Ultimate Goal is to become a Pediatrics Nurse Practitioner but I don't know how to get there

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Hi everyone!

I recently graduated with my BSN. I have an interview for an OR nurse position in an Adult OR and other interviews at a Children's Hospital. Say I get offered the OR position but my ultimate goal is to become a Peds NP. How difficult would it be to transition from OR to Pediatrics and then to get enough experience to apply to NP programs?

Help please!

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Not enough info.

Why do you want to do this and why so specific?

Are you in high school? A nurse already? A grown up but not a nurse yet?

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Is it an OR in a pediatric hospital?

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I recently graduated with my BSN. I'm passionate about working with children and would not only like to do it as an RN but as an Advanced Practice RN as well.

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It's not a pediatric hospital. It's Northwestern. I'm unsure if they do surgery on children or if those children are taken to the nearby Children's Hospital.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

If you have a BSN then you should have what you need to find this answer. You will need to apply and be accepted to an Advanced Practice program for pediatrics. That is an MSN level or higher. For something like peds, the better programs will require you to have a couple of years of acute care experience in that specialty.

I do not think working in an OR is going to get you there unless its a pediatric OR.

Changing specialties is not what it used to be. It can be very difficult now, sadly, particularly when trying to go from something super specific to something different but also super specific.

You may wish to explore the pediatric forum here to see what others did to break into the specialty.

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Thank you for your input.

Say I get the adult OR job and then transfer to a pediatric OR in a couple of years. Would that make it any easier to eventually become an NP for pediatrics?

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I would think it would!

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Duplicate topics merged and thread moved to Student NP forum.

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Specializes in Retired.
On 9/11/2019 at 4:30 PM, llcubbs17 said:

Thank you for your input.

Say I get the adult OR job and then transfer to a pediatric OR in a couple of years. Would that make it any easier to eventually become an NP for pediatrics?

IMHO, pediatric OR wouldn't give you any skills applicable to NP. Your job will be to get the room ready while anesthesia is seeing the patient. You would actually have only see the patient and parents for a quick moment to take the patient to the OR where they will quickly be put to sleep. You will be busy with the computer trouble shooting equipment mishaps and going to get stuff during the case. Once the patient has control of the airway, they will be sent to the recovery room so you will help push the stretcher, give a quick report to PACU (anesthesia gives the report re: procedure, patient's tolerance for procedure, meds given, etc) while the OR nurse is going back to the room to set up for the next case. The OR nurse provides the environment for a smooth and safe procedure - it is very technical work and they actually have almost no patient contact. You need to be on a peds floor to get applicable experience for NP.

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How about just being a peds RN, this will give you all the exposure to kids and will set you up to be a good peds NP.

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