Purpose: Quality of care and the mental and physical health of nurses are interlinked. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an extremely high burden on health care. This study aimed to: 1) describe professional quality of life of registered nurses (RN) working in the pediatric and neonatal care units during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, 2) compare professional quality of life between RNs with and without a Master's degree in specialist nursing pediatric care (MSc), and 3) compare differences in professional quality of life associated with the nursing experience (years). Design and methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The PROQoL (R)-5-questionnaire was administered as a web survey to 160 RNs at four pediatric wards and two neonatal units of two hospitals in Sweden. Results: Seventy-one RNs responded to the survey. Overall, they reported a sufficient professional quality of life. RNs with an MSc suffered significantly lower secondary traumatic stress levels. Experienced RNs reported significantly higher compassion satisfaction and lower occupational burnout. Conclusion: Higher education and longer experience are beneficial for nurses' professional quality of life when working in pediatric care units. Practical implications: Results from this study highlights the importance of offering RN education in pediatric care at master level and supporting novice nurses, to prevent negative professional well-being outcomes in pediatric care, because the health of nurses is of utterly importance when crisis such as a pandemic hits the world. The findings also suggest that the conditions for professional quality of life could improve through activities such as self-care, time for reflection, better working hours, competence-adjusted salary, and educational opportunities. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).