Pediatric nursing or child health nursing is the specialty nursing care of infants, children and adolescents. A nurse who specialises in this area is usually referred to as a pediatric nurse, though there are many regional and sub-specialty variations in title. The spelling paediatric nursing is more common in English-speaking countries outside the United States.
The breadth of this field of practice may be considered as similar to that of adult nursing, with an equivalent sub-specialty for most adult illnesses and some unique areas of practice. For example, pediatric cardiology and oncology are both established sub-specialties in most major pediatric facilities.
Pediatric nurses often receive general exposure to pediatrics during their undergraduate degree or other basic qualification before gaining additional experience and "in-service" training once they start work in their chosen area. A wide range of post-graduate qualifications in various pediatric sub-specialties are available.
In the past more specific pediatric nursing training programs existed which prepared nurses to care for infants and children only, and not for a more general patient population which included adults. The increasing popularity of general or "comprehensive" training has seen a decline in such programs, though they still exist in some parts of the world.