Children Hospital Nursing
UCSF Children’s Hospital, located in the heart of San Francisco, is a thriving 150 + bed 'hospital within a hospital'.
Patients and their families come to UCSF’s Children’s Hospital both from the surrounding community and all over the world in pursuit of excellent care and cutting edge therapies.
With more than 150 pediatric specialists practicing in over 50 areas of medicine, we have over 60 outreach clinics in Northern California.
Our diverse patients and families provide nurses with exceptional opportunities to develop and integrate a multicultural perspective into the care they provide.
UCSF Children’s Hospital nurses experience a vigorous, challenging and rewarding career, and make a profound difference in the lives of children and their families.
See also the UCSF Children's Hospital web site.
Nursing Philosophy
Family Centered Care is our core value at UCSF Children’s Hospital.
We recognize that the each family is unique and is the constant in a child’s life.
Family-centered care is built on partnerships between families and health care professionals.
Our health care team acknowledges that there is no single approach right for all families; we recognize the diversity of the families we care for, acknowledging that the way care is provided to our families is as important as the actual provision of care.
We also encourage families, particularly siblings, to be present and participate in their child’s care whenever possible.
Nurses are an integral part of the therapeutic team that include patients, families, physicians, advanced practice nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers, case managers, clinical nurse specialists, pediatric pharmacists, dieticians, child life specialists and spiritual care staff.
This multidisciplinary team works together to develop, implement and evaluate individualized plans of care for each patient and assure that the design of health care delivery systems is flexible, accessible and responsive to families.
Why UCSF Children’s Hospital?
We seek bright, motivated and compassionate nurses to be part of our multidisciplinary team.
The outstanding variety of patient care areas offer numerous opportunities for nurse to expand their practice while working alongside top pediatric physicians, surgeons, advanced practice nurses, and faculty from the UCSF School of Nursing.
New graduate nurses participate in our training programs tailored to their learning needs and providing them with support and encouragement to develop their skills and professional identity.
Continuing education opportunities are provided through the Nursing Education department.
Professional nurses are encouraged to participate fully in unit-based, Division, and Department committees and work groups, helping to create and guide institutional policies, procedures and vision.
Pediatric Acute Care
General Pediatrics
Located on the sixth floor of Long Hospital, this unit is a 36-bed pediatric medical surgical unit that provides comprehensive inpatient care to children and families experiencing a wide variety of acute and chronic medical conditions or recent surgery.
Patients range in age from neonates to adolescents. Nurses encounter a fast paced, vibrant environment and opportunities to learn many complex nursing skills.
UCSF Children’s Hospital acute care nurses possess exceptional assessment and prioritization skills as well as a tremendous amount of flexibility and compassion.
This unit offers the opportunity to work with many dynamic health care teams as well as the opportunity to truly solidify nursing practice.
Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
This unit is a 29 bed pediatric hematology, oncology, bone marrow transplant (BMT), and rehabilitation unit located on the seventh floor of Long Hospital.
In addition to working with young children, nurses working here also have the opportunity to care for young adults who continue to be treated for childhood-related illnesses.
There are three pediatric palliative care suites on this unit dedicated to Children’s Hospital patients whose treatment goals have transitioned from curative to comfort care at the end of life.
Due to the comprehensive nature of hematology/oncology/BMT treatment plans, patients on this unit frequently have a longer than average length of stay than other pediatric patients, often from six month to several years. This allows nurses to create truly unique bonds and individualized care plans and lasting relationships with the patients and families, and other health care team members. The unit has also been host to extensive cutting-edge research, and our esteemed physicians have developed innovative therapies and standardized protocols used in pediatric hematology and oncology worldwide.
Pediatric Critical Care
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), located on the 6th floor of Moffitt hospital, is a 14-bed tertiary and quaternary medical/surgical unit that cares for critically ill neonates through adolescents.
The majority of PICU patients arrive through our in-house, nurse-managed Transport Team and Access Center for care that can only be provided at UCSF Medical Center.
These patients receive care for a variety of life-threatening medical and surgical conditions.
Nurses on this unit learn the skills necessary to maintain vital functions for these fragile children, while supporting their families through difficult times.
Pediatric Heart Center
The UCSF Pediatric Heart Center is an all-inclusive program at the forefront of congenital and acquired heart disease research and treatment, providing a single point of entry for pediatric cardiac care.
This includes our Pediatric Outpatient Heart Center, Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU), the Pediatric Interventional Cardiology Lab, the Pediatric Electrophysiology Lab and Fetal Cardiovascular Program.
Nurses who work in the Heart Center provide extraordinarily dynamic and high-level care for newborns, infants and children with a variety of cardiac defects and conditions.
In the Pediatric Outpatient Pediatric Heart Center, nurses help evaluate and prepare patients for heart surgery, as well as assisting with a wide variety of complex procedures.
In the PCICU, nurses care for complex cardiac patients, including those recovering from extensive open-heart surgery or requiring pacemaker therapy for heart rhythm disturbances.
Nurses in PCICU care for extremely sick children and their families, providing many challenges and learning opportunities.
Pediatric Transitional Care Unit (PTCU)
The Transitional Care Unit (PTCU) is an intimate, 9-bed unit that cares for patients who need a little additional monitoring during their treatment or recovery.
The majority of PTCU patients are admitted preoperatively for cardiac surgery, post cardiac catheterization, or directly from the PCICU after they have stabilized from cardiac surgery (usually 3-7 days postoperatively).
Complex medical patients, such as children with diabetes, may also receive care here.
In the PTCU, nurses develop solid nursing skills in addition to learning specialized procedures needed to care for Heart Center patients and others.
