Loma Linda University offers a BSN to Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) – AGACNP track.
The program is offered in a Hyperflex format combining online instruction with scheduled on-campus sessions during each 11-week quarter.
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| BSN-DNP AGACNP | $119.5K | 3 years 9 months (15 quarters) | 118 |
| BSN-DNP PNP-AC | $118.5K | 3 years 9 months (15 quarters) | 117 |
PNP-AC tuition is calculated rather than published. Credit hours are quarter units.
Loma Linda faculty arrange every clinical rotation, as California Board of Registered Nursing regulations require, and assign AGACNP students to sites in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Applicants must hold a California RN license before matriculation and live in one of the 27 states Loma Linda is authorized to enroll distance students from.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | Two BSN to DNP tracks. No MSN or post-graduate certificate route |
| Population Focus | AGACNP for one track, PNP-AC for the other |
| Format | Hybrid. Online coursework with required on-campus sessions every quarter |
| Campus Visits | Recurring. Seminar Week, all exams, biweekly labs, weekly skills lab, quarterly clinical meetings |
| Clinical Hours | AGACNP at least 1,000 combined; PNP-AC at least 1,400 combined, including DNP project hours |
| Clinical Placement | Faculty arrange all rotations. AGACNP sites in Riverside and San Bernardino counties |
| RN Experience | One year full-time before clinical courses. AGACNP specifies adult critical care |
| Distinctive Coursework | Five-course AGACNP sequence plus a dedicated acute care skills lab |
| License Requirements | US RN license at application. California RN license before matriculation |
| Certifications Required | BLS for both tracks. ACLS for AGACNP, PALS for PNP-AC |
| Start Terms | Autumn and Winter quarters |
| Tuition | About $1,013 per quarter unit, derived from the published four-year cost of attendance |
| Certification | AGACNP maps to ANCC and AACN exams. PNP-AC maps to PNCB |
| Accreditation | CCNE, covering the BS, MS, and DNP programs, through 2027 |
| State Restrictions | Enrollment limited to 27 authorized states plus three US territories |
Requirements Shared Across All Tracks
Both tracks run on the same 49-unit doctoral core, the same 19-unit DNP project sequence, the same four concentration courses, and the same quarterly calendar.
Clinical Requirements
- Total hours, AGACNP: at least 1,000, combining clinician hours and DNP project hours
- Total hours, PNP-AC: at least 1,400, combining clinician hours and DNP project hours
- Specialty clock hours: not published separately from DNP project hours in current Loma Linda sources
- Clinical sequence: six clinical courses per track, plus an acute care skills lab
- Who arranges placement: program faculty arrange all rotations, as California Board of Registered Nursing regulations require
- AGACNP placement area: Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the Inland Empire region
- Settings: hospitals, emergency departments, subspecialty clinics, and intensive care units
- DNP project: may be completed in the student’s own workplace
You Should Know
- Placement is assigned, not chosen. Loma Linda guarantees a site, which removes the preceptor search that stalls students at many programs. It also means no say in which unit or hospital you are sent to, and no option to complete rotations near a job outside the assigned area.
Campus Requirements
- Core courses: four to eight hours on campus during Seminar Week in the middle of each quarter
- Exams: all course exams, including midterms and finals, are taken on campus
- NGRD 624 Advanced Health Assessment: mandatory synchronous lab meetings every two weeks
- NGRD 657 Intermediate Statistics: four mandatory synchronous meetings per quarter, face-to-face or by Zoom
- Concentration courses: pharmacology and pathophysiology meet up to four times per quarter
- Clinical courses: meet on campus at least four times per quarter
- Skills lab: meets weekly for the full quarter it is scheduled, with mandatory attendance
You Should Know
- Both tracks require living within driving range. Exams, labs, and clinical meetings recur every quarter across roughly 15 quarters, and AGACNP rotations are assigned in two counties. Loma Linda also enrolls distance students from only 27 states, so residency is a filter before commuting distance ever becomes one.
RN Experience and Licensure
- Experience required: one year of full-time RN experience before matriculating into clinical courses
- AGACNP setting: the program page requires that year in an adult critical care area and excludes post-anesthesia care units
- Competencies named: critical decision making, patient assessment, critical care infusions, mechanical ventilation, invasive hemodynamic monitoring
- Qualifying units: surgical, trauma and neurological, medical, coronary, and cardiothoracic ICUs, or an emergency department at a Level I or II trauma, stroke, or cardiac center
- PNP-AC setting: no pediatric critical care requirement is published
- RN license: unencumbered United States license at the time of application
- California license: required before matriculation for both acute care tracks, stricter than the three-quarter window other DNP concentrations allow
You Should Know
- The AGACNP experience gate depends on which page you read. The School of Nursing program page specifies adult critical care with named competencies and a PACU exclusion. The 2026-2027 graduate catalog lists only one year of full-time RN experience for acute care applicants, with no setting requirement.
BSN to DNP, Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
Tuition and fees for the AGACNP track total $119,476 across 118 quarter units, the figure Loma Linda publishes in its four-year cost of attendance. Full-time study takes 3 years and 9 months, or 15 quarters.
AGACNP Curriculum
The 118 units break into 49 core, 13 concentration, 37 clinical, and 19 DNP project units.
