The accredited online MSN Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program prepares students for advanced nursing roles as clinicians, educators, researchers, and leaders in Pediatric Acute Care. Students will also become experts in delivering care to infants, children, and adolescents with acute, critical and complex health conditions.
The program's curriculum emphasizes evidence-based practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the critical use of new technology, while preparing nurses to practice in an inpatient and outpatient acute or specialty clinical setting. The program follows the curricular guidelines approved by the National Taskforce on Quality Nurse Practitioner Education (2008) and follows Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Competencies (NONPF, 2002) and Critical Care Nurse Practitioner Competencies (NONPF, 2004.) Graduates are qualified to sit for certification examinations for acute care (PNCB) pediatric nurse practitioners.
This high-quality program demands a major commitment of time, including multiple on-campus visits that are essential for transition into the NP role. During your time in the program, you will participate in mandatory on-campus and/or virtual intensives. The required intensives will be held during clinical courses. Students will attend an in-person on-campus intensive in NURS 642 for 5 days during week one of the summer quarter. Dates are subject to change.
Pennsylvania RN licensure is required prior to the start of your clinical components. While this is not a requirement for admission, we recommend starting the process immediately after admission.
The nurse practitioner programs in the Department of Advanced Practice Nursing at Drexel University provide you the flexibility of finding and coordinating your own clinical site and preceptor. The department also offers resources to assist you in this process. Accessibility to clinical sites and preceptors varies from state to state, and you may be required to travel to access clinical sites/preceptors and achieve the necessary clinical hours.
Learn more about this and other nursing programs from our previously recorded online open house webinar series.
For application related questions:
enroll@drexel.edu
For program related questions:
College of Nursing and Health Professions Program Team
CNHPGraduateDivision@drexel.edu
Online Nurse Practitioner programs are offered only on a part-time basis.
Drexel University offers a variety of Graduate Minors that can be added to any master's degree program.
State restrictions may apply to some programs.
The MSN Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program at Drexel University is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
This program is organized into four 10-week quarters per year (as opposed to the traditional two semester system) which means you can take more courses in a shorter time period. One semester credit is equivalent to 1.5 quarter credits.
Core Courses | ||
NURS 500 | Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments | 3.0 |
NURS 502 | Advanced Ethical Decision Making in Health Care | 3.0 |
NURS 544 | Quality and Safety in Healthcare | 3.0 |
RSCH 503 | Research Methods and Biostatistics | 3.0 |
RSCH 504 | Evaluation and Translation of Health Research | 3.0 |
Support Courses | ||
NUPR 520 | Nurse Practitioner Clinical Orientation Seminar | 0.0 |
NURS 548 | Advanced Pathophysiology | 3.0 |
NURS 549 | Advanced Pharmacology | 3.0 |
NURS 550 | Advanced Clinical Assessment & Diagnostic Reasoning | 4.0 |
NURS 646 | Pharmacology for the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner | 3.0 |
NURS 664 | Professional Issues for Nurse Practitioners | 1.0 |
Clinical Courses | ||
NURS 642 | PNP I: Primary Care of Infants, Children and Adolescents | 5.0 |
NURS 643 | PNP II: Episodic Care of Infants, Children and Adolescents in Primary Care | 5.0 |
NURS 649 | Ped Nurse Pract AC I: Acute-Chronic Care of Infants, Children and Adolescents Management | 5.0 |
NURS 650 | Ped Nurse Pract AC II: Acute-Chronic Care of Infants, Children and Adolescents Management | 5.0 |
NURS 651 | PNP Management of the Medically Fragile and Technology Dependent Child in the Community | 5.0 |
Elective* | 3.0 | |
Total Credits | 57.0 |
* Nursing Electives can be any course with the prefix Nursing (NURS, NUPR), Interprofessional Studies (IPS), or Complementary and Integrative Health (CIT), with course number ranging from 500-699. Other graduate courses outside of these designations will need to be approved by the department chairperson.
With multiple ways to submit documents, Drexel makes it easy to complete your application. Learn more by visiting our Completing Your Application Guide.
For the academic year 2025-2026, students enrolled in an online graduate academic program will be charged a graduate online program fee of $125 per year.
2025-2026 Academic Year
Term
Classes Begin
Classes End
Exams Begin
Exams End
Fall 2025
September 22, 2025
December 6, 2025
December 8, 2025
December 13, 2025
Winter 2026
January 5, 2026
March 14, 2026
March 16, 2026
March 21, 2026
Spring 2026
March 30, 2026
June 6, 2026
June 8, 2026
June 13, 2026
Summer 2026
June 22, 2026
August 29, 2026
August 31, 2026
September 5, 2026