Purdue Global offers three acute care nurse practitioner tracks:
- AGACNP Postgraduate Certificate
- MSN, AGACNP Population Focus Area
- MSN-DNP Path, AGACNP Population Focus Area
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate | $23.9K | 1.5 years (6 terms) | 57 |
| MSN AGACNP | $36.5K | 2.25 years (9 terms) | 87 |
| MSN-DNP Path | $36.5K | 2.25 years (9 terms) | 87 |
Credits are quarter credits. Tuition figures exclude the per-term resource fee, and both MSN durations are calculated rather than published.
Purdue Global blocks the AGACNP certificate in ten jurisdictions but the two MSN tracks in only nine, so a Massachusetts nurse can enter through the degree and not the certificate. Clinicals must also sit in an approved state, so the list governs rotations as well as residency.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | Postgraduate certificate, MSN, MSN-DNP Path |
| Population Focus | Adult-Gerontology Acute Care (AGACNP) on all three tracks |
| Format | Online |
| Campus Visits | None published |
| Credit System | Quarter credits. The catalog states 1 semester credit equals 1.5 quarter credits |
| Clinical Hours | No clock-hour total published for any track |
| Clinical Placement | Student identifies the site and preceptor; the university assists but does not guarantee |
| Placement Location | Must be in a state or territory where the program is available |
| RN Experience | One year (2,000 hours) recent full-time RN practice in an acute care setting |
| Life Support | ACLS required before enrollment and maintained throughout |
| Distinctive Requirement | Virtual reality immersive acute care skills experience using an Oculus headset |
| Start Terms | Academic Calendar C, quarterly starts |
| Tuition | $420 per quarter credit plus a $295 resource fee per term |
| Certification | ANCC AGACNP-BC or AACN ACNPC-AG |
| Accreditation | CCNE for the nursing programs; HLC institutionally |
| State Restrictions | Certificate blocked in 10 jurisdictions, MSN tracks in 9 |
Requirements Shared Across All Tracks
All three tracks run the same 57-quarter-credit AGACNP sequence and carry identical clinical, experience, and screening rules. Only credits, admissions, and the resulting credential differ.
Shared AGACNP Course Sequence
- NU551: Advanced Physiology and Pathophysiology Across the Lifespan (5)
- NU552: Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning (5)
- NU553: Advanced Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapeutics (5)
- NU648: Specialized Pharmacology for the AGACNP (2)
- NU650 and NU651: Introduction to Acute Care Management I, didactic and clinical (5 + 5)
- NU652 and NU653: Acute Care Diagnosis and Management II, didactic and clinical (5 + 5)
- NU654 and NU655: Acute Care Diagnosis and Management III, didactic and clinical (5 + 5)
- NU656 and NU657: Critical Care Management, didactic and clinical (5 + 5)
The specialty sequence is strictly linear. Every course after NU650 lists all prior courses as prerequisites, with only the paired didactic course available as a corequisite. NU657 closes with a diagnostic readiness test and certification review.
Clinical Requirements
- Clinical courses: four, at 5 quarter credits each, taken in a fixed order
- Clock hours: no total published. Course descriptions refer to “the required number of clinical hours (in-patient)” without a figure
- Setting: inpatient acute care, progressing to medically and surgically complex patients and then critical care
- Placement model: the student is named as the primary advocate for locating sites and preceptors; Purdue Global provides support and facilitation
- Geographic limit: clinicals must be completed in a state or territory where the program is available
- Grade floor: a B is the minimum passing grade in NP clinical courses, against a C in other graduate courses
- Both components count: failing either the didactic or the experiential portion fails the whole course
- Student cost: transportation, housing, and availability for clinicals are the student’s responsibility
You Should Know: No clinical clock-hour total appears in the program pages or the 2025-2026 catalog. Where a state’s licensure rules require more hours than the standard program provides, the School of Nursing enrolls the student in NU820A, a zero-credit, tuition-free extension course allowing up to 150 logged practice hours.
