Pediatric Acute Care APRN Certificate
Assume advanced practice leadership roles while caring for infants, children, and adolescents with serious acute and complex chronic health issues, and their families.
About the Program
Penn Nursing is the first program in the country to prepare pediatric nurse practitioners to care for children with complex, specialized health care needs, and our internationally recognized faculty and affiliated practicum clinical centers will facilitate your growth. We uniquely offer three concentrations of study all housed within the Pediatric Acute APRN Certificate Program.
Program Information
Part-Time
Program Length
12 months
Financial aid available?
Yes
Start Semester
Year-round
Learning Format
In-person *
Although this program is in-person, to accommodate the busy schedules of our students some courses will be offered in an online or hybrid format. All clinical experiences for this program are in-person on Penn’s campus or at affiliated clinical sites.
Program Details
Curriculum
We structure the program and clinical experiences to foster an understanding and management of families in the continuum of illness. Clinical experiences are located in diverse settings such as pediatric acute care inpatient units, step-down units, emergency departments, community sites, and ambulatory, rehabilitative, and specialty-based clinics.
Requirements
Minimum qualifications for the program
BSN and MSN with a minimum GPA of 3.0
Licensure
RN
Experience
See individual concentrations for required program-specific RN experience
International Applicants
Click here for additional requirements
Application Deadlines
2024 Enrollment
Deadline: March 15, 2024
Latest Decision Notification:
Summer start: mid-April
Fall start: mid-May
*Dates subject to change without notice.
Costs & Tuition
Your program costs will depend on how many course units (CU) you take per semester.
Every student’s living situation and personal expenses are different, but below are the projected academic year Summer and Fall/Spring costs per CU. These can be multiplied by the total number of CUs in your part-time plan of study to estimate the total cost of a program:
School of Nursing certificate programs are not eligible for federal aid. However, some tuition assistance may be available to you via alternative loan programs, please follow this link to find out more: https://srfs.upenn.edu/financial-aid/loans/private-alternative. Students can always apply for personal loans through their bank.
Students can also sign up for a payment plan if they do not have tuition reimbursement from their employer or if they can’t pay their bill in full. The link for the Penn Payment Plan is: Penn Payment Plan | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn SRFS (upenn.edu).
Program Outcomes
Graduates are eligible to become certified by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as Pediatric Acute Care Certified Registered Nurse Practitioners (CRNP). Successful completion of the program qualifies graduates to apply for national certification from the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) as a PNP-Acute Care, as well as recognition, certification, and/or certification, and/or licensure by other states.
Additional Program Outcomes
- Perform a comprehensive and systematic assessment of health and illness parameters in complex situations for the acutely ill or injured pediatric patient.
- Develop culturally-sensitive approaches keeping in mind social determinants and diversity of populations, to accurately assess, diagnose, manage, and evaluate the acutely ill or injured pediatric patient for optimal health outcomes.
- Demonstrate interprofessional, collaborative practices and strong communication skills to foster and sustain therapeutic relationships and partnerships with acutely ill or injured pediatric patients (individual, family or group).
- Demonstrate systems thinking and clinical decision making to design, deliver, and evaluate evidence-based nursing practice and population health interventions for the acutely ill or injured pediatric individuals or populations to improve outcomes.
- Educate and support acutely ill or injured pediatric patients (individual, family or group) through complex health and situational transitions.
- Promote sustainable evidence-based practice, health policy, fiscal resources, and scholarly research for care of the acutely ill or injured pediatric patients (individual, family or group).
