The University of Florida offers three acute care nurse practitioner tracks, all within the BSN to DNP program:
- BSN to DNP (AGACNP)
- BSN to DNP (PNP-AC)
- BSN to DNP Dual Pediatric Acute and Primary Care
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition (FL) | Est. Tuition (Non-FL) | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNP AGACNP | $40.5K | $110.1K | 3 years (8 semesters, full-time) | 76 |
| DNP PNP-AC | $41.5K | $113.0K | About 4 years (11 semesters, part-time) | 78 |
| DNP Dual Peds | $49.5K | $134.8K | About 4.5 years (14 semesters, part-time) | 93 |
Tuition is calculated rather than published. Durations for the two pediatric tracks are derived from UF’s part-time curriculum plans.
UF gates its acute care tracks on a year of experience at the time of application and publishes the units that do not count, including step-down, intermediate care, and PACU. Acute care entry is doctoral-only, with no MSN or post-graduate certificate route.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | BSN to DNP only |
| Population Focus | AGACNP; PNP-AC; dual pediatric acute and primary care |
| Format | Mostly Online |
| Campus Visits | One-day new student orientation in Gainesville, plus periodic visits UF does not enumerate |
| Clinical Hours | 1,260 on both single-focus tracks; 1,740 on the dual track |
| Clinical Placement | Arranged by UF, Florida sites only, matched to a student’s region where possible |
| RN Experience | One year required at application; qualifying units differ by track |
| License Requirements | Unencumbered Florida or multistate RN license, or eligibility for one |
| Start Terms | Fall only, once per year |
| Tuition | $532.52 per credit for Florida residents; $1,449.28 for non-residents |
| Certification | ANCC and AACN for AGACNP; PNCB for both pediatric tracks |
| Accreditation | CCNE |
| State Restrictions | All clinical placements must sit within Florida |
Requirements Shared Across All Tracks
All three tracks run through the same DNP core, the same advanced practice core, and the same placement and admissions rules. Only the specialty sequence, the credit total, and the experience gate differ.
Clinical Requirements
- Total hours: 1,260 on the AGACNP and PNP-AC tracks; 1,740 on the dual pediatric track
- Specialty clinical hours: 540 on AGACNP and PNP-AC, across three 180-hour clinical courses; 900 on the dual track across five
- Remaining hours: residency, DNP project, and DNP practicum courses, which are not specialty patient-care time
- Placement geography: Florida only, with travel to sites elsewhere in the state possible
- Who arranges placement: UF, which tailors sites to a student’s geographic area where it can
- Clinical settings are variable, weighted toward high-acuity inpatient environments
- Progression rule: a student unable to travel to assigned sites will be delayed in the curriculum
You Should Know: Placement inside Florida is a hard requirement, not a preference. A nurse living outside the state, or one who cannot travel within it for a semester-long rotation, does not have a workable path through any of these three tracks.
Campus Requirements
- Enumerated visit: a one-day new student orientation
- Additional visits: described as periodic and tied to health assessment, clinical courses, simulation, and skill development, with no published count
- All visits take place on the Gainesville campus
- Budgeted travel: $300 to $500 across the program for clinical sites and campus visits combined, per UF’s expense estimate
RN Experience and Licensure
- AGACNP requirement: at least one year of ICU or Emergency Department experience, required at the time of application
- AGACNP exclusions: intermediate care, step-down, and PACU experience are not accepted
- AGACNP recommendation: CCRN certification, strongly recommended at application
- Pediatric requirement: at least one year of pediatric acute care experience, required at application, with ICU or ED experience preferred
- Pediatric qualifying units: pediatric med-surg, PICU, pediatric cardiac ICU, pediatric hematology-oncology, a dedicated full-time pediatric ED, pediatric transplant inpatient, and NICU
- Pediatric exclusion: peripartum mother-baby experience is not accepted
- Licensure: a current unencumbered Florida or multistate RN license, or eligibility for one
The gate closes at application, not at matriculation. An applicant whose year of qualifying experience finishes after the February deadline waits for the next cycle, and entry is annual. A step-down or PACU nurse applying to AGACNP is not short by a term but by however long it takes to accumulate a year in an ICU or ED.
You Should Know: UF publishes an explicit list of pediatric units that count toward the experience requirement, and notes that NICU experience qualifies for admission even though the degree does not prepare graduates to practice as a NICU nurse practitioner.
BSN to DNP Adult-Gerontology Acute Care
The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP AGACNP track at UF is approximately $40,472 for Florida residents and $110,145 for non-residents (76 credits). Full-time students complete it in eight semesters; a published part-time plan spreads the same 76 credits over eleven.
