Abstract
Abstract: A majority of children are healthy and never hospitalized in acute care settings. With the challenges faced in the delivery of pediatric nursing education, is it reasonable to continue to insist that all nursing students have an acute care pediatric nursing experience? This article presents arguments for the need to re-envision pediatric nursing education to use limited pediatric nursing faculty and pediatric clinical sites in innovative ways to maintain high-quality outcomes for undergraduate nursing students. The article outlines issues, provides ideas, and advocates for increased use of available innovations. Virtual learning communities and a wealth of other new technologies provide new and inventive ways to deliver essential content. Pediatric nursing leaders need to demonstrate new pedagogies and discourage teaching specialty content in the same manner it has been taught for more than 40 years. The challenges are important to practicing nurses as well as academic faculty because of the implications for the future nursing workforce in pediatric settings and healthcare of children.