Pediatric Nurse Job Description - Salary, Education and Career Guide for Becoming a Pediatric Nurse

If you want to make a difference in the lives of children, you may want to consider pediatric nursing. Pediatric nurses help treat sick children as well as ensure that healthy children stay well. Duties of a pediatric nurse also include talking to parents about tests, vaccines and other medical concerns they may have about their children.

Job Description

Pediatric nurses work in many different settings, from neonatal units and emergency rooms to public and private schools.
 
A pediatric nurse is a registered nurse who provides professional nursing care for babies and children. During any given day, a pediatric nurse may perform dozens of different duties. Here are some of the daily duties of a pediatric nurse:
  • Administer medication to children.

  • Obtain vital signs and perform head-to-toe assessments of children during routine check-ups.

  • Start I.V.s and perform catheterizations. Starting an I.V. on a child is often difficult because they are rarely as vascular as adults, and often hate needles!

  • Teach parents how to care for their child medically. Since care often goes beyond the length of a visit to the hospital or doctor, pediatric nurses must instruct parents on how to perform some simple tasks to treat a child’s medical condition.
 
Additional tasks such as performing CPR and setting broken bones are also part of the duties of a pediatric nurse. The pediatric nurse job description is essentially the same as the job description for a nurse in an adult clinic, but with the added challenge of administering to a scared or squirming child.

Salary Guide

Salaries for pediatric nurses vary. In the United States, the annual average salary ranges from about $43,000 for nurses with less than a year of experience to over $64,000 for those with 10-19 years on the job. Salary will depend on location, experience and the resources of the employing institution.
 
Education Requirements
You can become a registered nurse by obtaining one of three degrees:
  • Associate’s in Nursing: This takes from two to three years and allows you to work as an RN in numerous settings.
 
  • Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN): This traditional four-year program gives you all the options of an associate's degree and prepares you to climb the ladder into administrative and supervisory roles.
 
  • Master's entry-level program: This is for people with four-year degrees in other fields who wish to become nurses. It usually takes a year or two and you graduate with a master’s degree.
 
Once you graduate, you become a certified pediatric nurse by passing a separate exam.

Prior Work Experience

A good way to see if nursing is for you is to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse. LVNs attend school for a year and usually work under the supervision of RNs. If you are considering a career as a pediatric nurse, you may also want to work in a childcare setting. Working with both children of all ages and their parents will allow you to gain valuable experience as well as ensure that you want to work with children after you obtain your nursing degree.

Career Advancement

Experienced pediatric nurses can move into administrative roles or go back to school and become a pediatric nurse practitioner. It usually takes about 18 months to obtain your practitioner's license, which allows you to expand your level of care and prescribe medications to your patients. If you enjoy pediatric nursing and decide to stay in the field, your salary and level of responsibility will likely increase over time.
 

Related Groups and Associations

  • The Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses
  • The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
 
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