GUIDELINES ON SHORT-TERM CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR PEDIATRIC NURSE ASSOCIATES

I. INTRODUCTION The American Nurses' Association and American Academy of Pediatrics recognize collaborative efforts are essential to increase the quality, availability, and accessibility of child health care in the U.S.A. In order to meet the health care needs of children, it is essential that the skills inherent in the nursing and medical professions be utilized more efficiently in the delivery of child health care. Innovative methods are needed to utilize these professional skills more fully. One such innovative approach is the development of the Pediatric Nurse Associate* program. This program will enable nurses, both in practice and reentering practice, to update and expand their knowledge and skills. It is essential that physicians become more aware of the skills and abilities of the nursing profession and that such skills be expanded in the area of ambulatory child health to enable both the nurse and the physician to devote their efforts in the delivery of child health care to the areas of their respective professional expertise. The expansion of the nurse's responsibilities would encompass some of the areas that have traditionally been performed by physicians. Proficiency and competence in performing these new technical skills associated with the expanded responsibility should be viewed as increasing the sources from which the nurse gathers data for making nursing assessment as a basis for diagnoses and action and thus contributing directly to comprehensive nursing. Nurses must therefore be prepared to accept responsibility and accountability for the performance of these acts and must have the opportunity to be engaged in independent as well as cooperative decision making.