You Should Know: The NU820A extension is tuition-free only within your final clinical term. If you cannot finish the extra hours in that term, you must enroll for another term and pay the standard resource fee.
Campus and Technology Requirements
- Campus attendance: none published for any AGACNP track
- Virtual reality skills lab: a mandatory immersive acute care skills experience delivered through an Oculus headset, required for progression on all three tracks
- Textbooks: not included in graduate tuition, estimated at $50 to $250 per course
RN Experience, Licensure, and Screening
- Acute care experience: a minimum of one year of recent full-time practice, stated as 2,000 hours, as an RN in an acute care setting
- Timing: verified by resume or CV at application, and the School of Nursing decides whether the experience qualifies
- ACLS: evidence required before enrollment and current throughout the program
- RN license: current and unencumbered in at least one U.S. state
- Background check: approved check that would not bar APRN licensure or prescriptive authority
- Drug screen: required before clinicals begin
- International applicants: not eligible for graduate nursing programs because of the clinical requirements
Be aware: Marijuana is a prohibited substance in the clinical drug screen without exception, including for students in states where it is legal. A positive test means withdrawal from the nursing program at the end of the term, with a two-week window to petition for a retest.
AGACNP Postgraduate Certificate
The estimated tuition for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Postgraduate Certificate is approximately $23,940 (57 quarter credits at $420 per credit). Purdue Global publishes an average completion time of 1.5 years on a full-time schedule.
Certificate Curriculum
The certificate is the shared AGACNP sequence and nothing else: 12 courses, 57 quarter credits, no separate core. Purdue Global estimates 15 to 18 hours of course effort per week.
More curriculum details are available here.
Certificate Admissions
- Prior degree: a master’s degree with an upper-level major in nursing, or a DNP
- GPA: 2.5 or higher, cumulative, from an accredited institution
- Prior certification: no existing APRN certification or specific prior population focus is required
- Blocked jurisdictions: District of Columbia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Guam
You Should Know: Massachusetts appears on the certificate exclusion list but not on the MSN or MSN-DNP Path lists. A Massachusetts nurse who already holds an MSN in another population focus cannot use the certificate to add AGACNP at Purdue Global.
MSN, AGACNP Population Focus Area
The estimated tuition for the Master of Science in Nursing with the AGACNP population focus is approximately $36,540 (87 quarter credits at $420 per credit). Nine terms at the two-course-per-term cap works out to roughly 2.25 years, calculated from Purdue Global’s own certificate pacing.
MSN Curriculum
The MSN adds a 30-credit graduate core to the shared 57-credit specialty sequence, for 18 courses total.
- NU501: Advanced Nursing Roles (5)
- NU502: Theoretical Foundations of Advanced Practice Nursing (5)
- NU504: Scientific and Analytic Approaches to Advanced Evidence-Based Practice (5)
- NU505: Clinical Epidemiology and Population Health Promotion (5)
- NU506: Health Policy, Ethical, and Legal Perspectives of the Health Care System (5)
- NU507: Promoting Optimal Models and Systems for Health Care Delivery (5)
Core courses gate the entire specialty sequence. NU551, NU553, and NU650 all require completion of every core course, so the six core courses come first. Several core courses are also offered as five separate one-credit module courses.
MSN Admissions
- Prior degree: a BSN with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher
- Prerequisites: statistics and nursing research at a C or better, otherwise completed before NU504
- Pace cap: no more than two courses per term without the Dean’s approval
- Transfer credit: prior learning credit applies only to NU551, NU552, and NU553
- Blocked jurisdictions: District of Columbia, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Guam
MSN-DNP Path, AGACNP Population Focus Area
The estimated tuition for the Master of Science in Nursing, DNP Path with the AGACNP focus is approximately $36,540 (87 quarter credits at $420 per credit), matching the standard MSN. Completing it awards the MSN and is required before moving into the DNP.
