The world of emergency pediatrics can seem daunting, especially for anyone considering a nursing career. But TikTok's beloved ER peds nurse, Nurse A., is here to shed light on a day in the life!
Let’s start off with the easy questions: who are you, where are you from, and what do you do?:
Most people know me as “Nurse A” or @nurse.a on TikTok! I’m from the northern United States and I've been a pediatric emergency room nurse for over 9 years. I started my career at a Level 1 Trauma pediatric hospital, one of the top in the nation in its fields, where I learned the ropes of working in an intense emergency setting. That's where my husband and I met, then we moved to where I currently work and have been for the last 7 years.
You specialize in emergency pediatrics. What drew you to that line of medical work?:
At first, I had no idea what I wanted to do in nursing school. I questioned leaving a few times, because I didn't feel like any of it was for me. Usually the first year of nursing is working with adults, and the second year is more specialized with different units; intensive care unit, pediatrics, labor & delivery, etc. I wasn’t totally sure, even while I was in school.
During that second year, as I went through a lot of the different specialties, I actually thought I was going to do Labor & Delivery. But the more I worked with kids, the more I leaned toward pediatrics. It was a hard choice to make because I really loved the entire L & D unit. My nursing school let you pick a rotation, and I even went there twice, just to be certain.
In the meantime, I wanted to work in the pediatric hospital so badly, I applied to almost any job that was available. The ER was the one that happened to hire me first. So I started there as a nurse technician. Instantly, I knew that’s where I needed to be. And since I loved emergency and pediatrics equally, it felt like the right fit for a long-term career choice.
What’s the best and worst thing about working in pediatrics?:
The best thing is definitely the resiliency of the children. Kids in general can handle a lot more than we think they can. Their personalities are all over the place, so they're enjoyable to work with even when they’re feeling crummy. It’s fun to be able to be silly and goofy at work. For the most part, when a patient comes in it's an acute issue that we can handle. But even if there's a chronic history, they’re usually getting the care they need because children are much better with adjusting to treatments. With adults, unfortunately most don’t do what they need to for their own health because they don’t want to, and that’s kind of frustrating. Kids aren’t that way!
The downside to pediatrics is that some of the kids are really sick, and some of them you cannot make better. So the tough cases are definitely the worst part. But they don’t happen often.
If you could go back to school and tell yourself one thing to better prepare yourself for working as a nurse, what would it be?:
I would say don’t worry about feeling like you don’t know anything. I was so terrified when I started my first nursing job! When I was in school, we focused more on understanding paperwork and basic practices. Then on clinicals, there was a lot of making beds, helping patients eat, things like that. Which are all good to learn, but you feel like you should be doing more. They really scare you into what could go wrong, it makes you paranoid. I was even scared to put on sterile gloves when I graduated! So when I started, I was super nervous.
But it turned out I had no reason to be, because you’re not expected to know everything immediately. Orientation is there for a reason, and the skills will come. I think ideally it should be a mix of learning skills in school and practical experience, but you won’t always get that. Just know that you won’t do it perfectly for a while. I would tell myself everything will be fine. Remember this rule of thumb that works pretty well with life in general: don’t worry if you drop something - you can always get a fresh one!
What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a nurse?:
It can be a rewarding profession, if you find the right hospital. That’s not always an easy or immediate task. But if you find somewhere that appreciates you as a nurse, and makes sure that your environment is safe and they give you everything you need, then it can be incredibly fulfilling.
Some units may require different types of experience to hire you, but it never hurts to apply where you think you may want to work. So when you’re in school doing rotations, take notes while you’re there, and ask yourself “do the employees look happy?”. Ask yourself if you’d want to work there.
It’s easy to say “I want to go to nursing school and be a nurse”. But it's not a pretty job. Yes, we have pretty interesting shifts, and some can have more time at home due to longer shifts. But if you’re not 100% in it because you want to take care of people, then the struggle may be a sign that you don’t really want to do it, and that’s okay, too.
But if your heart is set on it, just keep pushing through. I’ve hit what I thought was the breaking point, too. You have to find the thing you’re good at, which may not happen right away. And not everyone is built for the same unit. We have nurses all the time that think they want to work in the ER, but once they’re in it, they change their mind. That’s okay, it just means one area out of many isn’t for you.
One big misconception is that peds nurses are super sweet, laid back, and everyone pictures us the same age as our patients, almost like children. Though we are generally nice, if we need to stand up for our patient somehow, we can get down just like any other nurse can!
