Training Acute Care Nurse Practitioners to Provide Advanced Care to Critically ill Patients 

The online Adult Acute Care nurse practitioner track is designed to train nurse practitioners in the management ofadult acute and critically ill patients with complex chronic medical conditions. This specialized MSN is conducted by Drexel University’s nationally-ranked College of Nursing and Health Professionals (CNHP) and provides the knowledge and skills needed to meet the specialized needs of patients with complex acute, critical, and chronic healthcare conditions. Acute Care Nurse Practitioners are primarily employed in hospital settings including hospitalist roles, intensive care units and specialty medical and surgical practices.  

Our program places a special emphasis on diagnostic reasoning and clinical decision-making. This track is designed to provide education foracute care nurses and prepare them for roles as clinicians, educators, researchers, and leaders in multi-disciplinary healthcare environments. 

Drexel’s renowned CNHP faculty develops and teaches all online courses, distinguishing the Adult Acute Care nurse practitioner program from similar online degrees offered by other institutions. 

This is a high-quality program that demands a major commitment of time by advanced practice nursing students. Because students are being educated to diagnose and treat patients, the Master’s program was designed to combine the convenience of online learning with the necessary rigor to become a highly competent, confident Acute Care Nurse Practitioner upon graduation. Thus, while most courses are offered online, some facets of the program do require on-campus visits and clinical practicum rotations certain states. 

Drexel’s Adult Acute Care program is a 55-credit graduate track with 640 clinical hours required. Clinical practicum courses consist of two parts: didactic lectures and clinical practicum rotations,both of which run concurrently. The didactic mandatory lectures are held once a week online for three hours. Each clinical practicum course has a required 160 total clinical hours. Students typically complete two eight-hour clinical days each week. In addition each clinical course has required simulation experiences that are conducted on campus at Drexel University. 

Upon completion of the program, students are eligible for Adult Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Certification through ANCC or AACN.  

On-Campus Requirements:
The Nurse Practitioner Faculty is committed to quality and excellence in all online Nurse Practitioner (NP) programs. Campus visits are essential to maintain the preeminence of these degrees. 

Students are required to be on campus once per quarter starting with the NURS 550:Advanced Physical Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning course and throughout all clinical practicum courses, including NURS 570, 571, 572 and 573. 

On Drexel’s campus, students will participate in simulated clinical learning experiences conducted in CNHP’s new state-of-the-art multidisciplinary patient simulation lab. 

Students meet on campus for: 

• A minimum of 5 days during the Summer clinical practicum 
• A minimum of 5 days during the Spring clinical practicum 
• A minimum of 3 days during Fall clinical practicum 
• A minimum of 3 days during Winter clinical practicum 

Residency visits afford faculty the opportunity to provide students with direct support, guidance, and mentoring. They provide students with the opportunity to interact with faculty and collaborate with their peers. 

Location Requirements   

• Please note that residents of New York are not eligible for this program.

Key Program Features:  

• Synchronous online lectures are offered in an interactive e-learning methodology that challenges and engages students. 
• Fully accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 530, Washington, DC 20036. (202) 887-6791.
• An experienced and board certified faculty from Drexel’s acclaimed College of Nursing and Health Professions  
  • Mandatory on-campus visits: 
    • NURS 550 – Advanced Physical Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning 
    • Clinical Orientation coincides with the last day of the NURS 550 on-campus visit.  
    • NURS 570: ACNP I – 5-days Summer Residency 
    • NURS 571: ACNP II – 2- 3days Fall Simulation Experience 
    • NURS 572: ACNP III – 2- 3 days Winter Simulation Experience 
    • NURS 573: ACNP IV – 5-days Spring Residency 
     
   

For additional information on the program, please contact:
     Track Coordinator:
Kate Morse, RN, MSN, CRNP-BC, CCRN
215-762-3260
cjm69@drexel.edu  
     Academic Advisor:
Gladys Clapano-Mozdzonek, BA 
215-762-8564
Gc346@drexel.edu  

*Please note the Consensus Model for ARPN Regulation was released in 2008 to provide a uniform approach to advanced practice licensure, accreditation, certification, and education with a target date of 2015 for full implementation.  Subsequently, the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties adopted the term “ population focus” to describe the scope of preparation for nurse practitioners. The new recognized population foci include Adult-Gerontology under which the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner falls. The updated “Nurse Practitioner Core Competencies” were published in April 2011 and the “Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Competencies” were published in February in 2012.    

As a result, the American Nurse Credentialing Center announced the upcoming title change from “Acute Care Nurse Practitioner” to “Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner” and is creating a new exam to reflect the new competencies that is expected to launch in 2013. The Acute Nurse Practitioner exam will then be retired and all students will need to meet the requirements of the new exam.  Current Acute Care Nurse Practitioners will maintain their certification, but if their certification lapses they will have to meet the new criteria to be able to sit for the “Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner” exam.   

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