Skilled service
Home is where your child gets to be a child. When your child needs a nurse for hours at a time, not a short visit, our licensed nurses come to you for full shifts — days, evenings, and overnight — so your child can be home, with a nurse right beside them.
Maybe your baby is coming home from the NICU with a feeding tube. Maybe your child has cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder, a tracheostomy, or breathing equipment that needs a gentle, trained eye through the night. You know your child better than anyone, and you have learned more nursing than most people ever will. We are here to care for your child alongside you.
Private duty nursing — often called PDN — is one nurse caring for one child, in your home, for a block of hours. The nurse follows the plan of care your child's doctor orders. You are the expert on your child, and that never changes — we learn from you. Our part is to watch over your child closely, care for them gently, fit into your family's routines, and share the nursing with you.
Welcoming a nurse into your home to care for your child is a very personal thing, and we never take that lightly.
So we begin with a Meet & Greet. Our Intake Director or Administrator comes to your home together with our Director of Nursing. They get to know you and your child, learn about your child's medical needs, and answer any questions you have about our care.
After that first visit, we work around your schedule to set up Meet & Greets with the nurses our Director of Nursing feels are best suited to care for your child. Take your time — talk together, ask anything you'd like, and see whether they feel like a good fit for your family. You know your child best, so the choice is yours. If a nurse doesn't feel right, tell us, and we'll keep looking together.
Our hope is simple: that your family comes to feel like part of the A&Z family — known by name, and cared for like our own.
What's included
Every child is different, and so is every plan of care. Tell us what your child needs, and we'll give you an honest answer about whether we have the right nurses and can staff it.
Private duty nursing is for a child, teen, or young adult under 21 whose medical needs call for a nurse for hours at a time. It can help a child who has cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder, a feeding tube, a tracheostomy, or a condition they were born with — and a baby coming home from the NICU or a long hospital stay. Not sure if it fits your child? Call us anyway. If your child needs something different, we'll help you find the right kind of care. And as your child grows up, there's no need to look for another agency — we care for adults too.
Private duty nursing can be paid for in different ways — through health coverage, state programs, or privately. The health plan or program that pays for the care decides how many hours are approved. That decision is theirs to make, not ours — but you won't have to work through it alone. Paying privately? There is no approval to wait for, and you choose the hours. Call us, and we'll talk it all through with you.
Paying for private duty nursing →Getting started
From your first call to the first shift at home, one step at a time.
Tell us about your child — what they love, what a good day looks like, and the hours when they need the most care. We let you know the same business day that we have your request. If we are not able to staff the hours, we tell you early and honestly, so you aren't left wondering. To protect your child's privacy, please leave medical details out of the web form — we'll take those by phone.
Our Intake Director or Administrator and our Director of Nursing come to your home for a Meet & Greet — to get to know you and your child and answer your questions. Your child's doctor orders the nursing, a registered nurse writes the plan of care, and we send the request to the health plan or program that pays for the care. The decision about hours is theirs to make, not ours — we help make the request clear and complete, and we keep you updated the whole way. Paying privately? You can skip the approval and choose the hours yourself. The nurse still works from your child's doctor's orders, and we'll help with those.
Once hours are approved, we work around your schedule to set up Meet & Greets with the nurses our Director of Nursing feels are best suited to your child. You decide whether each one feels right. The start date depends on the approval and on filling the shifts, so we can't promise a day. What we can do is keep you updated at every step.
We accept pediatric private duty nursing referrals in Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee, Highlands, and Hardee counties — RNs and LPNs, any hour of the day or night, up to 24 hours a day. We acknowledge every referral the same business day and let you know which shifts we can staff. Our RN completes the home assessment and plan of care, and we submit the authorization request. Start of care follows authorization and a staffed schedule — the 24-hour start for home health visits does not apply to private duty nursing. Fax orders and clinical documents to (813) 864-7271; please don't send patient details through the web form. See our referral page or call (813) 400-0324.
Behind the care
The nurse in your home is never working alone — and neither are you. Here is who stands behind them.
Our Director of Nursing, a registered nurse, leads the clinical team and supervises your child's care. A registered nurse comes to your home, takes time to get to know your child, does the assessment with you, and writes the plan of care from the doctor's orders.
Every nurse is a licensed RN or LPN. We check each license and complete a background screening before a nurse ever comes to your home — because you are trusting us with your child.
Before working a shift, each nurse goes over your child's plan of care, the equipment, and the emergency steps — so they arrive prepared, and ready to learn your child's ways from you.
Our Director of Nursing chooses the nurses best suited to your child, and your family meets them before they care for your child. If one isn't the right fit, tell us — we'll keep looking together. We work to keep the same small, familiar group coming back. It won't always be the same nurse, and sometimes we can't cover a shift. When that happens, we let you know as early as we can.
Questions don't keep office hours. Call the same number any time: (813) 400-0324. After hours it reaches our on-call line.
Joint Commission accredited. Medicare certified. Licensed by Florida AHCA, #299995051. Locally owned since 2016.
Questions families ask
Your child may qualify if they are under 21, need a nurse's skills for hours at a stretch rather than a short visit, and have an order from their own doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant. Children who have a feeding tube, seizures, a tracheostomy, or breathing equipment may qualify. You don't need to have it all figured out before you call. We'll ask a few questions, listen, and give you an honest sense of whether it looks like a fit. And if your family is paying privately, there is nothing to qualify for — a doctor's order for the nursing is all that's needed.
Yes. It starts with a Meet & Greet at your home with our Intake Director or Administrator and our Director of Nursing. Then, around your schedule, we set up Meet & Greets with the nurses our Director of Nursing feels are best suited to your child. You know your child best, so the choice is yours. If a nurse doesn't feel like the right fit, tell us, and we'll keep looking together.
There are a few steps, and we walk through each one with you. We start with a Meet & Greet at your home. Your child's doctor orders the nursing, and our registered nurse writes the plan of care. The health plan or program that pays for the care approves the hours. Then you meet the nurses our Director of Nursing has chosen for your child, before care begins. The approval is the one step we don't control, and timing differs from one plan to the next, so we aren't able to give you a start date in advance. Waiting can be hard, so we keep you updated at every step.
It depends on your child's coverage. Private duty nursing can be paid for through health coverage, state programs, or privately. We check coverage before anything starts, work through the approval paperwork with you, and tell you up front about any cost to your family. You are welcome to ask us anything along the way.
The health plan or program that pays for the care makes that decision. They look at the doctor's order, your child's needs, and your family's schedule — work, school, and sleep all count. Because the decision is theirs, we aren't able to set the hours, and we can't promise a number. What we can do is help you and your child's doctor make the request clear and complete. If you are paying privately, you choose the hours yourself.
Yes, when overnight hours are approved. Nights can be long when your child needs close watching. We provide nursing any hour of the day or night, up to 24 hours a day when that's what your child needs, so a nurse is awake at your child's side, watching over them, while your family sleeps.
We call you as soon as we know, and we work to fill the shift from the nurses your child already knows. Sometimes we won't be able to. When that happens, we tell you right away, so you are not left waiting. It helps to have a plan for a day like that — we can think it through with you ahead of time.
Your child's needs don't change on their birthday — only the coverage does. The good news: you won't need to look for a new agency. We care for adults too, so we can help your family move from pediatric private duty nursing into adult care with the same local team, depending on the long-term care benefits your child has as an adult. Call us well before the birthday, and we'll plan it together.
Are you an RN or LPN who likes knowing one patient well? We're building pediatric shift teams across our five counties. See open roles →
We're glad to talk it through with you and help you find the right next step for your family.