Nursing orientation at the Pediatric Heart Center begins with an in-depth Pediatric Nursing curriculum, which includes both didactic and skills-based classroom settings. This curriculum is a 35-hour class series taught by more than a dozen clinical staff, including advanced practice nurses, staff nurses, clinical nutritionists and pharmacists. The nursing orientation experience is 11 weeks. Weekly objectives serve as guidelines for the preceptors and those attending the orientation. These objectives provide a basis for evaluation of progress to more complex patient acuity as well as for nurses to develop their skills, communication and education.
The pediatric critical care nursing orientation expands on this foundation with additional offerings to meet the complex demands of the critical care nurse. Orientees receive four additional weeks of training to master the skills required in the high-intensity critical care unit, supported by ongoing communication with clinical educators, unit managers and preceptors.
Additional educational opportunities include:
- Electronic learning (developed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses) specific to pediatric critical care nursing
- Critical thinking group discussions
- Project presentations to peers at the completion of the orientation