Rutgers Nursing Magazine - Summer 2021

Caring for Our Young: New Pediatric NP Programs P R O G R A M E X C E L L E N C E A Angela Otto-Ryan (DNP, RN, CBC) was in an enviable position. Two weeks before her May 2021 graduation from Rutgers School of Nursing’s Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program, she was weighing two job offers, both involving work with underserved populations. Over the next decade, her conundrum—choosing among multiple offers of employment—is likely to become increasingly common for pediatric nurse practitioners, or PNPs. “There is a forecasted critical shortage, over the next 10 years, for PNPs,” says Margaret Quinn (DNP, RN, CPNP, CNE), specialty director of the PNP program at Rutgers School of Nursing, “especially in rural and underserved areas.”