Is pediatric nursing a good job?

We had only one nurse on here and she is not active any more. I know that all kinds of nurses are in high demand; so I would think there are plenty of jobs for pediatric nurses. The question might be whether you can handle the emotions. Why don’t you see how you feel after you do the pediatric clinical rotation?

My sister was a pediatric nurse for some time until she got another degree.

If I remember properly, she said it could be enormously rewarding when things go well, but heartbreaking sad when a kid dies, and all the medical help in the world can’t save the kid.

You hit the big points – how do you deal with children’s medical care when you have split homes, angry and worried parents, etc.?

I think you have to decide if the heartbreaks and sadness are things that you can live with on a day-to-day basis, along with the good outcomes. It’s a tough job.

My wife is a NICU nurse (so babies instead of children), and a great technical nurse in a couple different areas. I think once you’re good on the technical portions the different specialties really come down to your personality.

She says pediatrics would be harder for her because the children are intelligent enough to know something is wrong, and read the signs those around them are giving, but not usually emotionally able to handle it.

An example might be that they may struggle with all their might when you’re giving a fairly minor shot, but a cancer diagnosis doesn’t bother them in it’s own right. It’s just the symptoms. That dissonance between the true weight of a medical issue and the reaction doesn’t sit right with her personality, even though she enjoys kids as a whole. She just doesn’t feel that it’s a fit.

With babies, her patient is just as transparent in terms of symptoms, but the education and personality management portions of the job move more to interacting with the parents.

She mentally deals with losing patients by trying to be as prepared as she possibly can and making sure she gives the best care she can. For her that means keeping up on her education requirements and not cutting corners, but again, that’s her personality. I don’t know if it helps, but I always tell her patients are lucky to have her and I think that’s the truth.

Your personality may be a fit for a different area of nursing. Clinicals can help some, but I think you just have to do a little soul searching too and be honest. Don’t force something that doesn’t feel right.

The money varies a lot depending on where you are and what type of company you work in, but it’s always a good living wage. Nurses don’t get rich, but it’s certainly enough to raise two kids on.

I know a lot of nurses, a lot I have been friends with for decades. They make about 100k, but the downside of any nursing job (and why I never wanted to be a nurse), is that they work holidays, nights, weekends. All nurses I know tell me that another downside is that hospitals are always short staffed, so what happens is if a nurse calls in sick, the job calls you begging you to come in on your day off to fill in.

I don’t know any pediatric nurses, but the regular nurses I know also get bad backs from lifting patients, helping them out of bed, etc. Yes, there are techniques and yes now there are lifts (Hoyer lifts and hydraulics) to help the heavy ones, but still, it’s a lot of adjusting the patient in the bed and stuff like that, where the potential for injuries is there.

You probably shouldn’t expect 100k for nursing, that would be a high paying area. For contrast, nurses here start about $20—$30/hr or ~40k-60k/yr, depending on education and specialty. Almost all positions will be hourly pay.

Nursing salaries by state might give you a better idea of pay in your area.

They also list out the NP salaries so you can see a difference. If money is a determining factor between an RN and staying in school for your DNP.

Good luck.

@funkdaddy: Good point. I was referring to the NY Metro area (NYC, Northern NJ, counties right above NYC, Long Island, Southern CT).