Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (Adult Gerontology)
The AGACNP program is now a fully integrated hybrid program, meaning classes will take place in online and in-person formats. This allows students to work towards their degree while remaining in their current city, with regular trips to Portland.
Students will take lab classes and participate in clinical rotations at OHSU periodically, but most classroom work will be done from home. Students can expect to come to Portland a minimum of one time each quarter throughout the program. Students must also understand that clinical rotations at OHSU require some time in Portland. Not all clinical rotations can be accomplished in students' local communities due to the rigor and requirements needed to prepare an AGACNP student.
Our Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) program features the following:
- Front-loaded didactic content each quarter, followed by dedicated clinical experience.
- Small cohort supported by interprofessional faculty with over 100 years of combined experience
- 100% board pass rate over four years
- 100% offered jobs at the end of the program, often multiple offers
About the program
The AGACNP program prepares students to manage adults, including the frail elderly, with acute, critical and complex chronic conditions.
The skills gained from the program will allow graduates to provide a spectrum of care ranging from disease prevention to acute and critical care management. This also includes stabilizing critically ill patients, preventing complications, restoring maximum health, and providing palliation and end-of-life care.
The AGACNP educational program is designed as a hybrid immersion program at the OHSU academic medical center. Throughout the didactic program, students accumulate supervised clinical hours on many of OHSU's clinical interprofessional teams.
Experiences may include rotations in general surgery, trauma surgery, trauma ICU, neuro ICU, cardiothoracic ICU, urology, cardiology, electrophysiology, bone marrow transplant, etc. Students rotate through these clinical teams to gain experience managing a wide range of complex chronic, acute and critically ill patients. During clinical rotations, students are expected to participate as an active team member. In addition, students are included in many interprofessional educational opportunities with resident physicians, pharmacists, and other students.
AGACNP students will complete courses in assessment, diagnosis and treatment of adults and older adults. Students receive a strong background in pharmacology, diagnostic reasoning and decision-making skills. Some courses are available online, but all clinical-related courses for the program are completed face-to-face. Additional coursework will emphasize interprofessional education, geriatric syndromes, health promotion in vulnerable adults, and the AGACNP role's development.
About the degree
This program offers a practice-focused curriculum supporting an entry into a career trajectory for those pursuing expert clinical practice and leadership.
- The doctorate track is a full-time, three-year program, which includes a combination of advanced practice core, AGACNP specialty courses and D.N.P. core courses. It prepares students for entry into practice as an AGACNP along with advanced clinical, scholarship and leadership roles. The program emphasizes continued clinical sub-specialization and the application of quality improvement and outcomes management principles to the acute care patient population.
Certification
Graduates from the AGACNP program are eligible for national certification as an adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner.
D.N.P. student learning outcomes (applies to all Post-Master’s D.N.P. and all APRN specialties)
- Demonstrate readiness to enter clinical practice via specialty competencies with the appropriate scientific knowledge, and considerations for its application to practice.
- Apply ethical principles along with the standards of professional conduct to clinical care, research, and education.
- Evaluate emerging healthcare systems and policy that influence delivery of cost effective patient care.
- Generate entry level practice scholarship through the completion of a clinical practice improvement project based on the principles of improvement science.
- Model interprofessional communication and collaboration to improve individual and/or population health outcomes.
- Identify and address gaps in professional knowledge through ongoing reflection to support the principle of life-long learning.
Adult-Gero Acute Care Nurse Practitioner student learning outcomes
- Apply advanced knowledge in the science of a specialty area of advanced nursing practice. Use emerging information and health technologies to access current research and health care data to improve patient care.
- Make sound, culturally appropriate and ethically grounded clinical judgments based on critical analysis of best available evidence.
- Demonstrate safe care of adults, including the frail elderly with regard to issues of health promotion as well as unstable chronic, complex acute and critical conditions.
- Provide individualized, culturally sensitive management using quality improvement strategies where applicable.
- Use effective communications skills and technologies to provide collaborative care.
- Synthesize and translate relevant, current and scientific knowledge and evidence-based research finding into practice.
For all program specifics, Student Learning Outcomes and detailed school information, check out the School of Nursing Catalog/Student Handbook.
Have questions?
- Request information
- Attend an information session
- Schedule an appointment with an admissions counselor
- Contact our admissions team
FAQs
Get more information regarding typical questions asked about this program.
Scholarships available
OHSU offers a variety of scholarships that can help fund your education.
OHSU technical standards policy
This policy ensures that all candidates for an OHSU degree or certificate possess the essential skills and abilities necessary to complete the curriculum successfully. Review the OHSU Technical Standards policy.