Valerie Vitale is a pediatric nurse practitioner in the pediatric general and thoracic surgery department at Inova L.J. Murphy Children’s Hospital. She rejoined Inova in 2018 and has been working as a nurse practitioner since 2013. Valerie is double board certified in primary care and acute care pediatrics.

Prior to her current role, Valerie worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Inova Fairfax Hospital, Inova Children’s Sleep Center in Fairfax, VA, and in the pre-operative clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is committed to providing holistic, family-centered care with an understanding that children are not “little adults” and require an additional degree of sensitivity and a belief in magic.

Valerie completed her undergraduate nursing education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, and started her nursing journey in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where she worked for many years. Upon her graduation from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she started her pediatric primary care nurse practitioner journey. She has worked as a nurse practitioner in both outpatient and inpatient settings including general pediatrics, pre-operative services and pediatric sleep medicine.

At the height of COVID-19, she felt a desire to help more, so she returned to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and graduated with her acute care pediatric nurse practitioner certification. She has a special interest in the NICU surgical patient population and patients with complex airway diseases.

Outside of work, she loves spending time with her family, traveling and skiing when the weather is right. A fun fact about Valerie: she hiked to the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire during a blizzard in January with single-digit temperatures and 70 mph winds.

Awards/Associations

• Society of Pediatric Nurses
• Sigma Honor Society of Nursing
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
• American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association