Most recognize you from TikTok, where you speak honestly about life in the trenches of nursing in pediatrics. How did you get into social media, and what sort of impact has it had on you?:
I didn’t even know what TikTok was for a long time! I posted a couple times on Facebook every now and then, but that was it as far as social media. Then when the pandemic started and we were all on lockdown, I downloaded it and just watched videos. I had no idea how to upload or post, no clue how to do a single thing on the app. Eventually I figured it out and put up a couple generic videos. One that I remember was my husband and I joking around with a water effect so it looked like our dining room was flooding, and our Boxer jumped up at him. It looked like a shark that came out of the water and drowned him! That was the first video that got some attention. But it wasn’t until later that I put any kind of nursing content at all. I had to talk to my manager, I never record while I’m at work, on the clock or on the property, things like that. You have to be very careful and not abuse the platform, especially when in the medical field. Don’t listen to everyone on TikTok, please talk to your doctor!
At first, I was trying to correct misinformation because there’s a small part of me that feels like it’s my job as a healthcare worker to keep people safe. Since then, I’ve stuck with sharing things that educate, interesting things in pediatrics and random “here’s my day” kind of things, which I think is more positive and uplifting. And the community responds with more kindness, too. But it can be easy to get sucked in and start scrolling with negativity, so it’s important to manage your time well. I have to pay attention to it, too.
It’s surprising when someone does recognize me that I don’t know, and has kind things to say. I’m not seeing them, and in my head it’s just a little following, but when someone recognizes your voice in a store, it’s like “oh wow, they’re a real person!”. I’ve only had very nice conversations, people are genuinely friendly. And even some new nursing graduates who’ve started working at the same hospital have been following me. Overall though, good things have definitely come from it.
In a recent TikTok video, you discussed how the nursing profession doesn’t teach their students how to grieve in a healthy way, and that a supportive community is vital. In what ways has your community helped you cope?:
Between nursing school and rotations, I don’t feel like any of it truly prepared me for the emotional toll it can take. I’m not sure how you would be able to teach it though, because when you work with older people who are sick, you know not all of them will necessarily make it. But it’s not natural to see that in a peds setting. I’m still learning how to cope. I don’t always know how to navigate or figure it out in a healthy way, but there are things that help me.
My strongest community is my coworkers. Talking to coworkers is the most helpful thing, if you can. Of course you can talk to others outside of work while maintaining HIPAA, but they don’t necessarily understand, and you’re also constantly worrying about making them upset. But your coworkers can be your biggest support system.
I feel lucky, because that’s not always easy to find in every unit. It’s interesting to look at both of the hospitals I've worked at in comparison: The first one was much larger and employees tended to group together, you didn’t see a lot of colleagues that you didn’t work with on a regular basis. But the hospital I work at now is smaller, so my unit is much closer. We check on each other, we call each other if something happens, and you’re guaranteed to get a handful of messages with questions like “Do you need to talk about anything?”. They’re so supportive.
It’s important that people understand a lot of us cope by detaching. Sometimes as soon as we know something serious is happening, we just stay focused on the task that needs done, and try not to hear any background noise. One nurse told me before it was almost like putting blinders on - we only see what we need to help take care of the patient.
You have two or three different people it seems: some nurses, after something happens, totally detach and don’t talk about it at all. Then there's some like me: I keep moving and focused for the rest of the shift, check in with my coworkers, and then let it all go on my drive home. I let myself feel all the feelings I didn’t feel during the shift, and I usually say a prayer for the family. Once I’m parked in my driveway, I leave it in the car and that’s it. Then I go inside to my family, unless others need more support and I check in with them. And then there’s the ones that seem fine, can process their emotions in the moment, and then be good after that. Regardless, we all still take time to talk about it or reach out if someone needs it.
But, for all the awful things I’ve seen, all the good things and kids we’ve helped far outweighs the grief. It doesn’t make you forget any of it, but it definitely makes it worth it.
Is there anything you’d like to add for our readers?:
Give yourself a little bit of grace. Besides everything from the pandemic, our jobs are not the easiest on a daily basis.
Let yourself have emotions. You’re allowed to have feelings about normal stuff, even if it’s “what you signed up for”, as some say. You’re allowed to be upset about working a holiday, or be sad that you’re missing out on something, just like anybody else would be.
Make sure that you’re valuing yourself. A lot of companies and hospitals make it seem like you’re replaceable, but make sure that you’re seeing yourself as irreplaceable.
We're so glad we can share this interview with you, but we're even more excited to introduce our pediatrics-focused collection in collaboration with Nurse A., The Think Happy Thoughts Collection! Both prints are available now, so order yours today!
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