Mothers and Babies
Labor & Delivery
The 15th floor of Long Hospital is an integrated unit that provides family centered care for women and their newborns during their pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum period.
This unit is comprised of labor, delivery and recovery suites; postpartum rooms; high-risk antepartum rooms; operating rooms; a triage area; a recovery area; and the Newborn Nursery.
A collaborative, team approach is used to provide comprehensive care to women and their families along the whole continuum of pregnancy and delivery.
Averaging 150 deliveries per month, we strive to be inclusive of partners, children and other family members during the birthing process.
In addition to well labor and delivery patients, this unit also cares for high-risk antepartum mothers experiencing complications during their pregnancy, with a special emphasis on care of the patient experiencing perinatal loss.
Nurses also have the extraordinary opportunity to care for women recovering from fetal surgery, as the Fetal Treatment Center at UCSF Children's Hospital is a world leader in diagnosing and treating birth defects.
Nurses on this unit care for all patients, beginning with care of more stable patients in the postpartum and well baby settings, then moving to more complex patient care settings such as antepartum, labor and delivery, PACU, advanced practice with triage, scrubbing in the unit-based OR and, eventually the role of charge nurse. This is a rich environment in which to learn all the critical judgment and clinical skills needed for perinatal nursing.
The Intensive Care Nursery (ICN)
The Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) is a 51 bed, regional tertiary center located on the 15th floor of Moffitt Hospital.
Founded in 1964, the Intensive Care Nursery at UCSF has the proud distinction of being one of the first neonatal intensive care units in the world.
The ICN continues to enjoy a reputation for being at the forefront of innovation in the fields of neonatology and fetal treatment.
Neonates are admitted either directly from the LDR suites or Mother/Baby ORs, or via transfer from an outlying facility (see our Transport Team and Access Center).
Families are seen as essential members of the multidisciplinary team and are encouraged to participate in daily multidisciplinary rounds regarding their infant.
Staff nurses work side-by-side with advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the ICN.
Neonatal nurse practitioners (NNPs) work in the Intensive Care Nursery and Emergency Transport.
The NNPs also provide emergency and delivery room care and can perform lifesaving procedures if necessary.
All of the NPs are involved in Outreach Education, as well as teaching house staff, nursing staff, and NP students.
Staff nurses are the backbone of the ICN; they provide comprehensive, compassionate and highly specialized care to the most fragile of infants and their families. In addition to providing direct patient care, staff nurses participate on unit-level committees, ensuring that each staff member has an active voice in the operation and function of the unit .
Specialty Services
Transport and Children’s Hospital Access Center
Most of our young patients are transported to our state-of-the art hospital by the UCSF Children’s Hospital Transport Team.
Our own experienced team travels to referring hospitals throughout Northern California to provide a safe, highly specialized and expedient transport and admission to the Children’s Hospital.
The relationships we have established with our colleagues at these referring hospitals help facilitate the transition from for patients and families.
The Transport team includes specially trained transport RN, a neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) or pediatrician, and two emergency medical technicians (EMTs). This team usually works on one of our dedicated ambulances, but may also provide care during helicopter or fixed wing transport. Just as family-centered care is important in the hospital, it also is a mainstay of the transport service; the team is usually able accommodate a parent to accompany their child in the ambulance or plane.
The Pediatric Access Center, staffed by highly experienced pediatric and neonatal nurses, streamlines all pediatric transports, transfers and urgent admissions to UCSF Children’s Hospital. The goal is to provide a rapid assessment, acceptance, and transport of patient referrals. The Access Center nurses maintain a dispatch database, arrange air and ground ambulance transportation, and facilitate communication between referring and accepting physicians at UCSF, admitting units, and the transport team.
Compass Care
Any family that has a child with a life-threatening condition faces complex decisions and many demands on time, energy and resources.
The pediatric palliative care (PPC) program at UCSF Children’s hospital has evolved to provide interdisciplinary care for all families with children facing life-limiting conditions, including perinatal and neonatal patients.
We use an integrative model, which is based on the premise that all health care providers can and should develop the knowledge base, skills and attitudes that promote optimal PPC for their patient population.
Together with clinical care and research, hospital wide education is thus central to our program.
Our program name is Compass Care. The four points on the compass represent our guiding principles:
Care : Compass Care emphasizes physical, emotional, social and spiritual care with a focus on quality of life and relief of suffering. A central tenet of PPC philosophy is to affirm life helping children to live as well as they can for as long as they can.
Hope : We recognize that maintaining hope is a powerful tool for coping with a medical crisis and an uncertain outcome. Here at UCSF Children’s Hospital, palliative care can occur side-by-side with treatments aimed at cure or at prolonging life. Some children have life-threatening conditions that can be cured or that, with treatment, allow many years of active life. When a cure is not possible, palliative care can become the primary goal of therapy. When that happens, we continue to provide treatments that offer comfort through the end of life.
Resources : The Compass Care resource team includes doctors, nurses, social workers, child life specialists, spiritual care staff and pharmacists who have special training and experience. A goal of our program is to anticipate what resources might be helpful and to have them in place when they become necessary. We often organize interdisciplinary care conferences to facilitate communication and decision-making. We also connect families with other hospital resources, such as the Family Resource Room, library and special comfort care rooms. Our Family Support Program includes chair massages, knitting classes and stretch and relax classes. With our knowledge of community resources, we can also help identify home care services, including hospice.
Choice : We are committed to providing honest information about available treatment options by exploring choices that will honor the personal, cultural and religious beliefs and practices of pediatric patients and their families. We recognize the central role of families in the care of pediatric patients and aim to support both staff and families as they navigate through difficult decisions.