Overview

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is an 11 bed ICU that cares for critically ill children at Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children’s. The PICU is staffed by RNs, NPs, and Pediatric Intensivist who work closely together with a supportive multidisciplinary care team to provide acute care to children from 0-18 years of age. We offer a progressive educational program to train NP's who are just beginning their career as an Acute Care Pediatric Nurse practitioners while also providing seasoned Acute Care Pediatric trained NPs the ability to utilize their skills to manage acute patients, perform procedures, and collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team.

The PICU NP provides care for children and adolescents from 0-18 years of age, with life-threatening or high- acuity conditions that require constant monitoring. The nurse practitioner provides comprehensive direct patient care and scholarly practice including obtaining comprehensive patient histories, performing complete physical examination, ordering and performing diagnostic testing and screening, diagnosing illness, prescribing both pharmacological and other treatments for patients, and providing health maintenance and promotion interventions such as patient and family education and counseling. Also, the NP assumes accountability for indirect care responsibilities, which support patient care including staff and student education, clinical research, program development, and quality improvement.

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Qualifications

Education: Completion of Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Masters of Science in Nursing from an accredited college or university. Successful completion of a National Certification Exam for NP, current registration through the Alabama board of Nursing and Board of Medical Examiners, and approval of the Huntsville Hospital credentialing board.

Experience: Pediatric Acute Care Preferred and/or PICU experience preferred.

Additional Skills/Abilities

Must have excellent communication skills with the ability to work independently in a fast paced environment, requiring prioritizing and changing tasks frequently and quickly. BLS for Healthcare Providers must be obtained in orientation period. ACLS must be obtained within the first 6 months of employment and maintained current. PALS is highly recommended. Department specific competencies must be completed within the provisional period and maintained current.