RN Pediatric ICU New Graduate Nurse Residency | August, 2025

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Nurse Residency and Fellowship will start August 18, 2025.  This program is tailored to fit the educational needs of both new nurse graduates and experienced nurses coming from other specialties. 

This class is reserved for new nurse graduates with a graduation date no later than June 30, 2025, and for experienced acute care RNs from other specialties.

The 12-month Pediatric Nurse Residency Program, also known as our Transition to Practice Program (TPP), is designed to provide the nurse resident with an opportunity to transition into the role of a professional nurse under the guidance and support of our clinical nursing staff, nurse educators and program facilitators.

The program includes a Human Resources orientation, a Unit-Based orientation, and acute and critical care tracks. 

The acute and critical care tracks include curricula designed to augment the learning experience for the nurse resident through professional development and to achieve the overall goals of the program. The acute care track includes nurse residents from inpatient acute care, radiology, psychiatry and peri-operative services. The critical care track includes nurse residents from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department (at Sheikh Zayed Campus and United Medical Center).

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a 47 bed unit. This unit serves as a regional referral center and is a designated Level I Trauma Center for comprehensive care to pediatric patients and their families. The PICU Patient Care Management Team coordinates interdisciplinary patient assessment and patient care and provided by pediatric intensivists and specialty nurses in conjunction with multiple specialty services within the Medical Center. Patients are admitted to the PICU from the ED, Trauma Services, the Operating Room, and transfers from in-house units as well as transports from other institutions via the Pediatric Transport team.

Trauma patients comprise about 10%-15% of patients in the PICU. These patients often have multiple injuries or severe head trauma. The PICU is also a Pediatric Burn Center and receives referrals from the region. Other complex patients requiring general surgery, ENT, craniofacial, neurosurgical and other surgical subspecialties are also cared for in the PICU. Medical patients comprise 50%-60% of patients and include children with respiratory failure, meningitis or seizures, sepsis, multi-system organ failure and chronically ill children. Children with cancer also require PICU care for complications that develop as part of the underlying disease, chemotherapy or following bone marrow transplantation. Services are provided daily, 24 hours per day. 

Nurse Residency Program Details Here!

Children’s National Hospital, based in Washington, D.C., celebrates 150 years of pediatric care, research and commitment to community. Volunteers opened the hospital in 1870 with 12 beds for children displaced after the Civil War. Today, 150 years stronger, it is among the nation’s top 10 children’s hospitals. It is ranked top 10 in all specialties evaluated by U.S. News & World Report. Children’s National is transforming pediatric medicine for all children. In 2021, the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus opened, the first in the nation dedicated to pediatric research. Children’s National has been designated three times in a row as a Magnet® hospital, demonstrating the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty care locations in the D.C. metropolitan area, including Maryland and Virginia. Children’s National is home to the Chil