Pediatric Nurse Practitioner - Acute Care
Preparing students to provide care as advance practice nurses to acutely ill pediatric populations across a multitude of inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Full- and part-time programs available
- Enjoy the flexibility of online learning while staying connected through in-person sessions
- Students learn from faculty with experience in clinical practice, education, and research, with connections across UVA Health and UVA Children’s Hospital.
- 750 clinical practicum hours, and guidance in finding clinical placements with qualified preceptors
- Graduates are eligible for the PNP-AC certification exam administered by PNCB
- Guaranteed admission for UVA School of Nursing alumni
- Application deadline: January 5
About the program
Caring for children who are critically ill, at risk for deterioration, or living with complex medical conditions requires scientific understanding, careful assessment, and sound clinical judgment. UVA’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner–Acute Care (PNP-AC) program prepares nurses to recognize changing clinical conditions, make treatment decisions, and provide advanced care to these children and their families.
The curriculum connects pathophysiology with clinical assessment, diagnosis, and management. Students develop the reasoning needed to understand a child’s presentation, anticipate complications, and respond when their condition changes.
The PNP-AC specialty is available through the BSN to DNP pathway for nurses with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and through a post-professional certificate program. for eligible nurse practitioners. Graduates are prepared to pursue acute care pediatric nurse practitioner certification through the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board.
What is a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner?
A pediatric acute care nurse practitioner is an advanced practice nurse who cares for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with acute illness, critical illness, and complex chronic conditions.
PNP-ACs assess patients, develop differential diagnoses, order and interpret diagnostic tests, and initiate and manage treatment. Their work may involve responding to sudden deterioration, managing hospitalization, or providing ongoing specialty care to a child with complicated medical needs. They also help families understand treatment options and navigate serious illness, including palliative and end-of-life care.
PNP-ACs practice in intensive care units, emergency departments, inpatient services, specialty clinics, and other settings. The role is defined by the patient’s needs and complexity, rather than by the setting alone.
Who is it for?
This program is designed for nurses who enjoy caring for sick children and want to build on their bedside experience to diagnose and manage pediatric illness.
It may be a strong fit if you are drawn to recognizing subtle changes, anticipating what could happen next, and responding when a child needs urgent intervention. It also suits nurses who enjoy the detailed reasoning, ongoing relationships, and coordination involved in caring for children with complex medical conditions.
Many nurses pursuing this role bring substantial RN experience in pediatric inpatient care, intensive care, or emergency departments. Advanced practice education builds on that experience, developing the assessment, diagnostic reasoning, and management skills needed to take responsibility for treatment decisions.
Whether you are most interested in stabilizing a critically ill child or managing complicated specialty care, curiosity, thoughtful judgment, and a commitment to children and families are central to this work.
Students who attend UVA are mentored by faculty members who are experts in their field as educators, clinicians, researchers. Their experiences are additionally enriched by access to other disciplines across the University, including religion, ethics, contemplative sciences, mindfulness, and medicine. All graduate nursing students are required to have a laptop.
Though it depends on the degree with which students enter the program (whether it's a BSN or MSN), DNP students who choose the Pediatric - Acute Care (PNP-AC) concentration typically complete core classes, specialty courses, electives, and 14 credits (750 hours) of direct care practicum. View complete plans of study on our School of Nursing community website.
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Students complete 750 direct-care clinical practicum hours, applying their learning in supervised pediatric clinical experiences.
Students and faculty collaborate to identify placements with qualified preceptors. Placement decisions consider students’ learning needs and interests, as well as preceptor and site availability. Experiences may include inpatient, intensive care, emergency, and specialty settings, at UVA Children’s Hospital and other pediatric settings in the state.
Clinical placements are generally completed in Virginia. Placements outside Virginia may be considered when the University is authorized to place students in that state and faculty approval is obtained.
I love taking care of sick kids. It gives me a sense of purpose, and helping a child and family through a difficult time is work I find deeply meaningful. I’m drawn to the careful assessment and clinical reasoning this work requires: recognizing when a child’s condition is changing, understanding why, and intervening when timely treatment can make a difference. I also value the relationships we build with children whose complex conditions require ongoing care.
Teaching nurses who share these interests has become another part of that purpose. I’ve designed the specialty coursework around understanding why a child is sick and using that knowledge to guide care. We connect pathophysiology to the findings at the bedside, then work through diagnosis and management. My goal is for students to recognize what is going wrong, even when they cannot yet name the diagnosis, and reason through what to do next.
We spend time examining bias and healthcare inequities because caring deeply about children does not make us immune to assumptions that can affect their care. Learning to question those assumptions is part of becoming a thoughtful clinician. So is asking “why”—why a symptom occurs, why we choose a treatment, and whether the way we have always done something is supported by evidence.
If you love caring for sick children and want to build on your nursing experience to become a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner, I’d love to hear from you.
Arielle Scarpati, DNP, RN, PNP-AC
Assistant Professor
Pediatric Acute Care Specialty Lead
jtk9pm@virginia.edu
Want to learn more?