Pediatric Nurse Practitioner - Acute Care

The Pediatric Nurse Practitioner - Acute Care (PNP-AC) graduate certificate will allow primary care certified pediatric nurse practitioners to acquire the nationally specified pediatric acute care content and clinical skills to function competently within the pediatric acute care scope of practice. It will require satisfactory completion of a minimum of 16 credits of didactic content and clinical practice. The graduate certificate provides nurses with essential knowledge and skills to assume pediatric acute care roles in myriad settings using a patient and family-centered care model.

Courses focus on integrating advanced health assessment, pathophysiology, and acute clinical care and management. Specific clinical experiences in two of the courses will be tailored to meet the needs of individual graduate certificate students. Students will be expected to acquire a minimum of 600 hours of acute care experience as required to meet the specialty competencies and the requirements to take the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner-Acute Care national certification exam offered by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB).

Certificate requirements

The certificate must be earned within three years. No transfer of credit will be accepted for a certificate program. A minimum grade point average of 3.0 must be achieved. All course work must be completed in accordance with the academic procedures of the college and the Graduate School governing graduate scholarship and degrees.

Applicants for admission to this graduate certificate must have an MSN or DNP from a nationally accredited institution.

Additional coursework may be required based on a gap analysis.

International applicants must complete the equivalent of a U.S. four-year bachelor's degree, including all state and external/internal examinations required for the degree. Some three-year general degrees (from Canada, India, Pakistan, France, Lebanon, etc.) may not be equivalent to a four-year U.S. bachelor's degree. However, if you have completed an honors degree, additional undergraduate coursework beyond the three-year bachelor's degree, or a graduate degree, you may be considered for admission.

If you are applying to a master's program, your minimum undergraduate GPA must be 2.75 or its equivalent in upper division coursework. If you are applying to a doctoral program, your minimum undergraduate GPA must be 3.0 or its equivalent in upper division coursework.

Submit your transcript(s)

To begin the application review, upload unofficial copies of English-translated international transcripts from all post-secondary educational institutions from which you earned a bachelor's degree or higher, including Mark Sheets, if applicable. If you are admitted, you must submit an official course-by-course academic evaluation of your completed bachelor's degree.

Demonstrate English proficiency 

Non-native speakers of English must demonstrate English proficiency by meeting the minimum requirements. You are required to submit an official qualifying score meeting minimum Graduate School requirements. Send official test scores to Wayne State University Graduate Admissions, using the school code 1898.

To begin the application review, upload an unofficial copy of your English proficiency test score(s). Once admitted, an official test score must be submitted to Graduate Admissions.