Streamlined Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP Post-Graduate

Program Modality

Streamlined Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP Post-Graduate is an online program.

Our Program

We know that many Primary Care prepared Nurse Practitioners manage the care of adult patients across the age continuum who are acutely or critically ill or have chronically complex diseases. Many of these NPs are interested in becoming certified as Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioners. In response to this, and in compliance with the APRN Consensus Model, Penn Nursing created a Streamlined Post Graduate APRN Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP Certificate program. Nurse Practitioners who have worked with acutely ill patients for a minimum of three months are eligible to apply.

The APRN Consensus Model, published in 2008 by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing calls for greater congruence between licensure, accreditation, certification, and education requirements between healthcare agencies and State Boards of Nursing. This means that if an NP graduated from a primary care NP program, then they should manage patients who have primary care issues. Likewise, if an NP is educated and certified as an acute care nurse practitioner, then this NP should work with acutely or critically ill, or chronically complex patients. This does not mean that all NPs working in inpatient settings must be acute care prepared. It means that each NP must evaluate the care they provide every day to their patients and decide if the majority of problems managed are primary care or acute care focused. If they are acute care focused, then the NP should align their certification and licensure with the care they provide. To do this, additional formal education is required.

Penn Nursing can initiate new contract/affiliation agreements with health care agencies across the country. To assist us in being strategic in this effort, we ask that you reach out to Theresa Bombaci, Clinical Site Coordinator for the Streamlined AGACNP program at dtheresa@nursing.upenn.edu. She will obtain information from you about the agency where you plan to complete clinical hours to determine if we already have a contract or if one does not exist. If a new contract needs to be developed, Theresa will obtain additional information regarding who at the clinical agency establishes new agreements so the process can begin.

PLEASE NOTE: If you plan to fulfill this program’s clinical training requirements at your place of employment, be aware that you may not earn academic credit for activities for which you receive compensation. Therefore, clinical training hours must be completed separately from your employment (compensated) time. A clinical preceptor, which can be a nurse practitioner or physician, must be identified at the clinical agency where training will occur. Ideally this person should be an employee of the agency. If your preceptor is not a direct employee of the clinical agency, an additional contract agreement will be required and must be in place before clinical hours can be initiated.

*New York prospective applicants: We are granted authorization by the New York State Board of Regents on the number of clinical placements we are permitted in the state each year. Due to the high demand for this program from applicants licensed in New York, we have reached the allowable capacity of enrollments for this program for 2023. However, if you are a resident of New York, but have a license in NJ or PA, you may be able to complete your clinical training in one of these states. Please contact Theresa Bombaci at dtheresa@nursing.upenn.edu to find out more.

If you are a New York resident and want to be placed on our waitlist so you can be contacted by our office when the next application cycle for admission in 2024, please fill out this form to indicate your interest in being contacted when the application opens.

Currently, the Streamlined Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP program cannot serve students who live in the States of Louisiana and Tennessee. However, we ask that you please fill out this form to indicate your interest in pursuing the Streamlined Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP program, if it becomes available in your state. If it does, we will contact you.

Lastly, if you have a valid multi-state license or are licensed in a state other than Louisiana, Tennessee, or New York, you are eligible to apply to the Streamlined program.

Tuition

International Compliance