Where can pediatric nurse practitioners practice?

[Lavender619]

Hello! I am currently considering applying to Pediatric Nurse Practitioner programs. I am mainly looking at Primary Care programs and wondering where PNP-PC can practice besides just in a primary care clinic. Can they ever work in a hospital or inpatient without having gone through an Acute Care program. I am still unsure of ultimately where I would like to work. I know I don't want to work in an ER or PICU but I would like to have inpatient or sub-specialities as an option.

I'd love for people to share where they work as PNPs and what their day to day looks like.

[DizzyJ DHSc PA-C]

If you want to work outpatient do PNP primary care focus. Some states will not allow a primary care PNP to practice acute care or in an ICU. There are options of doing a PNP primary care program and then getting an acute care certificate after or going to an acute care PNP program. I'd say yes, you can work in a hospital as a primary care PNP, but there is a preference/shift towards NPs have an acute care certification for inpatient work. So, you may be limited in options without having acute care certification.

I was able to find a few discussion about this topic on AN doing a search.

[babyNP., APRN]

It's going to depend on the state in which you practice. Per the consensus model, you should really only work in the type of workplace for which you are trained. i.e. you should work in primary care if you were trained in primary care. I imagine in the future, this will be universal, but for now it's in an implementation phase and only some states are enforcing it at the moment. It goes both ways too...if you were trained in acute care you are not supposed to be working in primary care per the model. Some people get dual certs in order to avoid this.

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

In my state, the only thing that getting a primary care degree prevents you from doing is PICU, really, and thats mostly just because of preference. They actually care more about RN experience in PICU than they care about an acute care degree usually. For some other inpatient services (especially some of the surgical services) prefer acute care but I know a person that is primary care that just got a job with surgery so it doesn't apply to everybody. There isn't enough acute care programs in my area to really support an "only acute care APRN's can be inpatient" mentality. But, like a pervious poster said, some people get duel degrees to avoid any of this.

My advice to you would be to reach out to the people that are working in the area that you think you might want to work in and see what they say. I feel like the preference is probably very institution specific. But in short answer, you dont have to just do primary care pediatrics with that degree - every person I did clinic time with was primary care and I did endocrine, pulm, child abuse, neurology - and I am starting in palliative care. Just reach out to people and see what your institution prefers.

[Lavender619]

Thanks for the advice. From talking with a few people in the area already it sounds like since there isn't yet a strict regulation on Acute vs Primary you have quite a lot of options regardless of your training (except perhaps PICU, like you said).

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

The caveat to this is, that as the Consensus Model gains momentum (and it is), your training will dictate your job placement....best to decide BEFORE you start school, what you want to do.