How do I get hired as a new grad for a pediatric or OB unit (e.g., mother/baby, NICU, pediatric med-surg) without completing a residency program when most require 1-2 years experience?
Depending on where you want to work, will determine how hard it will be to find that. Smaller hospitals, probably not. Better chance with larger teaching hospitals.
For the specialty units such as those, you will most likely need the experience. In my facility, (a community hospital), there was always a waiting list of experienced nurses wanting to come our unit (M/B, L&D, NICU).
Those positions did not come up very often due to many of our nurses staying long-term, and those that did come up were usually because someone retired or moved. Some actually waited several years before a position opened up! Many of our nurses have been there 20+ years!
We always told those who wanted to come to our unit that their best chance was to get on the waiting list and in the meantime get as many of their certification classes done ahead of time ... PALS, etc.
Those who did that had a Much higher chance of getting the next spot. We absolutely took experience with certs done over others. The few new grads that we did take were the ones who worked with us as aides from other units when we were busy and proved themselves as hard workers and willing to learn, or worked in other roles within the department. We got to know them and their abilities and work ethics. And in my many years there, I believe we've only taken 2 for M/B and only a few in L&D. NICU, usually not due to the intensity and knowledge level you'd need for that area. Smaller hospitals simply don't have the budget to get a new grad "up to speed" on decision making skills, basic nursing skills, etc. For this reason, they will Always take experience over a new grad.
Your best bet might be in a larger setting such as teaching hospitals which are usually better set up to mentor new grads in those settings. They will usually have internship programs to help you transition into your new role as a nurse within a specialty setting. That way you can get the experience you need in the setting you want and have the resources needed with mentorship that will be needed.
If you can't find what you want right away, start working somewhere to get basic nursing experience, and in the meantime find out what specialty classes and/or certifications are required for the unit(s) you really want, and work on getting those done. It will go a long way to putting you much closer to getting there.
Just don't mention in your interview etc that you want/plan on moving on to a different specialty, as they may not want to invest their time and resources on training you.
Best of luck to you, I really hope you find what you're looking for. It's not an impossible find, and I'm sure it's out there, but might not be as easy as you'd like. And it might be easier/harder to find, depending on locality and availability of positions in your area. For example, at my facility, we could go several years without any openings in my M/B unit. Then we'd have a period where we'd have several in a very short time frame!
