Relevant job experience?

[Sarah196]

Hello everybody! I am a nursing student working as a CNA and wanted some insight on my job experience. I hope to get into a nurse residency program at a Children's hospital after graduation, and hope to eventually end up in the NICU. I eventually want to advance to become am NNP as well.

I currently work as a CNA at a long term care facility for children (birth to 21) who are medically fragile and/or developmentally disabled. I care for children with g-tubes, trachs, ventilators, seizure disorders, and more.

I think my job experience thus far is wonderful, but I am wondering if it would be beneficial for me to get CNA experience in a hospital setting. I tried for ICU and nothing ever came of it, but there are many open med. surg positions at my local hospital.

Which would make me more attractive to NICU employers? Or PICU for that matter? Should I stay in my peds setting or try to do both?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

[guest769224]

I think your existing pediatric experience will be beneficial when the time comes to apply.

If you have enough time before graduating, I recommend applying as a tech or CNA in a local NICU. With good work ethic they'd likely hire you as an RN.

I set that up for myself in NICU, and have a job offer because of it; worth considering.

[Sarah196]

Thank you for your response, I appreciate it!

Unfortunately, I live in a very rural area, and the nearest NICU or PICU is 1.5 hours away. If I was closer I wpuld have applied long ago. :)

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

I'm part of a pretty large orienting class in the NICU. More than half of us were ER Techs before graduating nursing school.

The ER gives you experience with people of all ages (the difficult ones especially) and working in a high stress environment.

[Sarah196]

Thank you for your response! I am hoping my class schedule in the spring will leave room for an EMT training course. You are so right about the ER experience!