Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Job

Nurse Practitioner plays an important role in any healthcare organization. Nurse practitioner in a Pediatric Setting believed that children are very important for their families. Each family considers that their child is unique and their integral part. That is why the role of nurse in a pediatric setting is very important as a caregiver, as a teacher, as a counselor and health promoter. Carla Luggiero, the Senior Associate Director of American Health Organization, said that, “ There are an array of patient care activities performed by nurses who work in hospitals. In addition to providing care at the patient's bedside, nurses are also extremely involved in patient education and working as team coordinators for patient care. Nurses also help coordinate outpatient care and educational programs provided by many hospitals."

 Nursing covers many aspects of care including physical, mental, psychological, social, educational, cultural aspects. To cover all these aspects in their nursing care, nurses in pediatric setting believed in performing their duty with following core elements:

·                     Collaboration: it is the most important element in providing nursing care in pediatric setting. To enhance the standard of their services, nurse practitioners believe in collaboration with other healthcare professionals to provide the best and most effective services

·                     Improvement: nurse practitioners believe in continuous improvement of their services. They always try to give as much care to the child as described in the ANA and Society of Pediatric Nurses standards

·                     Respect: for the children and for their families, regardless of their social, economical and racial background is the core element for providing nursing care in the pediatric setting. Nurse practitioner provide nursing care to the children with preservation of their dignity and privacy

Role of Nurse Practitioner in Pediatric Setting

As already discussed, role of a nurse is very important in pediatric setting, because she has to play a role of a caregiver, a teacher, an advocate etc.

·                     Nurse practitioner as caregiver: it is the core responsibility of any nurse practitioner. Nurses provide care, not only for physical illness, but also for emotional, mental, social and spiritual problems to ensure the complete healing of the patient.

·                     Nurse practitioner as teacher: nurse practitioner, especially in pediatric setting, has to play a role of teacher. It is the duty of the nurse to teach patients and their families, how to live with present health condition and how any disease can be prevented? The core responsibility of nurse practitioner as teacher is to teach the family of the children to prevent diseases and to provide a most healthy environment for children. Nurse practitioner also teaches the families to adhere to the best healthcare behavior, maintenance of a healthy life style and most appropriate use of healthcare services. Teaching role of a nurse practitioner includes the following responsibilities:

1.                                          Identify the need of teaching

2.                                          Develop a clear learning strategy for the child’s family

3.                                          Provide learning according to the strategy

4.                                          Evaluate the results

·                     Nurse Practitioner as advocate: nurse practitioner’s responsibilities in this role include the safeguarding of child and the family’s interests and providing the psychological, mental and spiritual help to the patient and his family. Advocate’s role requires that there exist a mutual confidence and understanding between the nurse practitioner and the family of the child. The major objectives of this role are to protect patient and his family’s self-determination, to act as a shield between the patient and hostile environment, and to act on patient’s behalf. This role includes the following responsibilities:

1.                                          Explain the role of different healthcare providers to the patient and his family

2.                                          Make necessary changes in the environment to safeguard the welfare of the patient and his family

3.                                          Ensuring that adequate healthcare is provided to the patient

Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Job, Salary

Stress in Pediatrics Nurse Practitioner

Nursing is a difficult job; providing nursing services to seriously ill, injured and dying children is often become a source of stress and suffering. Dr. Hans Seyle, a Canadian physician and researcher, is considered the father of stress management because of his pioneering research in the field. He defines stress as, “ the body’s nonspecific response to any demand placed on it, whether or not that demand is pleasant”. Seyle discovered that people’s bodies exhibit a specific series of biological reaction in response to some demand or threat. The surprise is that people’s bodies go through the same reaction in positive as well as negative situations. The same physical reaction occurs if people cut off in traffic, or given a surprise party by the friends. The body does not know the difference between positive and negative events. Only the mind does.

There are number of sources of stress for nurse practitioners in pediatric setting. Some of the common sources are:

         Caring for such children who are in critical position

         Excess workload

         Conflicts

         Hostile environment

         Lack of staff support

         Uncertainty in decisions regarding patient’s care etc.

In the short term, the negative effects of stress are temporary. However, if stress is frequent or prolonged, several effects can result. Among the medical problems are back pains, headaches, digestive and coronary problems. Psychological effects include irritability, depression and anxiety. Beside illness, there are other negative effects like, increased absenteeism, accidents, impaired decision making, poor quality of work, increased conflict, low morale etc.

Effective behaviors to cope with stress is building resistance to stress through regular sleep, good eating and health habits, and discussing the stressful situation with coworkers, family, and friends.

Job Satisfaction in Pediatric Nurse Practitioners

If any job “is not an entity, but a complex interrelationship of tasks, roles, responsibilities, interactions, incentives, and rewards,” then none may be treated effectively by ignoring the array of attributes associated with the job. Instead, a format for identifying and analyzing these attributes becomes useful.

When first considered, a job seems to be a straightforward concept. One’s job is what is done, typically on a continuing basis, in exchange for some reward or compensation. Yet a nurse’s job is more than the application of nursing skills. The idea of the reward or compensation is more complex than it might first seem, too; a volunteer hospital worker does not work for what normally view as compensation, for no money is involved.

Nurse practitioners play an important role in Pediatric setting, in order to enhance the feeling of job satisfaction in nurse practitioners the following points may be considered:

         Reasonable workload

         When necessary, family obligations comes first

         Avoid conflicts

         Fair compensations for the work performed

         Respectful treatment

         Friendly working environment

         Adequate Training

         Treated as a responsible individual etc.

Nurse Practitioners in Pediatric setting perform an extremely difficult job. They not only provide physical care to the patients and their families but also support them psychologically, socially, mentally and spiritually. Their role is a combination of a caregiver, a teacher and an advocate of the patient.

Nurse practitioner always faces extreme stress and hardships while providing the most friendly and healthy environment to their patients. To extract most from a nurse practitioner, it is necessary that she or he must be stress free and satisfied with his/her job. Healthy and friendly working environment for nurse practitioners in pediatric setting would ultimately help to promote quality health environment and healthcare for children.