- NGRD 621: Pharmacology in Advanced Practice I (2 units)
- NGAC 502: Acute Care Advanced Pharmacology II (3 units)
- NGRD 624: Advanced Health Assessment (4 units)
- NGRD 625: Advanced Clinical Pathophysiology (4 units)
- NGAG 500: Gerontological Health and Wellness (2 units)
- NGAC 540: Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Skills Lab (2 units)
- NGAC 541 to 545: Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner I through V (33 units)
- Doctoral core: 49 units spanning leadership, policy, finance, statistics, translational science, and three School of Religion courses
- DNP project: 19 units across NGRD 667 and the NGRD 669A to 669F sequence
More curriculum details are available here.
AGACNP Admissions
- Degree: baccalaureate in nursing or equivalent from an accredited institution
- GPA: 3.0 or above, both cumulative and in nursing coursework
- ACLS: required before matriculation and maintained until completion
- BLS: current American Heart Association certification
- Recommendations: two electronic, one of them from a recent nurse manager or director
- Interview: Emotional Intelligence Interview Process, if granted by the admissions committee
- Application: NursingCAS plus a Loma Linda secondary application
- Deadlines: April 1 for Autumn entry, August 1 for Winter entry, supporting documents one month later
BSN to DNP, Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
Estimated tuition and fees for the PNP-AC track come to approximately $118,463 (117 quarter units at the derived rate of $1,013 per unit). Full-time study takes 3 years and 9 months, and Loma Linda allows up to seven years to finish.
PNP-AC Curriculum
The 117 units break into 49 core, 13 concentration, 36 clinical, and 19 DNP project units. The concentration courses, doctoral core, and project sequence are identical to the AGACNP track.
- NGAC 540: Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Skills Lab (1 unit, one fewer than the AGACNP version)
- NGPE 531, 532, 534: Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner I, II, and IV (16 units)
- NGAC 533, 535, 536: Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner III, V, and VI (19 units)
- Concentration: NGRD 621, NGAC 502, NGRD 624, and NGRD 625 (13 units)
- Core and project: the same 49 core units and 19 project units as the AGACNP track
You Should Know
- Half the pediatric clinical sequence carries a primary care course code. Three of the six clinical courses are Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner I, II, and IV, accounting for 16 of 36 clinical units. The catalog description for this concentration also refers to the primary health care needs of children rather than acute care.
More curriculum details are available here.
PNP-AC Admissions
- PALS: required before matriculation instead of ACLS, and maintained until completion
- Experience: the general one-year full-time RN rule applies, with no pediatric critical care setting specified
- Everything else: degree, GPA, licensure, recommendations, interview, and deadlines match the AGACNP track
Tuition
Loma Linda publishes no per-unit rate for graduate nursing. Dividing the four-year cost of attendance by the program unit total gives an all-in figure of about $1,013 per quarter unit, covering tuition and mandatory university fees.
| Program | Units | Estimated Tuition |
|---|---|---|
| BSN-DNP AGACNP | 118 | $119,476 |
| BSN-DNP PNP-AC | 117 | $118,463 |
The AGACNP figure is Loma Linda’s published total. It is billed unevenly: $23,092 in a nine-month first year, $26,104 in year two, and $35,140 in each of years three and four.
Be aware that:
- The PNP-AC total is calculated, not published. It applies the AGACNP-derived per-unit rate to the pediatric track’s 117 units.
- Books and supplies sit outside these totals, running $550 to $2,945 per year depending on where the student is in the sequence.
- Loma Linda states that costs rise annually with inflation in professional education, so later years will exceed the current schedule.
Graduate students reach half-time status, the threshold for most federal aid, at four units per quarter. Loma Linda reports that 70 to 75 percent of its nursing students receive financial aid. More tuition details are available here.
Why Choose This ACNP Program?
- Guaranteed clinical placement. Faculty arrange every rotation, so students never hunt for a preceptor or a site. California regulations require the school to do this, and Loma Linda states the guarantee plainly on both program pages.
- Two acute care population foci. A nurse can pursue adult-gerontology or pediatric acute care at the same school, on a shared core, a shared concentration sequence, and the same quarterly calendar.
- An adult critical care entry gate shapes the AGACNP cohort. Classmates will have come from ICUs or high-acuity emergency departments, since the program names the qualifying units and rules out post-anesthesia care.
- Doctoral only. Neither credential is available through an MSN or a post-graduate certificate, so the shortest route to the AGACNP at Loma Linda is the full 118 quarter units.
- Campus contact is frequent rather than concentrated. Seminar Week, on-campus exams, biweekly assessment labs, and a weekly skills lab spread the in-person load across every quarter instead of stacking it into annual intensives.
Loma Linda fits nurses already working in the Inland Empire who want the school to handle placement and who want a faith-based doctoral program. Applicants outside commuting range of Riverside or San Bernardino counties, or outside the 27 authorized states, should look elsewhere.
Accreditation and Certification
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits the Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Nursing Practice curricula at Loma Linda University School of Nursing through 2027. Both acute care tracks sit inside the DNP, so both are covered.
Loma Linda offers no post-graduate APRN certificate in either acute care focus, which removes the separate certificate-accreditation question that certificate holders elsewhere must resolve before sitting for an exam. The California Board of Registered Nursing granted continuing approval in 2019, and the university holds institutional accreditation from the WASC Senior College and University Commission.
AGACNP graduates are prepared for certification by the State of California, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, mapping to the AGACNP-BC and ACNPC-AG exams. PNP-AC graduates are prepared for the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board.
One caution on sourcing: the university-level AGACNP program page names the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board in its accrediting agency section, which conflicts with the graduate catalog’s adult-gerontology mapping.
Additional ACNP Programs for California Students
- Cal State LA - Los Angeles
- California Baptist University - Riverside
- CSU Long Beach - Long Beach
- University of California San Francisco - San Francisco
- West Coast University - Anaheim