Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care

The Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (AC PNP) Specialty is designed to prepare graduates to care for children with complex acute, critical, and chronic illnesses across the entire pediatric age spectrum, from birth to young adulthood, and across the continuum of care settings. These settings include critical care units, emergency departments, inpatient units, and ambulatory/specialty based clinics.

Graduates of this specialty track are eligible to apply for national certification by examination. You will learn more about the certification organizations appropriate for this specialty during the completion of your program. Upon successful completion of the certification examination, Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioners are eligible for licensure in all 50 states, including Colorado (visit the Colorado Board of Nursing APRN application forms page), where licensure is granted as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) and is required for practice.

We also offer a post-graduate certificate with an acute care pediatric nurse practitioner specialty. For the AC PNP post-graduate certificate, preference is given to applicants with current CPNP-PC or FNP-BC certification; and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certification.