There’s a shortage of nurses in the United States, and it’s a gap that’s only predicted to become wider in the coming years. On top of the shortage of nurses in general, there is also a large deficit in the availability of more qualified nursing professionals who can take up leadership positions in specialized fields.
Pediatrics, in particular, is facing the ill-effects of not having enough qualified medical professionals (nurses and doctors) ready to be at the helm in rural communities and underdeveloped sections of multiple cities. Gaps will become wider and the scarcity will be felt more prominently once more people than ever retire over the next two decades.
Pediatric acute care nurse practitioner programs are designed to prepare experienced nurses with the education and knowledge necessary for handling the leadership responsibilities in pediatric nursing. Going through the various aspects of pediatric acute care nurse practitioner programs will help to elaborate on the importance, future impacts and career prospects for those interested.
Qualifications Necessary to Join Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Programs
Being a highly revered and wanted DNP track, the path to a doctorate in pediatric nursing is not possible unless the registered nurse meets certain criteria first. Although the exact criteria will differ, depending on the nursing school, all affiliated and accredited nursing schools will expect applicants to at least have the following qualifications before applying:
- A GPA of. 3.0 or above
- An active license as a registered nurse (RN) in the US
- A BSN degree from an accredited nursing school
- More than a year of nursing experience as a full time, active nurse
- An unblemished RN license record
Primary Goals of Pediatric Acute Care DNP Programs
The specification of goals is an essential aspect of a good higher education program designed for professionals, so DNP – PNP programs have defined goals as well. Going through the following should help students get better acquainted with those goals:
- Enhanced Skills development for making nurses more competent and relevant to the field
- Creating leaders in the field of pediatric acute care nursing
- Teaching how to utilize the available technology to improve and innovate in pediatric nursing
- Teaching how to promote and advocate evidence-based health policies
- Equipping nurses with the ability to handle acute, chronic and critical pediatric ailments
- Equipping nurses with the ability to handle the specific needs of infants and children from various age groups
Elaboration of the Goals
The specified goals can once again be further detailed for providing more clarity regarding the objectives of each.
- Scientific experimentation and consequent evidence generation
- Organization of the evidence to create and then analyze the potential strategies for improved patient care
- Utilization of the organized and evaluated evidence for promoting the most viable methods and designs for improving pediatric care
- Development of leadership skills necessary to assume HOD roles
- Development of skills necessary to build working relationships with multiple connected and interdependent health departments
- Development of the ability to identify and lay down the most important quality metrics
- Training in contemporary software and hardware tech, devised specifically to facilitate productivity in pediatric care
- Training in public and private health improvement strategies, specialized for pediatrics
- Identification and treatment of pediatric illnesses (acute, chronic and critical), when applicable
- Identification of the specific needs of acute pediatric patients from all age groups
- Management of chronic health conditions in children
- Making judgment calls as a leader in clinical environments
A Brief Look at What Nurses Should be Looking for in Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Programs
In spite of the DNP-PNP courses being some of the most respected programs for a nursing professional to complete, they are not all equal. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify a good program by ensuring that they meet the following criteria:
- Accreditation from regionally or nationally acclaimed accreditation boards such as CCNE and ACME
- The university offering pediatric acute care nurse practitioner programs should provide easy clinical placements for their students
- Training should enable PNPs to also handle critical and chronic pediatric illnesses, in addition to acute conditions
Dual Track Options
Primarily, a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner course is quite self-explanatory, but there might be the opportunity to follow a dual-track program at some universities. The pediatric acute care nurse practitioner programs at Baylor University follow a dual-track curriculum that prepares PNPs to effectively handle both acute and chronic situations in pediatrics.
Some of the advantages the dual-track programs naturally bring to the table are as follows:
- Naturally trains pediatric nurse practitioners to be more versatile and widely employable
- Makes them further capable as primary caregivers and medical professionals in pediatrics
- PNPs trained to handle both chronic and acute situations will have a professional advantage over PNPs trained via a single-track curriculum
The Critical Role of PNPs in Rural America
In multiple states across the country, pediatric nurse practitioners have gained partial or full autonomy, and by all means, that is the way to go.
To summarize the absolutely crucial roles that pediatric nurse practitioners must take up in rural communities, the following facts regarding the reality of the situation should suffice.
- PNPs can provide care and treatment to over a million children in the US, who have zero access to proper healthcare
- In the 60 years post-1960, a 400% increase in chronic pediatric illness has been seen
- A major chunk of that increase can be traced back to rural settings with poor pediatric care facilities
- A large number of PNPs without acute care training are providing acute care to children in rural settings
Nurse practitioners in general often hold the most important, as well as the highest-paid, nursing jobs. However, even among NPs, PNPs do have particularly lucrative opportunities to look forward to. That opportunity on the other hand, reaches a whole new administrative level when they complete their doctorate in the subject.
Their experience, knowledge, and training are already crucial, but the same will become even more critical to improving pediatric healthcare policies and updating them in the future as a whole generation of leading figures in the nursing community retires in the coming years.
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