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Mon 16 May, 2005 04:28 pm
considering peds
I am an LVN of 20 yrs, 19 of which I have worked in acute care L&D, postpartum and nursery. I took a break of 1 yr and am attending classes for my RN. I am now considering a part time postion in a peds clinic and a per diem registry position just to stay active in acute care. I am very confident working in OB, however I do have some concern about dealing with older children, as I am not familiar with this frontier. Any feedback on this subject will be greatly appreciated.
I spent 10 years doing L&D, postpartum, nursery and Mom/Baby before taking a position with a float pool in the clinics. I often floated to Peds Clinics, as well as Family Practice and Internal Medicine. Older children in a peds clinic are NO BIG DEAL (if you were talking about acute care, my opinion would be different). The major things you need to acquaint yourself with are Immunizations (what's due when) and Well-Child visits. It's only the younger children who are apt to come in with a virus that's put them at risk. The older kids are usually there for minor injuries and strep throat.
If you've never had kids, then you may be surprised at how badly the 11-12 year olds behave when it comes to getting their shots (I was). The younger kids usually deal with shots so much better than the older kids. By the time kids hit adolescence, they are breeze to work with again.