Pediatric nursing involves the care of a child in more ways than one, it means managing the child's anguish, as a child can be a bundle of emotions along with his or her sickness. Suppressed anger, anxiety or just plain guilt can cause a lot of trauma in a small child. The nurse would have to help the child along with the family to overcome the difficulties.
A child's mind and body functions differently and there may not be warning signs before the onset of a sickness, which can play havoc with the child's overall development. Since children are small, they may not comprehend what is actually happening. This is where the role of the nurse comes in to understand and meet their needs.
Pediatric nurses have to interact with the entire family to speed up the healing process and have the presence of mind when to take over a situation and when to let the family take charge. Pediatrics is a challenging, caring and fascinating area in the medical field. It is so vast and varied in its scope, ranging from specialized pediatrics and neonatal intensive care, to the personal touch necessary in handling a disabled child. From first aid services to intensive care treatment of a child is within the scope of a pediatric nursing.
Pediatricians are closely associated with obstetrics, anesthetics and surgery. Pediatric nursing has come a long way with the focus on child health and preventive medical care and is now at par with all other specialized medical fields. Pediatric nursing has a wide variety of careers, which you could choose from. It can be general pediatrics or teaching, which can be full time in a single specialty area. In the emergency room, you treat a child based on the specific ailment for which they are admitted. The nurse will have to provide all round care to the children, adolescents and parents in different situations. They need to be prepared to manage physical and mental illnesses and chronic/severe diseases. As a pediatric nurse, you would sometimes have to function independently with a lot of understanding, care and patience.
It is challenging to deal with different age groups ranging from newborns to adolescents. There would be drawbacks at times with the lack of cooperation from the children, difficult mindset due to the depressive state, management and paper work along with the stress factor. All these shortcomings can be overcome with skill, compassion and your love to be among children. There are few careers that offer pre-registration rotation, which gives you a chance to spend time in the pediatrics department and experience the live environment. This is an excellent way through which you can decide if you are made for this line or if you could be better off elsewhere.
The duties of a pediatric nurse would range from performing the routine basic examinations of a patient to administering medication, counseling or at times even helping with broken bones. You could choose your work timings, depending on the hospital. With all this variety for you to choose from pediatric nursing seems an interesting option if you are looking at specialty nursing.
