Caring for children with acute needs
Our Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care (PNP-AC) track within the DNP degree program prepares you to diagnose, treat, and manage children with acute, critical, and complex chronic illnesses and/or injuries. PNP-AC practice focuses on stabilizing and restoring medically unstable conditions, chronic condition management, and palliative or end-of-life care. You will learn to work with children from late preterm gestation through young adulthood. The UW School of Nursing is the only nursing school in the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) to offer the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care track.
#2 ranking
Of public schools offering a Doctor of Nursing Practice.
$3.8M in funding
147 DNP scholarships funded in 2023-24, totaling $3.8 million.
Pre-arranged clinicals
We manage your clinicals, setting us apart from most other DNP programs.
Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioners are prepared to:
- Perform comprehensive health assessments, including ordering, performing, and interpreting diagnostic tests and procedures
- Generate differential diagnoses and diagnose acute and complex illnesses and complications
- Partner with patients and families to manage acute, chronic, and complex health conditions
- Prescribe and evaluate therapies (medication and non-medication-based)
- Utilize developmental, patient- and family-centered approaches
- Advocate for nursing and the role of the PNP-AC
Graduates from our PNP-AC track will be prepared to practice independently and within larger healthcare teams. They may work in a variety of settings and with diverse populations, including:
- Ambulatory pediatric subspecialty care
- Hospitalist
- Inpatient and outpatient pediatric subspecialty services (e.g., gastroenterologist, infectious disease, neurology, endocrinology, nephrology)
- Pediatric emergency departments and urgent care settings
- Pediatric intensive or critical care
The DNP curriculum starts with a shared first-year core, offering a strong foundation in advanced practice and leadership, before transitioning into specialized coursework tailored to each track, allowing students to develop targeted expertise and drive advancements in healthcare.
View the current DNP Pediatric Acute Care NP curriculum grid
Students interested in focusing their practice on restorative care for children with acute, critical, and chronic illnesses and/or injuries should consider applying to the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care track. Students interested in focusing their practice on child health promotion and disease prevention should consider applying to the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Primary Care track.
Successful PNP-AC graduates are eligible to sit for the Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner examination through Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB).
It is highly recommended that PNP-AC track applicants have recent direct patient care experience of at least one year as a registered nurse in acute, critical, emergency, or similar care setting.
“I was fortunate to be in a track with some great people. It made a difficult and long program much easier knowing we all were in it together. I also enjoyed being able to utilize my work experience as we learned about complex care and management, and additionally was able to take things I learned in class or clinical rotations back to my job. I felt like the two simultaneous experiences built on each other very well.”
What makes our program unique?
Interested in learning more? Join us for an upcoming online information session, or contact us at asknursing@uw.edu to find out if this program would be a great fit and how to create a quality application.
Alumni spotlight
Alyse Whitlock, nurse shares her experiences during her program.