Pediatric nurses are nurses who work with children. They work in a very broad range of settings, from pediatric intensive care units (PICUs), to private pediatrician’s offices. Depending upon where the pediatric nurse works, he or she plays a variety of roles, from caring for children who are critically ill or injured to working with parents and children to address common childhood ailments and health concerns.

Pediatric Nurses in a Primary Care Setting

Pediatric nurses in a primary care setting are the nurses who work with pediatricians in their private doctor’s offices. These nurses focus on helping children get healthy and stay that way. They perform well-child examinations, screen children for typical developmental delays or potential problems, educate parents about basic pediatric health concerns, and help immunize children.

Pediatric Nurses in an Acute Care / Hospital Setting

Pediatric nurses who work in an acute care or hospital setting work with children who are ill or injured to the point of requiring hospitalization. While this role can be emotionally taxing, as it involved working with very sick children – some of whom do not always recover – it can be extremely rewarding to help a child recover from a serious illness and return home happy and healthy to his or her family. Acute care pediatric nurses learn how to interpret lab results and the results of diagnostic tests, administer medications, and perform therapeutic treatments. Nurse practitioner pediatric nurses have even more roles and responsibilities than RNs, such as performing invasive procedures, prescribing medication, and working with the family to ensure proper post-discharge patient care.

Becoming a Pediatric Nurse

Pediatric nurses can be either LPNs, RNs, or NPs. An LPN pediatric nurse can work with most children, but not the children who require the highest level of care. Because the nursing field is increasingly seeking RNs, an LPNs job opportunities are more limited than that of an RN. However, it is much easier to become an LPN, as the educational programs for becoming an LPN can be as short as a year. Pediatric nurses who are RNs have a much wider variety of job opportunities within the field. Like other fields in nursing, RNs with four-year bachelor’s degrees, as opposed to those RNs who complete only an associate’s degree, are in increasingly high demand. Nurse practitioners (NPs) who specialize in pediatric care have the highest level of education, holding master’s degrees, and enjoy the highest rate of pay.

Similar to other specialties within nursing, the best way to specialize in the field of pediatric nursing is to start by finding a job in that field – at the beginning, no special certification is required by most employers. Hospitals and other health facilities will generally train new nursing graduates in an internship program for a few months before he or she works independently on the floor. These intern programs usually involve both classroom and hands-on learning in the pediatrics field.

In addition to the option of attaining a special certification for pediatric nursing (see below), pediatric nurses can also opt to receive specialized pediatric training, such as Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Pediatric Basic Trauma Life Support.

Becoming a Certified Pediatric Nurse or Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse

Pediatric nurses have the option of later gaining certification as a CPN (certified pediatric nurse), or as a CPEN (certified pediatric emergency nurse). The certification of pediatric nurses is administered by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. According to the board’s website, the certification is intended for those nurses who already have some years of experience within the field. Once one of these two certifications is earned through taking the CPN or CPEN exam, the certification must by maintained through continuing education.

Job Prospects for Pediatric Nurses

The median salary for pediatric nurses is close to $58,000 per year, although some may earn as much as $68,000 per year. In general, as with other fields, pediatric nurse salaries go up with experience and education – nurse practitioners who are pediatric nurses hold master’s degrees in nursing and earn up to $20,000 more per year than a standard RN.

As with all fields of nursing, pediatric nurses are in high demand. This makes finding a job as a pediatric nurse relatively easy; demand is likely to increase even more over the next ten years, as the rising population of children in the United States easily outstrips the rising population of nurses.

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