Acutely ill patients increasingly dominate the inpatient population, and research has shown that in these settings nurse practitioners provide quality care, decrease length of stay, and improve patient and family satisfaction. Furthermore, the addition of a nurse practitioner to the health care team improves communication and overall patient care.
Acute Care Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) are needed to help assess and manage acutely ill patients within the inpatient/hospital setting and across hospital-to-clinic settings, including the emergency department, intensive care unit, specialty labs, acute and sub-acute care wards, specialty clinics, or any combination of the above.
The Acute Care Nurse Practitioner can legally diagnose and treat medical conditions. In addition, some ACNPs provide direct patient management from admission to discharge in collaboration with the physician and other members of the health care team. ACNPs also may continue to follow the patient into the outpatient setting to ensure successful transition after discharge and complete resolution of transition needs. The structure of the role depends upon the collaborative agreement with physicians and other members of the health care team.
UCSF's ACNP program remains the only one of its kind in Northern California. Graduates of the ACNP program exit as master's prepared nurse practitioners, eligible to apply for a national ACNP certification examination, and expert in the care of acutely ill patients with multiple complex problems.
The program has three areas of emphasis: critical care, cardio-pulmonary, and emergency department/trauma. Yet the program is flexible enough to enable students with other practice goals such as internal medicine, transplant, neurosurgical and oncology to explore those areas within the hospitalized patient setting.
The ACNP student receives academic and clinical training in a variety of areas, including advanced physical assessment, patho-physiology, differential diagnosis, pharmacology, patient care management, lab and chest X-ray interpretation, select invasive and noninvasive procedures, and education and research.
Graduates of the program typically work as nurse practitioners in settings that range from cardiology and the emergency room to nephrology, neurology, and surgery.
ACNP Application Requirements
All ACNP applicants must have a minimum of one year of adult acute care nursing experience prior to applying. Nursing experience in critical care, trauma, or ED (emergency) specialties is preferred but not required.
Applicants can apply to the ACNP program without having an valid California RN license. However applicants who are accepted are required to have a valid California RN License by the start of the program in September.
MEPN students (MEPN Information) are required to "step out" for one year of acute care nursing experience following the first year of the MEPN program (coursework and clinical necessary to obtain RN licensure), and must be successful in their clinical work setting.
Post-Master's Option
Post-Master's Coordinator: Rosalie Bravo at Rosalie.bravo@ucsfmedctr.org
This curriculum option is designed for nurses who already have a Master's degree in nursing and desire additional training in health assessment, managing acutely ill/injured adults, pharmacology and pathophysiology within an acute or critical care setting. The post-master's is a four quarter (twelve month) program, and on-line or distance learning options are not available for this program.
Email Rosalie Bravo if you have questions about the post-master's ACNP program or you want an application packet emailed to you.
This program option provides a certificate at completion and eligibility to apply for a national ACNP certification examination. The number of admissions is limited and determined by the availability of faculty resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
The focus of the Acute Care NP program is to learn skills in managing ACUTELY ILL (hospitalized or emergency department patient) adults. The focus is not on primary care, although there are components of primary care in the program.
Each applicant is reviewed as a whole.
Goal statement, letters of reference, extracurricular activities, language skills, activities on-the-job, research activities, work experience, professional organization activities, and Grade Point Average (GPA) are ALL considered when the application is reviewed.
List all of these aspects.
Be sure to ask colleagues to review your goal statement. Include examples of on-the job activities. Describe any volunteer and professional activities. Make sure to ask your colleagues for "excellent" references and have them give specific reasons why they believe in your success.
A well-written goal statement is an essential component of a competitive application.
- Masters-level Applicants.
A brief goal statement referring specifically to your choice of specialty area, and to your experience, must be created. This goal statement is used as a source of information and also as an example of your writing ability. Be as specific as possible and focus on your professional goals and how you envision these goals can be achieved through study at UCSF. (MEPN Applicants: the essay should focus directly on your understanding of the nursing profession, your personal goals as a nurse, and how you envision these goals can be achieved through study at UCSF.) This goal statement is about two double-spaced typewritten pages in length; please remember to include your own name at the top. - Doctoral (PhD) Applicants.
Your goal statement should be as specific as possible in discussing your area of study and research interests and should provide evidence of congruence of your goals with the program's goals, and the resources of the School and the University. For your reference, the research interests of current UCSF faculty members are reported in our Faculty Research Activities compendium. Your application will also include a (one-sentence) summary statement of your proposedarea of research interest.The PHD applicant's goal statement should be about five double-spaced typewritten pages in length; please remember to include your own name and page number at the top of each page, e.g., "Smith, J. B., Page 4 of 5."
Many of our students find that sharing housing is a good approach to solving both the availability and cost issues. Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area may be expensive, but help can be found with the campus Housing Office, the Student Affairs Office, and previous graduates can often give advice.
Post-Master's Applications are not available on-line; applicationackets are only available on request by sending an email to Rosalie Bravo, the Post-Master's Coordinator.
The deadline for submitting completed post-master's applications and all supporting documentation such as goal statement, transcripts and letters of reference is February 15 for a start date of the following September.
The ACNP master's and post-master's programs cannot be taken through on-line courses or distance learning. Students are required to attend classes at UCSF two days a week and attend clinical a minimum of 1-2 days a week.
Students in the ACNP program are not required to find their own clinical placements. If you choose to have the ACNP faculty arrange your clinical placement, you will be placed within the greater San Francisco area. You may wish to arrange for a clinical placement closer to home if you commute longer than 60 minutes to UCSF. If you are interested in arranging a clinical placement and know of a physician or nurse practitioner who is willing to precept you during the course of the program, please bring this to the attention of the ACNP faculty during the first week of school.
Yes. All areas of hospital nursing are considered acute care settings.
The ACNP program is a progressive and additive program that must be taken within the two year time frame. Part-time study is not an option. The ideal work schedule would be 1-2 days a week so your schedule is very flexible. This allows the student to have the widest variety of clinical settings available to them during the course of the program. Working full time may severely limit the available opportunities for clinical placements as well as not allow adequate time for studying.
Masters Programs: An undergraduate GPA of 3.0 (on the 4.0 maximum scale) is expected for admission into the School of Nursing, although special circumstances can be discussed.
Doctoral Programs: an undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.2, and, if a graduate (master's) degree has been earned, a Grade Point Average of 3.5 is expected, verified by official transcripts.
Caution: transcripts from outside the USA require special handling.
Non-English transcripts or international transcripts (especially transcripts using different grading systems) should be submitted for translation and/or evaluation to a transcript evaluation agency.
The purpose of the evaluation is to verify that your degree/coursework is the equivalent to that of a US Bachelor or Master's degree.
Evaluation agencies provide a variety of services. Be sure to request an evaluation that provides the following:
- Lists all subjects/courses completed at the post-secondary level
- Provides a U.S. semester credit and grade equivalent for each course
- Provides a U.S. grade point average (GPA) for the Bachelor's degree or its equivalent on a 4.0 scale, and
- Designates the level (upper or lower) of each undergraduate course
Un-translated non-English transcripts will not be accepted.