Beyond the bedside: Building career pathways to strengthen pediatric nursing

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of pediatric nursing as a valued specialty within the healthcare ecosystem and to explore diverse pathways for career progression throughout pediatric nursing with hopes of inspiring future leaders to achieve further influence of the pediatric specialty within the healthcare ecosystem.

The Institute of Pediatric Nursing (IPN) is a committee of the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) comprised of nationally recruited thought leaders cultivated to create resources and strategies to support the pediatric nursing profession. The IPN explored ways to communicate the value of pediatrics as a specialty, develop future leaders at the bedside and beyond, and involve educators in promoting advanced development and longevity for careers in pediatric nursing. Through group discussion and resource sharing, an IPN workgroup consisting of a diverse, accomplished pediatric nursing leaders explored and developed 22 potential professional pathways for pediatric nurses to pursue advanced roles both at and beyond bedside nursing care.

Pediatrics is an essential specialty within the nursing profession in which caring nurse experts are equipped to skillfully respond to complex physical, developmental, emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs of children from birth through early adulthood in a framework of family-centered, evidence-based, holistic care. Far beyond bedside care delivery, pediatric nurses increasingly work at the forefront of child health as indispensable resources in modern contexts to meet rapidly evolving health needs of individual children, their families, and their communities.