How the DNP Path Differs
- Entry gate: BSN as the highest nursing degree, plus a cumulative GPA of 3.0 rather than 2.5
- Application steps: an informational interview with an admissions advisor, with documents submitted at least four weeks before the intended start
- Doctoral substitutions: NU713 may replace NU505 and NU733 may replace NU506, letting two of the 30 core credits be earned at doctoral level
- Credit total: unchanged at 87 quarter credits, since the substituted courses carry the same 5 credits
- Blocked jurisdictions: the same nine as the standard MSN
The doctoral tier is priced separately and far higher. DNP coursework runs $700 per quarter credit, and the DNP itself is closed to residents of Hawaii, Louisiana, New York, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. Practice hours in the DNP courses are published as ranges, unlike the AGACNP clinicals.
Tuition
Graduate tuition is $420 per quarter credit for all master’s programs and graduate certificates, published July 1, 2026. The rate is not fee-inclusive.
| Program | Credits | Estimated Tuition |
|---|---|---|
| AGACNP Certificate | 57 | $23,940 |
| MSN AGACNP | 87 | $36,540 |
| MSN-DNP Path AGACNP | 87 | $36,540 |
- Resource fee: $295 per term for standard graduate programs, adding roughly $1,770 across six certificate terms and $2,655 across nine MSN terms
- Indiana residents: a 10% reduction on graduate tuition and on the resource fee, bringing the rate to $378 per quarter credit and the fee to $265.50 per term
- Servicemembers: $320 per quarter credit, with a $200 resource fee
- Veterans: $361.20 per quarter credit, also with a $200 resource fee
- Not combinable: Indiana residents may not stack the in-state rate with tuition vouchers or other reductions
You Should Know: These are quarter credits, and the catalog states that one semester credit equals 1.5 quarter credits. The 57-credit certificate converts to about 38 semester credits and the 87-credit MSN to about 58, while $420 per quarter credit works out to roughly $630 per semester-credit equivalent.
See the official tuition and fees page for current rates.
Financial Aid
Purdue Global lists the AGACNP certificate and both MSN tracks as Title IV eligible, unlike several of its business graduate certificates. Corporate partner reductions, military tuition reductions, and Yellow Ribbon participation are available through the financial aid office.
Why Choose This ACNP Program?
- Three entry points, one specialty sequence. A BSN nurse, an MSN-prepared nurse, and a doctoral-bound nurse all complete the same 57 credits of AGACNP coursework, so the credential decision is about cost and time rather than clinical depth.
- Indiana residency cuts the price. The 10% reduction applies to tuition and the resource fee together, which is unusual at a national online university and reduces the MSN by roughly $3,900.
- Acute care experience is a hard gate. One year of full-time acute care RN practice must be documented at application, and the School of Nursing judges whether it qualifies. This is not a program that admits nurses planning to gain the experience later.
- Purdue Global does not publish a clinical clock-hour total anywhere in its catalog or program pages, which makes hour-for-hour comparison against other AGACNP programs impossible before you enroll.
- No campus travel. Coursework is fully online and the skills lab is delivered through a VR headset rather than an on-campus intensive.
The program suits an experienced acute care RN who needs a fully remote pathway, can secure inpatient preceptors independently, and lives outside the nine or ten excluded jurisdictions. Indiana residents and military-affiliated nurses get the strongest pricing.
Accreditation and Certification
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits Purdue Global’s nursing programs, and the AGACNP Postgraduate Certificate is named on Purdue Global’s own program page as CCNE-accredited. That matters for certificate holders, because ANCC requires the postgraduate APRN certificate program itself to be accredited for exam eligibility.
Purdue Global is institutionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Purdue Global is a public, nonprofit institution within the Purdue University system.
All three tracks carry the same adult-gerontology acute care population focus. Graduates may sit for the ANCC Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner examination or the AACN Acute Care Nurse Practitioner examination (ACNPC-AG).
Purdue Global states that graduates are academically prepared for APRN licensure only in states where the program is available for enrollment. The same jurisdiction list therefore governs admission, clinical placement, and the licensure value of the credential.