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Masters Specialty Areas
| FYI/Facts: Advanced Practice Pediatric/Neonatal Nursing Specialty Areas | |
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The Neonatal and Pediatric Nursing specialty programs at UCSF prepare graduates for advanced practice leadership roles as primary and acute care providers for infants, children, and adolescents. Neonatal and Pediatric advanced practice nurses provide expertise to support the child and family to achieve optimal growth, development, social and emotional well-being. They also promote health by educating children and families in injury and illness prevention, and act as health care providers prepared to manage primary, chronic, and acute conditions.
Please check our specific program options below for additional details.
| Quick-Links: Pediatric/Neonatal Advcd. Prac. Nursing | ||||||||||||
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| Definition | Program | Faculty | Alumni | Courses | Questions | Applying | ||||||
The Pediatric and Neonatal Specialty area includes the following options: (1) Pediatric Nursing, Advanced Practice (APPN), (2) Neonatal Nursing, Advanced Practice (APNN), (3) Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (ACPNP), and in the pediatric programs, the Adolescent Health Care Minor. Each of these options is described below.
Students may choose to focus on becoming an Advanced Practice Pediatric Nurse (APPN) with expertise in pediatric primary health care and chronic illness for infants, children, and adolescents in community and clinic environments. The curriculum includes classroom and clinical experiences encompassing advanced health assessment, physiology and pathophysiology, management of common and complex health/illness conditions, family, child, and adolescent theory and development, nutrition, and advanced practice nursing role development.
There is a strong emphasis on addressing health disparities by preparing Pediatric Nurse Practitioners who have expertise to work with diverse, vulnerable, and underserved pediatric and adolescent populations.
Graduates of the program with a specialization in Advanced Practice Pediatric Nursing are prepared to become leaders in the care of children across the health and illness spectrum and across institutional boundaries. They are eligible for state licensure as a Nurse Practitioner and for national certification as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.
Please see APPN [Pediatrics] Specifics (Career Opportunities, Curriculum Overview, Program Requirements/Recommendations, and Key Faculty Members) for more information.

The Advanced Practice Neonatal Nursing (APNN) programs are two-year curricula leading to the Master of Science degree. APNNs are expert clinicians who provide culturally-sensitive and evidence-based care to neonates and their families in a variety of in-patient and community settings, and across the health continuum from chronic to acute illness.
Students entering the neonatal specialty may choose either the Nurse Practitioner (NP) or Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) track.
Offered in partnership with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the NP specialty track ("NeoRISK") prepares neonatal nurses for the clinical and leadership role of Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP). The CNS specialty track prepares students for the role of Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist (NCNS).
Both APNN program tracks require two years (six academic quarters) of full time study, part-time study is permitted only with program director pre-approval.
Students seeking national certification as a NNP must have the equivalent of two years of full-time nursing practice experience in high-risk neonatal care prior to commencing the neonatal coursework.
APNN graduates are eligible for California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) licensure as a Nurse Practitioner (NP), or Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), (or both); and those who complete the NP track are eligible to sit for the national Neonatal NP certification exam. In addition, NeoRISK NP graduates are eligible for NP licensure through the Hawaii Board of Nursing.
Please see APNN [Neonatal] Specifics (Career Opportunities, Curriculum Overview, Program Requirements/Recommendations, and Key Faculty Members) for more information.

Students may choose to focus on becoming an Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (ACPNP) and develop expertise in the clinical management of acutely and critically ill infants, children and adolescents. The goal of this Program is to provide culturally competent care for acutely and critically ill infants, children and adolescents at risk of dying and their families, and to reduce racial disparities in health care access and the health care workforce by preparing a diverse group of Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Clinical application occurs in a wide variety of acute care clinical environments that specialize in children with complex health care needs.
The ACPNP program is currently the only one of its kind in the US to offer an end-of-life and palliative care focus as part of the coursework.
Graduates are eligible for state licensure as a nurse practitioner, and the program has been approved by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board to allow graduates to sit for the PNCB national certification exam as an Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.
Please see ACPNP Specifics (Career Opportunities, Curriculum, Program Requirements/Recommendations, and Key Faculty Members) for more information.

