APU's MSN PNP-Primary Care: four pediatric clinical courses in order

The PNP-PC program in brief

The PNP-PC prepares you for primary care of children and their families. The MSN runs 44 to 50 units, and the spread comes from two choices: whether you add the optional GNRS 543 Transitions Across the Care Continuum, and whether you finish with the comprehensive exam or a thesis (GNRS 598 plus GNRS 514).

The MSN PNP-PC appears on the program lists for Azusa, San Diego and the Inland Empire alike. Its health assessment course comes in two versions, the pediatric GNRS 511, which pairs assessment with health promotion, or the general GNRS 612; each is 4 units with a 1-unit lab. Ask your advisor which one your program plan uses.

APU prints no hour total for this track. The hours on this page come from the catalog's clinical units at APU's own ratio of 45 hours per unit, and they line up with the course hours on APU's current preceptor request form wherever the two overlap. Your syllabus remains the final word on each course.

When the first pediatric clinical begins

Precepted hours start in GNRS 590A, the young-family primary care course, once the advanced practice core is done. GNRS 532 requires GNRS 590A, so the order of your first two clinical courses is fixed, and the catalog lists GNRS 590B and then the GNRS 542 capstone after them. There is no published sample plan for the PNP-PC, so the term each course lands in comes from your own program plan.

Two gates stand in front of GNRS 590A, both from APU's 2023-24 graduate guidelines. Your grades in the advanced trio of pathophysiology, pharmacology and health assessment must each be B- or above, and you are not counted for placement until your program plan is complete. The handbook now in force sits behind the APU login and settles both.

Because you face several clinical terms in a row, the lead time repeats. Each new preceptor has to reach the placement coordinator's desk six to eight weeks before that term, per the same guidelines, so while one pediatric course is running, the search for the next one should already be moving.

Clinical courses and hours in sequence

The table follows the catalog's prerequisite order. Hours work out from clinical units at 45 per unit.

The four required courses add up to 540 hours, and GNRS 543 lifts the figure to 630. The course that takes the most planning is GNRS 532, which covers critical and chronic conditions: APU's request form divides its 135 hours, asking for at least 60 in pediatric specialty care and 75 in general pediatric primary care, which can mean two preceptors in one term. GNRS 590B has no class units at all, so it is the heaviest single block of precepted time in the track. The PNP clinical courses page takes each course in turn.

Pediatric preceptors and qualifying settings

Who can precept you? APU's NP request form allows pediatricians and other MD or DO physicians, NPs, and PAs practicing alongside an on-site physician; PNP even appears in its credential dropdown. An NP has to precept you for one semester or more, and a pediatric NP in a primary care office covers that rule while suiting most of the sequence.

For pediatric courses the form accepts a pediatric office, or a family practice whose daily schedule includes six or more pediatric patients. That second route opens up family practices with a young panel, provided the daily count is real; the pediatric hours page explains how that test works.

The 60 specialty hours inside GNRS 532 are the part of the plan that points to a second site, such as a pediatric subspecialty clinic, and specialty clinics need faculty approval. APU sets no published minimum for preceptor experience or student ratio. Relatives, close friends and your own work unit are all ruled out; see preceptor requirements for the wording.

Living in Southern California and the year of experience

Two admission conditions follow you into the PNP-PC: a Southern California home and at least a year of nursing practice. With four or five clinical courses ahead, living near your campus is what keeps a multi-site plan workable. Placement staff factor in the distance to each site, and APU's 2023-24 guidelines discourage relocating mid-program and generally disallow campus transfers, so choose Azusa, the Inland Empire or San Diego with your likely clinic map in mind.

Those guidelines also want a year of professional RN practice behind you before your first clinical course, a rule they extend to ELM graduates entering the PNP-PC phase. APU's public pages do not list pediatric nursing experience as a requirement. A current California RN license stays on file throughout, and you keep working clinically while enrolled; the residence and license page has the details.

Certification as a pediatric primary care NP

After graduation, two applications follow: one to the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) for state NP certification, and one to sit for the national pediatric primary care exam, the CPNP-PC from the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB). The BRN's approved-program roster groups APU's pediatric track under Pediatric and Adult Primary NP.

Before either step, you pass the summative OSCE, which APU's recent guidelines place in GNRS 542, the capstone; the evaluations and OSCEs page covers how clinical performance is judged along the way. California program graduates then apply under the BRN's Method One.

GNRS 611 Advanced Pharmacology sits in the core you finish before GNRS 590A, and APU says it satisfies the BRN's coursework rule for furnishing numbers. For the national exam, read PNCB's current eligibility page for its clinical-hour rules before you register.

Why PNP-PC students choose us

A pediatric sequence means several searches, one per course, each with its own preceptor profile. We plan all of them together, from the first course to the capstone.

• We map every required course, GNRS 590A first and GNRS 542 last, to preceptors near home before the first one starts.
• We find the pediatric specialty site for the 60 specialty hours in GNRS 532 alongside the primary care site for the rest of that course.
• We check a family practice's pediatric volume against APU's six-patients-a-day test before proposing it.
• We prepare one complete request per preceptor, with the legal name, signer and office manager contact APU asks for.

Every pediatric site still needs APU's written sign-off. What we add is a request for each course that arrives complete and matched to it. Send us your campus and your next pediatric course to begin.

Questions APU students ask