Know What’s Required, How to Stand Out to Employers, and What You Can Look Forward To
The answer is yes: you can make a difference in the lives of children and young adults after graduating from nursing school.
In a pediatric home health nursing job, you work closely with young clients with specialized needs and their families to provide the reassurance, support, and education they need as family caregivers.
A career as a pediatric home health nurse is a rewarding and fulfilling role. Find out what you can do to land a job right after you throw your graduation cap in the air.
Required Exams and Licensure For Pediatric Home Health Nursing Jobs
To land a role as an RN or LPN pediatric home health nurse, you also need to pass a licensure exam.
- LPN exams: You are required to pass the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN).
- RN exam: RNs must pass the NCLEX-RN exam.
Learn more about how to be successful on your exam.
Get Early Experience With Pediatric Home Health Nursing
If you want to find out what it’s like to work in pediatric nursing while in school, ask your clinical placement supervisor to assign you to a setting where you can help young people. This placement gives you relevant on-the-job experience you can share in a future interview.
Update Your Resume to Apply to Become a Pediatric Home Health Nurse
When you decide to apply for a pediatric home health role, your resume should stand out from the rest. Get a head start on updating your resume by understanding the typical pediatric home health job requirements.
- An active LPN or RN license
- Driver’s license and vehicle with current insurance
- Problem-solving skills
- Ability to pass a background check, physical, and drug test
- Multitasking skills
- Excellent communication skills
Next, consider what your potential employer might want to see on your resume, beyond those requirements:
- Clinical placements working with young people: Although this may not be required, your potential employer will look favorably on your experiences working with children and young adults.
- Related experiences: Sharing your experiences working at a daycare, at a camp, or as a substitute teacher shows that you’re dedicated to helping young people, even outside of nursing.
- Look into caregiving: If you are still in your degree program and want to gain experience working in the home healthcare setting, consider applying as a part-time caregiver with a home care agency. This agency may also have pediatric home health jobs, making you an ideal candidate in the future.
You may also want to highlight these skills in your cover letter or during your interview:
- Commitment to learning: Identify situations where you embraced learning a new nursing skill to help a patient, even if they weren’t a child or young adult. In pediatric home health, you will learn new skills, depending on your patients’ medical conditions.
- Working with families: Share experiences communicating directly with a patient’s family. This skill is critical when talking to parents, grandparents, and other caregivers of the children or young adults in your care.
- Quick thinking: Describe circumstances where you needed to get creative to solve a problem for a patient. A talent for responding to change and adapting to challenges is essential in nursing.
Taking these recommendations into consideration can positively impact your application and potential interview. You can also prepare for an interview by reading these interview tips.
What You’ll Love About Pediatric Home Health Nursing
When nurses enter the workforce, they often discover that the four walls of the typical clinical setting don’t fulfill their calling. Many nurses learn the challenges of inflexible scheduling, long hours, and high patient-to-nurse ratios. It’s no surprise that some nurses feel burned out after a few years on the job.
However, home health jobs, such as pediatric nursing, provide a different way to work as a nurse that is often more in line with why you fell in love with the profession in the first place.
A pediatric home health nursing job offers:
- A manageable list of patients.
- One-on-one care in patients’ homes, so you can build meaningful relationships.
- A flexible schedule you create.
- A chance to address unique or complex medical situations.
- Opportunities to help children and young adults in need.
A pediatric home health nurse gets to experience a career that encourages lifelong learning, deep connections, and a sense of purpose that you can’t find elsewhere. For those considering a career in pediatric home health, your future looks bright.
