Pediatric Pathway Program Welcomes First Student Nursing Cohort to CHLA

On an early August morning, the inaugural cohort of the Pediatric Pathway Program gathered for the first time at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Over breakfast, five nursing leaders and six nurses-to-be took turns sharing the stories behind their journey into pediatrics.

For nursing veterans like Chief Nursing Officer Kelly Johnson, PhD, RN, the draw to pediatrics came early in her 40-year career. “I fell in love with caring for the adolescent population,” she said. “Once I got into it, I realized how much I loved the family dynamics and the potential we provide young people for their entire lifetime.”

Veronica, a rising junior at Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles, shared how her mom’s work as a nurse inspired her from a young age. Then, a few years ago, she felt the pull to pediatrics during a family member’s stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU): “Seeing those nurses jump into action—and the way they made us feel like family—made me want to do that for other families.”

The brand-new Pediatric Pathway Program is one of several initiatives at CHLA focused on supporting and advancing the next generation of health care professionals. The program seeks to address two key challenges: the continued shortage of skilled nurses nationwide, and the need to accelerate nursing students’ path from academia to the workforce while expanding their hands-on clinical experience.

Pediatric Pathway recruits students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) with a demonstrated interest in the pediatric specialty and immerses them in a custom-built clinical practicum aligned to their academic studies. The two-year program will welcome its first eight students to the hospital this fall in partnership with Mount Saint Mary’s.

“We’ve got to build our pipeline of the nurses of the future,” Dr. Johnson told the group at the program kickoff. “You are our future. I look forward to watching you progress over the next two years.”

Broader experience for deeper clinical expertise

As a standard, four-year nursing programs typically require 70 hours of pediatric clinical experience. Program lead, Jean Dougherty, MSN-Ed, RN, explains that Pediatric Pathway is designed to offer a much broader range of clinical experience to students who have already committed to pediatric nursing by weaving pediatric-focused hours into the traditional clinical hours students complete during their BSN program. Doughtery will collaborate with Mount Saint Mary's leadership to enhance the students' clinical experience, giving them over 200 of those clinical hours here at CHLA.

The students will start in the fall with pediatrics rotations in general inpatient care, bone marrow transplant, PICU and surgical admitting, then transition to a behavioral health/psychiatric nursing care rotation in the spring. Over two years, the program aims to give the students a comprehensive view of the wide range of subspecialties within a pediatric hospital and the continuum of care for children and families. Upon graduation, students will have sufficient experience to participate in an accelerated RN residency and ultimately be ready to deliver safe, competent, independent nursing practice soon after being hired at their first job.​

At the event, program leaders emphasized the value of being immersed at a hospital known for multispecialty expertise. Students’ participation in the program will provide them with a front-row seat to leading-edge clinical care for even the most complex conditions.

A foundation of caring science

Just as important as growing the students’ clinical expertise, Pediatric Pathway emphasizes building resilience in a field that can often lead to burnout. CHLA’s nursing professional practice model utilizes the research-validated “Caring Science” framework from the Watson Caring Science Institute. The framework, as explained on the nonprofit’s website, is a “transdisciplinary approach that incorporates the art and science of nursing and includes concepts from the fields of philosophy, ethics, ecology and mind-body-spirit medicine.”

“Being selfless in nursing isn’t necessarily a good thing. To continue to do this work, you must be able to take care of yourself as well as your patients,” Dr. Johnson said at the event. “There will be bad days for all of us, but we as leadership care about you as an individual and we have resources to help you through it.”

“I love being at an institution where our executive leadership has that mindset,” Dougherty added. “We’ve woven that through this program. It’s critical to your longevity as a nurse and to the culture of our hospital.”

A comfortable and confident nursing workforce

To close out the breakfast, students were asked to share what they’re most looking forward to, and what they’re most nervous about—to which one student answered, “Everything!” Program leaders encouraged students to take advantage of all the resources available to them while at CHLA, and never shy away from asking questions. “Believe it or not, we were all there once too,” said Dr. Johnson.

The students expressed their excitement over spending two years in the pediatric specialty versus the standard single semester. “I’m most excited about getting to talk to nurses who are already in the field and build connections with them,” student Veronica added. “This seems like a great place to learn and grow.”

“Hopefully you’ll fall in love with pediatrics like the rest of us did,” Dr. Johnson said, emphasizing the program’s ultimate goal—to build a strong foundation so nursing graduates can join the workforce more comfortable and confident. “Thank you for taking this leap of faith with us.”

The eight Mount Saint Mary’s students will don scrubs and swipe their CHLA badges for the first time on Friday, Sept. 6.