The Ins and Outs of Being a Certified Pediatric Nurse
The Ins and Outs of Being a Certified Pediatric Nurse
Thinking about the next step in your career? The nursing profession is a robust field, with certifications running the gamut of clinical, managerial, and educational specialties. But which is the best choice for you? Here, we’ll take a deep dive into what it means to be a Certified Pediatric Nurse.
What Does Being a Pediatric Nurse Mean?
A pediatric nurse has three major roles: teacher; child advocate; and preventive health provider.
As a pediatric nurse, you may work in a hospital, pediatrician’s office, public health department, home care agency or school. You’ll need to understand how to gear your communication to the needs of the child or adolescent and use clinical equipment sized for the patient.
What Does a Pediatric Nurse Do?
You’ll provide care to infants, children, adolescents and young adults, combining nursing knowledge with understanding of growth and development. In acute care, you’ll perform in-depth physical assessments, interpret lab results and tests, and administer medications and treatments. In primary care, you may do “well-child” exams, development screenings, deliver immunizations, and more.
In the hospital, the general pediatric care unit provides nursing care to children with a wide range of medical and surgical conditions. Children with critical or life-threatening conditions are cared for in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) where the staff has advanced knowledge and training. Intermediate care sits between those two settings.
What Type of Person is a Pediatric Nurse?
Of course, you’ll need a love of children and adolescents, but you also must remember to include the entire family in the plan of care. You’ll need to understand normal growth and development as well as diseases of children. You’ll need to be organized, calm, and quick-witted.
How Do I Become Certified in Pediatric Nursing?
You’ll need your BSN and gain clinical and classroom experience in pediatrics. After that, you can choose from two certification programs for pediatric nursing: one is from the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB), the other is from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The PNCB awards the more popular Certified Pediatric Nurse (CPN®)
designation and the ANCC awards the Pediatric Nursing Certification (PED-BC) credential. Both of these exams require demonstrated clinical hours spent working with pediatric patients, so it's important to make sure you qualify for either exam. Click here [GAH1] to learn more about if you qualify, how to apply, and more!
Are You Preparing for the Exam?
To help you pass with ease, use our Pediatric Nurse Certification digital products, packed with practice questions and strategies to help you make the grade!
Resources
All Nursing Schools. How to Become a Pediatric Nurse. Retrieved from https://www.allnursingschools.com/specialties/pediatric-nursing/
Rupert, D., & Young, K. (2014). Fast Facts for the Pediatric Nurse. New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Society of Pediatric Nurses. Becoming a Pediatric Nurse. Retrieved from http://www.pedsnurses.org/page/becoming-a-pediatric-nurse