Acute/Critical Care Cardiothoracic NP.... need some info

[CANewRN]

I am currently a pediatric ICU RN. My passion is cardiothoracic critical care. I want to get my NP and become a part of the intensivist team. Because my goal is so focused, I am debating whether to do pediatrics or adults. Ideally I would do both, but for my masters track, I have to pick either acute care adult, or peds NP. Does anyonne have any advice? I am at a loss.. and am figuring out whether to apply for the 2010 class or not.

thanks!!

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

Just based on my own experience, I am not aware of any Cardiothoracic Surgery ICU that combines adult and pediatric populations in a single unit, not that I'm saying it doesn't exist but I just haven't come across one. I worked as an NP in an Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery ICU and learned a great deal and loved it a lot. However, the hospital I worked for only offered adult cardiac and lung surgery although the heart and lung transplant program is jointly administered with a Children's Hospital less than 10 miles away. I also am aware of other NP's in similar roles in a university-based hospital in Ann Arbor, MI and I know their CTICU's are separate for both adult and peds and they have NP's who only work exclusively for one or the other ICU. Cardiac surgeons actually have to go through additional years of fellowship to operate on pediatric patients. With that said, it's really your choice and you should go with what interests you more. The peds cardiac surgery population is definitely more challenging and not as cut and dry as the adults. Also remember that there is no acute care NP program that covers both peds and adults. The three acute care NP programs are: NNP, PNP-AC, and ACNP.