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Pediatric Nurse Practitioner*

Education

If you are a nurse interested in developing advanced skills in caring for children, becoming a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) offers a rewarding career path for you.  As one of the first nurse practitioner programs in Virginia, the School of Nursing PNP concentration has a long history of preparing advanced practice nurses to work as primary care providers for infants, children, and adolescents, focusing on assessment and management of well children as well as management of common acute, chronic, and behavioral problems of children and adolescents.  You will learn to address children’s health needs by evaluating the interrelationships among gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, economic status, and health policy and their implications for the provision of child health services in the U.S.  Graduates from the VCU School of Nursing PNP concentration are prepared to provide holistic care that includes health promotion and disease prevention as well as diagnosis and treatment of pediatric health care problems.  As a PNP, you will be an advocate for children and families and a leader in improving the quality of health care for children.

  • Post-Baccalaureate Plan of Study

    Full- and part-time students begin in the fall.  Full-time students can complete the plan of study in four academic semesters.  Foundational courses, taught weekly in Richmond during the first two semesters of enrollment, provide advanced knowledge and skills in health assessment, pathophysiology, pharmacotherapeutics, health promotion, and research.  The PNP specialty courses, beginning in the spring semester of the first year of enrollment, meet weekly in Richmond.  These courses focus on the management of acute problems in children, management of children with developmental disabilities or special health care needs, and management of behavioral and mental health problems in children.  Students are prepared to assume an expanded scope of practice that includes prescriptive authority along with advanced assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and collaborative management of well children and children with health problems.

    Students in the PNP program complete 540 hours of clinical experience in which they are directly supervised by qualified providers (PNP or MD) who have expertise in pediatric primary care.  Supervised pediatric clinical experiences are available throughout the state of Virginia.  Sites for clinical experiences include, for example, community pediatric practices, primary care clinics, health departments, community health centers, school-based health clinics, and ambulatory care centers.  The School of Nursing faculty strive to provide opportunities for students to work with diverse patient populations.
  • Post-Master’s Certificate Plan of Study

    The post-master’s certificate in the PNP concentration is designed for nurses who have already earned a master’s degree in nursing and wish to become a PNP.  The post-master’s certificate plan of study is tailored to meet the individual needs of students who plan to apply for certification as a PNP and offers flexibility for those who may be working full time.

Certification

Students who successfully complete the PNP concentration are eligible to apply for certification as a PNP by the American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC) or as a Primary Care CPNP® by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PCNB).

Clinical Practice

PNPs are experts in health promotion and disease prevention, providing education and services to parents and children beginning in infancy through childhood and adolescence when it will have the greatest impact on reducing acute and chronic illness across the life span.  PNPs bring a dynamic and unique skill set to their practice that allows them to care for children in a variety of outpatient and community-based settings like primary care clinics, community pediatric practices, community health centers, school-based health clinics, ambulatory health centers, and health departments.

Demand for PNPs

The demand for nurses with graduate preparation in advanced nursing practice is growing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall job opportunities for nursing professionals, including pediatric nurse practitioners, are expected to increase by 22% over the 2008-2018 decade (www.bls.gov). The need for nurses with graduate preparation in advanced nursing practice can be traced to the changing demands of the nation's complex health care environment that require nurses in specialty positions to have the highest possible level of scientific knowledge and practice expertise along with the anticipated increase in the number of adults and children who will seek health care following the reform initiatives that will result from implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 20091. Graduates from the VCU School of Nursing Pediatric Nurse Practitioner concentration are already working across the state in exciting and financially lucrative practice settings and this trend is expected to continue.

1Loman, D. G., & Clinton, P. (2010). Where are all the PNPs? Pediatric nurse practitioner practice opportunities and challenges. Journal of Pediatrics, 157(4), 526-527.

More Information

For additional information about the PNP concentration and questions about the application process, please contact the Office of Enrollment and Student Services (OESS) at VCU_Nurse@vcu.edu. or call 804-828-5171.

We look forward to working with you as you consider the educational opportunities at VCU School of Nursing.

The following websites provide additional information about the PNP specialty:

*Name changed from Child health pending University approval

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