Meeting the needs of pediatric nurse practitioner students today: Challenges of implementing a new curriculum

Abstract

There has been a dramatic increase of nursing students who have completed schooling in the more generalized field of family practice, and yet, workforce data still shows a growing need for nurse practitioners specializing in pediatrics. In an era of diminishing resources, pediatric programs have always struggled, especially with the alignment of pedagogy and technology. But in the fall of 2012, a team comprised of clinical and tenure-earning faculty  rose to overcome these challenges to achieve satisfaction for both teachers and students. Now, after two years of successfully using innovative strategies and improving the quality of our approaches as well as our brand, feedback from our team, faculty, and students remains high. Below we detail our endeavor of encouraging the expansion of Pediatric Nurse Practitioner programs, our evaluation processes, and the educational practices intended to inspire faculty.