What can I do with pediatric home health experience?

[simplenerd]

Hi folks!

So I was terminated the hospital that I had a med-surg internship with almost after the internship. Also, I got my license on February 2017 (a little background info). I had been looking for a hospital job since then, but the LTACH or Rehab places that I interviewed with never called me back. So, I tried pediatric home health and I said yes. No contracts and they provided me with 2 days of training with the family and a senior nurse. They also asked of how comfortable I am with the family and child and if I want another day of training they would have arranged it. I declined the 3rd day training. It's been 2 days since I've and I'm liking it so far because the child is stable with a mickey button and mom is always there if I need help. However, I still want a hospital job. I'm still applying to hospitals and facilities, but so far no call backs.

Real Question: How long should I stay in home health for hospitals to even just look at my resume or at least consider me for a position? I'm ok working with peds or adults. One of the home health nurse who trained me said that I should work with cases/kids who are have trachs and vents, so I can get an exposure on it. Then once I'm comfortable apply for pediatric nursing. I'm not limiting myself to pediatrics because I like working with adults too. Advice, tips, or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!!!!

[PeakRN]

6-12 months of experience would probably help quite a bit with applications, especially for inpatient jobs. If you have downtime during your home health shifts that is a great time to study for your BSN or to research various topics about your patient's care.

I would be hesitant to over apply at the local hospitals, having applied to every job ends up looking kind of desperate and might give them a bad taste for a long time. If you have applied to a job or two at them and are not hearing anything I would take some time to finish your BSN and consider taking classes that would help with your applications (PALS for inpatient pediatrics for example). If you can prove that you can provided nursing care, have improved your clinical skills, and are a generally trustworthy person (for example is not consistently late or has call offs) then your application will be far more valuable to employers.

[simplenerd]

Hi Peak Rn!

Thank you for replying! I am currently in a RN-BSN program and I have 3 classes left till I'm done. The reason I was terminated was because of time management and prioritization. Which I can agree because it was hard to keeping up with meds, procedures, doctors orders, and usually something else comes up. I just wish they had given me the option to quit rather than being fired so it wouldn't look so bad. Anyways, have appllied to the hospitals in my area. So I guess I should stop and focus on home health then try again for some time. Thanks again!

[Newwbie2019]

Hi simplenerd,

I’m wondering, what did you decide to do? I’m currently considering pediatric home health?

[Queen Tiye, RN]

Hello Newbie2019. From my experience, it’s difficult to get hired in inpatient services as a new nurse with just peds experience. It seems they consider that as no experience at all, considering you have one patient with a Mickey/Gtube as the primary diagnosis most of the time. Taking a trach and vent case would improve your chances — however this is really disreputable when you don’t have adequate training and experience.