2024-2025 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 30, 2025  
2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Pediatric Nurse Practitioner-Acute Care Concentration


Program Description

The Pediatric Nurse Practitioner specialty is designed to prepare advanced practice nurses to provide care for children from birth to 21 years of age. Since 1965, PNPs have worked with pediatricians and other health care providers to provide comprehensive care to children and families by focusing on health maintenance and education, illness prevention, and minor and chronic illness management. 

This Acute Care concentration provides a broad theoretical and research foundation in advanced concepts of parent, child and adolescent nursing. Clinical experiences occur across a variety of acute care settings and focus on providing care to children. Acute Care PNPs are qualified to perform complete physical exams, take health histories, diagnose and treat acute and complex illnesses or injuries, order and interpret lab results and x-rays, manage complex chronic illness, counsel clients, and provide health education. The majority prescribe medications according to state law. 

Coursework aligned with clinical experiences specific to specialization focus provides the knowledge, skills, and values inherent in the development of clinical excellence as an Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Students have course assignments and clinical experiences specific to the acute care area. Students are precepted by pediatricians or PNPs with clinical experiences in a variety of acute care settings. The concentration consists of advanced clinical practice and nursing science, built on a core of pathophysiology, pharmacology, and family-centered care. Acute Care PNPs offer a variety of services including: 

* Provide care to children who are acutely, chronically, and critically ill 

* Perform in-depth physical assessments 

* Interpret results of laboratory and diagnostic tests 

* Order medications and perform therapeutic treatments in a variety of settings 

* Acute Care PNPs may practice in a variety of pediatric specialty areas, such as intensive care, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, and many others. Visit the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) website for more information.

Graduates of the PNP-AC concentrations are eligible to apply for the national certification exam administered by PNCB. National certification is necessary to obtain advanced practice licensure in most states. 

For further information on the program, admission requirements, available scholarships or financial aid information, please refer to the School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences website.  

Admission Requirements

Due Date:  March 1 and July 15

Program Start:  Summer Semester and Fall Semester

Application to Wright State University’s School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences is a two-step process.

STEP 1: 

Apply to the Wright State University Graduate School

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:

The documents listed below should be uploaded directly to your Graduate School online application.  

  • Graduate School application (online)
  • Transcripts from all colleges/universities attended
  • Resume/curriculum vitae
  • Meaningful clinical experience essay (2 pages maximum)
  • Statement of professional goals (250 words maximum)
  • Provide name and email address of two references for letters of recommendation
    • Current or most recent supervisor
    • Faculty member from your nursing program or previous employer

When the Graduate School application is complete, notification will automatically be sent to the School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences and we will communicate our application requirements.

Step 2

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:

  • School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences application
  • BCII and FBI background check results

The School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences will provide instructions on how to complete the above steps once we receive notification of the completed Graduate School application. All required documents should be sent directly to the School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

  1. Be a bachelor’s prepared nurse, having earned a BSN in nursing from an accredited institution. 
  2. Have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for your baccalaureate degree and any subsequent graduate work
  3. Have an unencumbered nursing license.
  4. Have a minimum of two years of full-time nursing experience in pediatrics with critical care experience preferred. 
  5. Provide evidence of no criminal record on file through a clear BCI/FBI background screen.
  6. International students
    • Must provide proof of English proficiency by achieving at least the minimum score in one of the following:
      • TOEFL IBT:  79
      • IELTS:  6.0
      • Pearson PTE:  57
      • LEAP:  4
    • Must have an unencumbered United States nursing license.

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES

The graduate will be able to:

1.Examine scientific findings from nursing, biopsychosocial fields, genetics, public health, quality improvement, and organizational sciences for the continual improvement of nursing care across diverse settings.

2.Demonstrate leadership skills necessary for ethical and critical decision making, effective working relationships, and a systems-perspective to promote high quality and safe patient care.

3.Apply quality principles within an organization and articulate the methods, tools, performance measures, and standards related to quality.

4.Apply evidence-based outcomes within the practice setting, resolving practice problems, working as a change agent, and disseminating results.  

5.Use communication strategies and patient-care technologies to integrate, coordinate, deliver and enhance care. 

6.Examine the policy development process and advocacy strategies necessary to intervene at the system level to influence health and health care.  

7.Use communication strategies necessary for interprofessional collaboration and consultation to manage and coordinate care. 

8.Integrate broad, organizational, client-centered, and culturally appropriate concepts in the planning, delivery, management, and evaluation of evidence-based clinical prevention and population care and services to individuals, families, and aggregates/identified populations.  

9. Demonstrate advanced level of understanding of nursing and relevant sciences as well as the ability to integrate this knowledge into practice including both direct and indirect care components that influence healthcare outcomes for individuals, populations, or systems.   

For More Information

Program Requirements:


All students are required to complete a statistics course prior to NUR 7005 - Nursing Research and Evidence for Practice . Individualized plans, including part-time, will be developed on admission by the director of the concentration.

Program Core and Electives


Total: 54 Hours


Electives