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What is it like being an Oncology nurse?

Pediatric Oncology Nurse? 10 Points!?

  • I am in high school right now. Whenever I get in to college my heart is set on studying to be a pediatric oncology nurse. I want to help cancer patients and have relationships with them. I believe that happiness is a key to survival. I would love to get their mind off of emotional crap that they really shouldn't have to think about. I would like to know how many years I would have to go to college to become a pediatric oncology nurse and if you have personal experience please tell me about it. I have always had a place in my heart for cancer patients and always will, so being a nurse and getting paid to possible heal someone is a dream come true.

  • Answer:

    You would want to get your BSN in nursing. You will rotate through many kinds of departments when you do your clinicals. Most peds oncology nurses do not start in peds oncology; they start on the inpatient unit as a general pediatric nurse, and then move to pediatric oncology. Our clinic nurses (outpatient hematology/oncology) are all chemo certified. All of the nurses on the inpatient floor who take care of our patients are also chemo certified. Most pediatric oncology centers are combined with hematology, so you would likely be taking care of both children with cancer and children with blood disorders (sickle cell anemia, ITP, chronic neutropenia, hemophilia, etc.) Please be aware that there are people whose jobs are indeed to "get their mind off of emotional crap that they really shouldn't have to think about" (but they do... and we help them process and learn coping skills, not just take their minds off of it.) Peds hem/onc is a team approach. I'm a child life specialist, and my job is to deal with the emotional side of things- to explain to kids what's going on, prepare them for procedures, distract them during procedures, run support groups, teach their classmates about cancer, do bereavement support, etc. We also have social workers who do counseling and more emotional support, as well as practical support (financial, insurance, etc.) Our nurses give excellent medical care and are great listeners, but they don't do as much of the emotional support as you thin.

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Kayla Mari - you could do this easily in community college. Four years for a BS RN degree, or a university if you prefer. I was an oncologist for twenty years. I hated losing young people in their teens. You need a heart of granite to lose young children to malignancies. Good for you if you can do it. I chose the wrong specialty. I do not like to lose so many people to cancers - ESPECIALLY the younger ones. I lost track of them at two thousand of my patients dead from cancers.

Spreedog

Get yourself a candystriper volunteer job and see how you like the inside of a hospital. The key virtue for the nurses that I encounter is quiet and non-interfering. You do know that nurses don't sit by bedsides chatting, don't you. They are rushing to get - sometimes - messy work done.

thinkingtime

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