In Celebration of Pediatric Nurse Week: October 3rd-7th, 2022

Pediatric Nurse Week is scheduled for October 3rd-7th for 2022. The mission of Pediatric Nurses Week is to promote pediatric nursing and honor pediatric nurses who provide their patients and families with excellent nursing care. 

Join us in celebrating Pediatric Nurses Week as we shine a light on what pediatric nurses do, ideas for showing them some love, and breakdown just how to become one because we know the pediatric nurses in your life just might have inspired you to make a switch in your specialty. 

What is a Pediatric Nurse?

By definition, a pediatric nurse is a professional who provides nursing care for children from birth to their late teen years. 

Their duties range from gathering a child’s medical history, monitoring vital signs, and recognizing symptoms to implementing physician’s orders and treatment plans, administering medications, and providing lifesaving interventions when necessary. 

A day in the life of a pediatric nurse includes keeping children’s families updated, maintaining a safe environment for the children, and so much more in addition to their nursing care duties. You’ll often find pediatric nurses coloring with their patients who may be scared, wearing fun scrubs and playing games to entertain the children, or holding parents as they support their children through difficult times. 

Pediatric nurses are a special sector of the nursing profession as they advocate for one of the most vulnerable and important demographic– our children. 

Ideas For Honoring Pediatric Nurses for Pediatric Nurse Week 2022

Simply put, pediatric nurses are angels on Earth which is why we should all give them our support and appreciation regularly, but especially during Pediatric Nurse Week. Here are a few ideas to show pediatric nurses some love.

Get the Kids Involved!

Pediatric nurses love what they do, but you could argue that they love their patients even more! Get the kids they work with in on the action during Pediatric Nurse Week. Ask the kids if they will color them a picture, make them a card, or help you plan a surprise. Any pediatric nurse’s heart will melt just from a hand-drawn card made by their littles. 

A Small Gift

A small gift can go a long way to show appreciation. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just meaningful and genuine. After all, it truly is the thought that counts. Our favorite things to receive include a $5 coffee gift card, new pens, a fun badge reel or socks, or snacks!

Kind Words

Kind words don’t cost a penny but can make all the difference. Share with a pediatric nurse how special they are to you, how much you appreciate all they do, and the details of the difference they have made in your life. Sometimes we all just need to hear that the hard days are worth the good we are contributing to.  

Local Appreciation Programs

Many hospitals and medical facilities have appreciation programs where coworkers, patients, or their families can express their experiences with employees. Some examples include Daisy Awards and Star Cards. Consider nominating one of the wonderful pediatric nurses you know for one of these programs to show your appreciation during Pediatric Nurse Week. 

Write a Letter

Writing a letter to the pediatric unit at your local hospital even if you don’t work there yourself is an excellent way to honor pediatric nurses. These usually get read by the manager and hung up in the breakroom to share the love with the entire staff. Also, these days where email and texting are the standards, writing a letter shows that you have put more thought, time, and effort into expressing your appreciation which just makes it that much more meaningful. 

Becoming a Pediatric Nurse

Have the pediatric nurses in your life inspired you to join their specialty? Here’s how to become a pediatric nurse!

Education

Of course to be a pediatric nurse you’ll need to have your RN license. On top of that, pediatric nurses must have a pediatric nursing certification. 

There are several to choose from including the Critical Care RN Pediatric Certification from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) and the Certified Pediatric Nurse certification from the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board which are the two most popular. 

Pediatric nurses are also required to have a Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certification so they can provide life-saving measures if needed. 

Experience

Though it is completely possible to get hired as a pediatric nurse without any pediatric experience, it is helpful to have critical care experience if you are going to work in a pediatric ICU or Med-Surg experience if you are going to work in a standard pediatric unit. 

If you do want the pediatric experience to help you land a competitive position consider working in an emergency room that occasionally has pediatric patients, a pediatric outpatient doctor’s office, or even just volunteering for adolescent public health opportunities. 

Let’s Shout Out Pediatric Nurses

Whether you go ahead and start the journey to become a pediatric nurse to honor the profession or you simply use one of our appreciation ideas, pediatric nurses deserve all of our love during Pediatric Nurses Week. 

From all of us here at Capsol, we want to thank pediatric nurses for always putting in your 100% effort to care for the most precious people in our life– children. 

Do you know an awesome pediatric nurse? Shout them out in the comments below or let us know how you plan to honor them this week!