Students in the pediatrics specialties may also enroll in a series of courses which constitutes a minor in Adolescent Health Care. There is also an opportunity to participate in an Interdisciplinary Adolescent Program with medicine fellows and graduate students in social work, nutrition, and health psychology; as well as additional training opportunities through a Nursing Leadership Education: Underserved Adolescents and Young Adults federal training grant.
| "The
Advanced Practice Pediatric Nursing program was literally a life·changing experience for me. It awakened in me my curiosity in nursing practice,
the ontology of nursing, and nursing research." Steve Rush, RN, MS Doctoral Student at UCSF |
| Quick-Links: Pediatric/Neonatal Advcd. Prac. Nrsg. | ||||||||||||
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| Definition | Program | Faculty | Alumni | Courses | Questions | Applying | ||||||
Mary E. Lynch, RN, MS, MPH, PNP
Professor Lynch is Director of the Advanced Practice Pediatric and Neonatal Nursing specialty area and has been instrumental in the development and implementation of multiple courses in each specialty curriculum. Her teaching focuses on neonatal and pediatric physiology and pathophysiology, as well as infant growth and development.
She is involved in various clinical teaching opportunities and student clinical monitoring in many San Francisco Bay Area hospitals.
Her interests include the development of nursing excellence through quality improvement and safety in neonatal and pediatric clinical practice environments.
Mary E. McCulley, RN, MS, CPNP-AC
Ms. McCulley is Clinical Coordinator for the Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program.
She works primarily with the ACPNP students in the spring quarter of their first year, and in their entire second year, coordinating clinical residencies.
She is also responsible for development and teaching many of the specialty didactic courses for the program, such as Acute Care Pediatric Pathophysiology & Management.
Ms. McCulley has over twenty years of clinical experience working with critically ill children, both as a staff nurse, and as an advanced practice nurse in pediatric critical care and cardiac surgery in California.
Angel K. Chen, RN, MSN, CPNP
An Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, Ms. Chen teaches the Pediatric Health Assesment Skills Lab, Pediatric Primary Care Clinical Seminars, and coordinates the Primary Care clinical placements for first·year students.
In addition to her classroom-based teaching and her research interests, Ms. Chen precepts students working at UCSF's Valencia Health Services faculty practice site providing pediatric primary care in San Francisco's Mission District.
Annette Carley, RN, MS, NNP, PNP
Ms. Carley is Clinical Coordinator of the Advanced Practice Neonatal Nursing program.
She teaches several core neonatal and neonatal/pediatric courses, conducts seminar work for both first and second year neonatal students, and coordinates neonatal clinical residency placements.
Ms. Carley has over thirty years of clinical experience in neonatal nursing, including twenty years of advanced practice work in normal newborn and intensive care settings.
Naomi Schapiro, RN, PhD(c), CPNP
Ms. Schapiro's professional career includes over 30 years in nursing, specializing in the care of children and adolescents for over 25 years.
As a pediatric nurse practitioner, Ms. Schapiro has worked in school-based health centers and teen clinics, currently practicing at Valencia Health Services (website), the School's nurse-run pediatric clinic in San Francisco's Mission District, where she developed and staffs teen drop·in hours.
Ms. Schapiro has taught at UCSF since 2000, and has received two student-generated teaching awards. She currently teaches a pediatric health promotion course and two pediatric pharmacology classes.
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| ACPNP Program Graduates (2007) M. Okimoto, M. Ballard, M. Miller, and J. Van Alstine |
After being a nurse for five years in pediatric oncology at UCSF and Memorial Sloan Kettering, I decided to become a nurse practitioner to broaden my understanding of pediatric care and continue to grow professionally.
I was especially drawn to the Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (ACPNP) program at UCSF because it not only allowed me to learn about the acute needs of my patients, but also emphasized end-of-life and palliative care in the acute care setting, something no other pediatric program currently offers.
As a recent graduate from the first Acute Care PNP class, I felt this program gave me valuable learning experiences not only in the classroom, but also through clinical residencies at some of the most well respected hospitals in the country. Through a broad set of clinical rotations in pediatric oncology, bone marrow transplant, and pediatric ER, I had the opportunity to gain direct exposure to my specialty and also witnessed first-hand how nurse practitioners are used in different hospitals and the impact they can make on patients lives in the acute care setting.
My rotation in outpatient pediatric oncology helped me to recently attain a position at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. As a result of my intensive two-year course work in the Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at UCSF, I feel well prepared for this job and am certain that I will continue to draw upon my graduate experiences at UCSF to help me succeed in the months and years ahead.
For detailed curriculum information, see the "specifics" pages for each Pediatrics option area, as follows:
| Quick-Links: Pediatric/Neonatal Advcd. Prac. Nursing | ||||||||||||
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| Definition | Program | Faculty | Alumni | Courses | Questions | Applying | ||||||
(To see the complete questions and answers without clicking, go to: faq.htm page.)
Q: Should I apply to the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program or to the Advanced Practice Pediatric Nursing (APPN) Program?
Q: Should I apply to the Advanced Practice Pediatric Nursing (APPN) Program program or to the Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (ACPNP) Program?
Q: Do I need to be a full-time student and complete the program in two years?
Q: What do I need to emphasize in my application for the best consideration?
Q: Is the GRE required? What does my GRE score need to be for admission into the program?
Q: What does my GPA need to be for admission into the program?
Q: What should I write in my goal statement?
Q: Am I responsible for finding my own preceptors?
Q: How do I find housing in the area? Is it expensive?
Q: What else will help me prepare for school?
| Quick-Links: Pediatric/Neonatal Advcd. Prac. Nursing | ||||||||||||
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| Definition | Program | Faculty | Alumni | Courses | Questions | Applying | ||||||
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| Revised: Sept. 2009 | Contact: info@nursing.ucsf.edu · © Copyright 2009 University of California Regents, All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||||||