Re: Nurse Practitioners in the PICU
I worked with a nurse practitioner in my previous unit, both while she was achieving her NP status and after. She specialized her Master's program specifically to pediatric critical care at a time when the NP educational program was in its infancy. Her roles in the unit are similar to that of the PICU fellows I encounter in my current unit. She consults on and admits patients, writes medication, diagnostic and treatment orders independently, intubates, places lines, does complex dressings and so on. She is often involved with the long-stay patients as a case coordinator. I know she loves her job. We occasionally get referrals from her; my current unit is their cardiovascular referral centre.
My current unit has a clinical nurse specialist who does not have the same authority as an NP. We had an NP for a while, who also completed a specialized pediatric NP program. But her roles were different; she was involved with CQI, wound care practices and that sort of thing. She left that position and is now the regional coordinator for CQI and our children's hospital's wound care specialist. She has been away from the bedside for many years and has no real grasp of the realities of bedside nursing in the PICU so some of her edicts are a bit difficult to follow.
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and intend to do that for some time. I just was trying to explain the pressures that are around me to eventually become an APRN.
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