Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner: Critical Care

Graduates of this program are prepared to provide collaborative, comprehensive care to children and adolescents with a variety of complex critical, acute and chronic conditions, and emerge as clinical and professional leaders who are expert in physical assessment and clinical decision making, managing multifaceted disorders, culturally sensitive family focused care, community engagement, transitional care and integrating health care policy.  Our approach, across all health care settings, is based on a thorough assessment and integration of the social determinants of health.

We uniquely offer three concentrations of study all housed within the Pediatric Acute Care Program.  This allows for students to approach their Graduate level education with a specific clinical focus while still receiving a broad based education in Pediatric Acute Care.  Our graduates from all concentrations are able to pursue career options in any area of Pediatric Acute Care.

Our Critical Care concentration will prepare you for advanced practice with critically ill children in pediatric critical care units and cardiac intensive care units.  It is the first of its kind.  We are currently the only program in the country which is specifically preparing students in pediatric critical care.  We structure the program and clinical experiences to develop an in depth understanding of critical care physiology and management including invasive procedures.  We focus on the spectrum of chronic and acute critical illness as it relates to children and their families. Clinical experiences are located in Pediatric Intensive Care and Cardiac Intensive Care Units.  

Offline Recommendation

Penn strongly prefers that recommenders submit letters of recommendation online through the admissions system. If, however, your recommender is unable to submit an online recommendation, please follow these instructions:

1) Select the “Recommendation Form PDF Download” and download the form.
2) Complete the first section. Be sure to include the address of the appropriate admissions office — refer to the "Contact Graduate Admissions" list below. 
3) Print out the form and provide it to your recommender.

Please note:

• If you are applying to a program in Nursing, print out and provide your recommender with these special instructions for completing your letter of recommendation.
• If you are applying to a program in the School of Social Policy & Practice, print out and provide your recommender with these special instructions for completing your letter of recommendation.

4) Your recommender should send the form directly to the admissions office you designate, along with the letter of recommendation.