Whats best to start out with after graduation

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Sep 5, 2003

HMMM.... depends on the hospital and your interests and strengths. I advise my ADN students who want to go into adult health to start in the CARDIAC STEPDOWN's. These are most often the "cadillac" units of the hospital! (Course, I'm a bit prejudiced.. LOVE CARDIAC!!!)

kitkat11 · Sep 7, 2003

I would strongly advise you not to take a full time pediatric homecare job as your first job out of school. In my opinion you really need to get some acute care hospital experience as a foundation to develop your clinical and assessment skills. The majority of peds homecare cases are relatively stable chronically ill children, who can be great to take care of but the problem is you won't be learning much as a new grad in this environment.

Also, you have to remember that with homecare you are it. You are the only nurse there in the house with the pt./family relying on you with no one to truly fall back on or get a second opinion from. Of course you can call in to the office for advice but they can only help you so much over the phone based on the info. you are giving them. Even though home care pt.'s are more stable than the hospital pt. population, unexpected problems and even emergencies do arise. It's important to have the confidence that you are making the right decision (ie whether to call the rescue or not,etc.)in the occassional emergent situation.

Overall, I think you'd be much better off starting in a hospital setting, preferrably on a med/surg unit, or any ICU even, where you will encounter a variety of diagnoses and problems. Although it can be overwhelming at times, it is so much better to learn absolutely as much as you can with your 1st job, when you are expected to have a million questions and the neccessary support is there to answer them. You'll do yourself a huge favor by sucking it up now because you will leave all your options open and transition more easily into other areas of nursing (like homecare) when the time is right.

If you are sure you definitely want pediatrics, its fine to go for a peds job right from the start. Again though, start in an acute care setting with lots of learning opportunities.