Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, D.N.P.

The Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) Program prepares nurses for Advanced Practice to provide acute care and critical care for patients from adolescence to end of life. The AG-ACNP practices across all settings, providing restorative care for acute illness and acute exacerbations of chronic disease. While most AG-ACNPs practice in the hospital setting, others may practice in specialty clinics.

The AG-ACNP curriculum provides intensive preparation for the nurse practitioner to enter practice in a critical care, hospital, or clinic-based setting. The courses build on the knowledge gained in undergraduate nursing education and the experiences of providing direct acute and critical care at the bedside. This experience is crucial to success in the program.

Didactic preparation with extensive human patient simulation and extensive skills laboratory time, is combined with clinical time in hospital acute and critical care environments, and specialty rotations, to provide the student with exposure to patients and skills needed for practice. Clinical sites are arranged by faculty to provide the best learning opportunity.

Graduates of the AG-ACNP program will be eligible to sit for Board Exams from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Learning Outcomes

1. Develop new practice approaches based on nursing theory and theories borrowed from other disciplines to improve health and reduce health disparities locally, nationally, and globally.
2. Employ strategic leadership skills and inter-professional collaboration to influence health policy, advocate for social justice, and promote equity locally, nationally, and globally.
3. Implement ethical, cost effective, and evidence-based changes in care systems, while advancing the profession.
4. Provide leadership at the highest levels to design, direct and evaluate system changes to deliver and promote patient-centered care that is culturally competent, safe, timely, effective, efficient, and equitable.
5. Engage in complex, evidence-based advanced nursing practice, and evaluate innovative approaches to care delivery for individuals, communities, and populations.

Nurse Practitioner Competencies

In addition to instruction to meet the Learning Outcomes, graduates of the AG-ACNP program option are provided sufficient didactic and clinical instruction to meet the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP Competencies (NONPF, 2016). The Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP Competencies include population focused competencies in Scientific Foundation, Leadership, Quality, Practice Inquiry, Technology & Information Literacy, Policy, Health Delivery Systems, Ethics, and Independent Practice.

The course load each semester is 7-12 credit hours. Subject to university policy, students are considered full-time students throughout the program.

Admission

Requirements for admission to the AG-ACNP program may be found on the School of Nursing  page in this Bulletin. Requirements for admission to the Graduate School, including language proficiency, may be found in the Admission  section of this Bulletin.