Pediatric Certification?

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I am graduating this June as an Adult Gero Acute Care NP but I am a little worried that I do not have pediatric experience. I have worked in a Med/Surg ICU for 5 years and I have never worked with kids. However, I am sure that some of the services I apply to will be rounding on pediatrics and I want to see if there are any recommendations or classes I can take that will give me the ability to treat pediatric patients.

Any Advice???

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

You would need to be very careful and read your scope from your state BON/BOM and facility very carefully before you care for a pediatric patient as a AGNP.

Sent from my iPhone.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

You need to do a post-MSN certificate and complete the certification exam. Otherwise, you can't see peds.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.

Um...I'm thinking you need to go read what the patient population is for an Adult Gero NP. There is a reason you didn't do peds in school.

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Are you sure that you would round on a pediatric population in the hospital? Most hospitals have these clearly separated with their own medical teams (ie. Pediatricians and pediatric trained specialists round on children). Even in the outpatient setting you normally would find acute care specialties that separate pediatric and adult populations. For example cardiology, neuro, pulm, etc, are not going to have a mixed population. The exception may be endocrinology and dermatology. What type of job would you want that involved acute care and has pediatric responsibilities?

I am an ANP/AGNP and am trained to see patients 12 and up. I assume your scope would be similar. If you want to see pediatric patients then you should look into a post masters program for PACNP, PNP, or FNP.

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There is just one group of neurosurgeons that I am thinking of applying to that do both peds/adult (mainly adult) for trauma purposes mainly. I just didn't know if you all were aware of any cert programs that I would be able to get through quickly to be able to treat kids. They are baby sized adults, I'll learn to convert everything based on weight so it doesn't seem like it should be an entire program to have to go through again.

@ irishIzRn: I understand what my title will be by the way and what I applied to. Thanks for the tips on looking back at what program I applied to, I'll do that now.

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I didn't think you could see pediatric patients if you're an Adult/Gero NP??

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They are baby sized adults

No, they are not baby sized adults. Not even close.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.
There is just one group of neurosurgeons that I am thinking of applying to that do both peds/adult (mainly adult) for trauma purposes mainly. I just didn't know if you all were aware of any cert programs that I would be able to get through quickly to be able to treat kids. They are baby sized adults, I'll learn to convert everything based on weight so it doesn't seem like it should be an entire program to have to go through again.

@ irishIzRn: I understand what my title will be by the way and what I applied to. Thanks for the tips on looking back at what program I applied to, I'll do that now.

They are NOT baby size adults. There are lots of post master PNP certificate programs but....probably going to take at least a year. There is more to know than just calculating dose based on weight.

Children have different development issues at different ages, they present with different symptoms and the list goes on.

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I didn't think you could see pediatric patients if you're an Adult/Gero NP??

You are trained in adolescent medicine and can see ages 12 and up although I have also heard of programs that say 13 and up.

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