My daughter is interested in PICU nursing. She is in seventh grade. What is the most direct path for her to get into PICU nursing?
Direct entry BSN (Bachelor in Nursing) programs.
PICU nursing may require additional advanced training or a X number of years hospital nursing experience before she’ll be eligible to assign to a PICU.
PICU Doctor here. And actually, standard educational path will be fine. A BSN is preferable as most PICU’s are at academic medical centers. Orientation periods last longer in the PICU than in other nursing units (because there’s so much to learn), but there’s generally not any requirements for extra training or experience to get hired that is standard across the board. This may vary from hospital to hospital though. Personally, I have yet to see a PICU that didn’t hire at least some new grads on a yearly basis.
She can do the following things to “prove” her interest in the PICU:
- volunteer at children’s hospital/pediatric floor of your local hospital if possible. This can be done in HS
- get her CNA designation (usually requires a HS diploma/GED) and then work as a CNA in the PICU throughout nursing school. That’s very common and can help her know everyone and the people who hire.
The PICU is a special place, one that allows nurses a lot of opportunity to be independent in their assessment skills, do a lot of work that really matters to their patients and their families, and see a huge variety of diseases and conditions from organ transplants to trauma, from severe, near fatal asthma to severe diabetic ketoacidosis. PICU nurses are a special breed and I couldn’t do my job without them. It’s not always easy though as seeing children die is always challenging.
Will she need to take AP classes? We don’t like the way that they are tested and don’t want her to take AP. She would dual enroll in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade and would otherwise have all honors.
Not particularly that I’m aware of. You’ll need to look at the places she’s considering for her 4 year degree. I’m so far removed from undergrad admissions that I honestly have no clue if a lack of AP courses matters either for admission to the university as a whole, or for the nursing school specifically in this day and age. Given that she’s only in 7th grade, there’s still a lot of time for her to change her mind and so it would be wise to take a path that allows significant flexibility.
Not sure if it’s still an option, but in my day, you could take AP classes but were in no way forced to take the AP exam at the end of the course. Your daughter’s transcript would still have the AP course designation but doesn’t have to worry about the college course credit. Just a thought if it’s still allowed.
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