Have You Considered Becoming a Pediatric Nurse?
If you like children and want to work with them you might want to consider becoming a pediatric nurse that will give you the opportunity to specialize in this area. A pediatric nurse is in direct contact with children every day and able to care and comfort them when they are ill or have another medical condition that takes them to the hospital.
Once you have obtained your nursing degree you can become certified as a pediatric nurse or CPN. There are other specialized advanced courses that you can also take such as Pediatric Advanced Life Support or PALS that is sponsored by the American Heart Association or the Emergency Nurse Pediatric Course through the Emergency Nurses Association and Emergency Medical Services for Children. These certifications will assist you in obtaining a position with a hospital that features a department especially for pediatrics.
A pediatric nurse works directly with the children to perform all the routine procedures that any nurse would such as obtain vital signs of temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate, perform catheterizations to collect urine, collect stool samples, administer medications, perform CPR, administer blood or assist with splinting of broken bones along with a myriad of other duties that are performed daily.
A pediatric nurse routinely comforts a child who has had an accident or is suffering from a disease which sometimes might be fatal. They work with the parents to assure them that the child is being well taken care of and to assist with education about medications or changing of dressings. A pediatric nurse is a person that the family can talk to and try to understand the scope of the medical issues they are dealing with. A pediatric nurse can be a very rewarding job because it is easy to know when you have made a child less afraid and calmed a parent’s concerns and offers a satisfying career choice.
Here is a great Pediatric Nurse FAQ
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