Compassion is defined as deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. Compassion, without a doubt, is the driving force inside the heart of a pediatric nurse, and it is a key qualifier of those successful in making this specialty a career. This field is dominated by nurses who sacrifice starting families of their own in order to provide a high level of attention and guidance to their young patients and their families. The specialty of Certified Pediatric Nurse is governed by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, which provides a license to RNs with extensive experience in pediatric practice. The benefits of this next level of certification, increased compensation and greater career mobility, are recognition by employers and consumers.
Simply having a passion for working with children is not enough to warrant making pediatric nursing a career. A major challenge these nurses face are from the family members of the sick patients who may take out their frustrations on the nurse. The nurse must understand this and also help the family to cope with the inevitability of the child’s condition. Many times the nurse will counsel the parents on proper home care techniques, because they will take over primary care when the patient is released from the hospital. One of the most difficult aspects of the job in providing care to a child is knowledge that not all stories have a happy ending and preparing the family for such a time. While this is a pitfall of the job, the nurse has to balance the natural sadness that comes with such news and the resilience to continue performing at a high level for the remaining patients.
Having to ability to multitask within each shift is vital. The nurse checks on a now stabilized newborn with respiratory issues, consults the parents of a 16 year old male with a soccer injury and administers medications to an 8 year old with lymphoma. Each patient comes with a special set of challenges aside from age which include mental maturity, physical development and concerned parents. A CPN plays a pivotal role in the healing process for the children and must be skilled at allowing emotions to fuel his motivation to help while balancing objectivity in his decision making. No easy feat for the average person let alone a health care worker who sees children in pain daily. Children in the pediatric unit need to be watched more closely and given greater caring attention than most patients in order to foster a healing environment.
The benefits of working in the pediatric unit include watching a premature newborn gain more strength every day, helping the 10 year old with brain injury do puzzles and receiving a handmade thank you card from a former cancer patient in remission. In the pediatric unit, the small things make a big difference, and pediatrics nurses play a major role in the lives of these children. While it is understandable why nurses tend to gravitate toward the pediatric unit because desire to help children is natural, the emotional toll of caring for sick and terminal children can be overwhelming. It makes sense that pediatric nurses believe the specialty choose them and not the other way around.
