids.....epi, fent, versed, dopamine, milrinone, etc etc etc not to mention calcium, K, pain meds, antibiotics, lasix gtt, I could go on and on). 6-18 meds a day in my unit for one kid is nothing!

Just wanted to offer a different perspective for the OP :) You can't compare adult med/surg to PICU though or even med/surg peds to PICU. We do ECMO and CVVH in our PICU as well as recovering fresh hearts, etc.

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ok

how are you

i think here in my country they dont employ a male in picu

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