I am a now retired nurse who worked in pediatrics for 40 years. I went to a three year diploma nursing school, aced my state's RN exams, worked in a pediatric ER for two years and then elected to go back to school for my BS while working days (no weekends) in a new expanded role in Oncology as a NP. After obtaining my BS in science, I applied to and was accepted to medical school, but by then was divorced with a two year old so while Med school would have been GREAT for me personally, it wouldn't have been the case my son who would have been raised by babysitters while I worked as a nurse and went back to school. So, instead, I went back to school evenings for 5 years to get my MA in Community Health Education at Ohio State. I stayed with my job at Children's hospital in the oncology division for 14 years and loved all the kids/families and nurses/docs I worked with. But, after obtaining my MA, I was offered a job as a school nurse in the school district I lived in. By then I now had 4 school age children, but was a single parent again with another absent dad raising his "second family" so I jumped at that opportunity and that job was THE BEST!! I LOVED every job in my career in pediatrics....and now LOVE being a grandmother to four beautiful grandchildren.
The only downfall to the job in Ean educational setting, was there were next to NO policies and procedures in place for the five school nurses in our district, so in addition to running my four school clinics, I began developing and writing up policies and procedures to cover what all the RNs were expected to do in our schools..including training clinic aides. to do our job when were in another school. I retired a decade ago after 26 years as a school nurse. For fiveof those years I also taught part time in the evenings at Ohio State.
Although I am now retired, I maintain my nursing license as I still professionally help others at accident scenes and am often consulted for advice in the community we live in.
However long you choose to go to school, or wherever your career in Peds may take you, I doubt you'll have regrets as long as you are flexible and happy with your life's choices. My best advice is to follow your heart and find ways to deal with life's bumps in the road,
It is the same as any basic nursing school. Approximately 2 year associate degree or 4 year BSN degree depending on the program. The specific Pediatric skills are learned mostly in RN residency programs at hosptials that have those or on the job with preceptors, mentors by experience, if not.
The best padiatric nurse is 4 years
First one must become a licensed nurse, which takes a minimum of 2 academic years for an associate degree. If one has a bachelor degree in another area other than nursing, there are accelerated programs that are shorter in length. Once you have passed a licensure exam, I’m specifically speaking about a registered nurse (RN) not licensed practical nurse (LPN), you can the seek employment as a pediatric nurse. Please be advised, you cannot specialize in pediatrics in an undergrad program (ADN or BSN). Specialization occurs at the graduate level, which can range from a master’s degree as a pediatric clinical nurse specialist (CNS) or pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) to a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) who holds a either a pediatric CNS or PNP license. Those programs can be 12 -36 months beyond a bachelors degree.
The same length of time as other nurses. If you are asking about specialized certification, you do that after you have been working with pediatric patients. Getting your certification can be very good for you career wise. Check out ANCC for more information about their certifications they offer.