AGACNP Curriculum
- NGR 6002C: Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning (4 credits)
- NGR 6052C: Adult Nursing, Diagnostics and Procedures (1 credit)
- NGR 6230C: AGACNP Diagnostics and Procedures for the Critically Ill (1 credit)
- NGR 6241: Common Adult Health Problems (4 credits)
- NGR 6242L, 6243L, 6248L: the three AGACNP clinical courses, 3 credits and 180 hours each
- NGR 6243 and NGR 6248: AGACNP theory courses 2 and 3 (4 and 3 credits)
- NGR 7176: Advanced Topics in Pharmacotherapeutics and Genomics (3 credits)
- NGR 6941: DNP Practicum (4 credits, 240 hours)
Specialty content starts in the fourth semester. A full-time student spends the first three semesters on theory, statistics, pathophysiology, pharmacotherapeutics, assessment, informatics, and leadership before touching acute care coursework.
More curriculum details are available in UF’s full-time curriculum plan.
AGACNP Admissions
- Degree: a BSN from a program accredited by ACEN, CNEA, or CCNE
- GPA: 3.0 minimum on a 4.0 scale
- No GRE required
- Application route: NursingCAS plus the separate UF Professional Program Application
- Supporting materials: three letters of reference, a CV or resume, and transcripts sent to NursingCAS rather than UF Admissions
- Deadline: February 1 for the following fall, on an annual cycle
- Visa status: the program does not sponsor F-1 or J-1 students
- Post-admission: background check, fingerprinting, drug screening, immunization verification, and proof of health insurance
BSN to DNP Pediatric Acute Care
The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP PNP-AC track at UF is approximately $41,537 for Florida residents and $113,044 for non-residents (78 credits). The part-time plan runs eleven semesters; UF also offers a full-time option.
PNP-AC Curriculum
The DNP core, the residency and project sequence, and the clinical and admissions rules match the AGACNP track. The specialty courses differ:
- NGR 6372C: Advanced Pediatric Procedures and Diagnostics (3 credits)
- NGR 6338: Advanced Pediatric Pharmacology (2 credits)
- NGR 6301 and NGR 6301L: Advanced Child Health Nursing I and its clinical (3 credits each, 180 hours)
- NGR 6311 and NGR 6311L: Advanced Acute and Chronic Child Health Nursing and its clinical (4 and 3 credits, 180 hours)
- NGR 6312 and NGR 6312L: Advanced Acute and Chronic Child Health Nursing II and its clinical (3 credits each, 180 hours)
Clinical experiences draw on UF Health Shands Hospital for Children alongside other Florida sites.
More curriculum details are available in UF’s part-time curriculum plan.
BSN to DNP Dual Pediatric Acute and Primary Care
The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP Dual Pediatric Acute and Primary Care track at UF is approximately $49,524 for Florida residents and $134,783 for non-residents (93 credits). The part-time plan runs fourteen semesters.
Dual Track Curriculum
The dual track adds the primary care pediatric sequence to the acute care one, which is where the extra 15 credits and 480 clinical hours come from.
- Primary care sequence: NGR 6301/6301L, NGR 6302/6302L, and NGR 6307/6307L, each clinical carrying 180 hours
- Acute care sequence: NGR 6311/6311L and NGR 6312/6312L, each clinical carrying 180 hours
- Shared pediatric foundation: NGR 6372C Advanced Pediatric Procedures and Diagnostics, NGR 6338 Advanced Pediatric Pharmacology
- DNP practicum: NGR 6941 taken twice, 180 hours each
- Specialty clinical total: 900 hours across five 180-hour clinical courses
You Should Know: UF lists the dual pediatric track as a current BSN to DNP specialty, but files its curriculum plans under the 2021 to 2023 archive rather than the 2024 revision that covers the other tracks. Confirm the track is enrolling for your intended entry year.
Four of the fourteen part-time semesters fall below the credit load UF’s financial aid office counts as part-time enrollment, which affects aid eligibility in those terms.
Tuition
Florida residents pay $532.52 per credit hour for graduate coursework in 2026-27, and non-residents pay $1,449.28. Both figures are all-in: UF’s rate schedule builds them from tuition plus the capital improvement, financial aid, technology, activity and service, athletic, health, and transportation access fees.
| Program | Credits | Estimated Tuition (FL) | Estimated Tuition (Non-FL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNP AGACNP | 76 | $40,472 | $110,145 |
| DNP PNP-AC | 78 | $41,537 | $113,044 |
| DNP Dual Peds | 93 | $49,524 | $134,783 |
Costs beyond tuition, from UF’s own estimate:
- Course services, software, and simulation: a $504 base plus a track fee of $365 for AGACNP, $346 for pediatric acute care, or $282 for pediatric primary care
- Equipment kit: $400, applying to the adult-gerontology and pediatric NP tracks
- Clinical tracking: $150 for Exxat PRISM
- Textbooks, $3,800 to $4,400 across the program
- Admission deposit: $200, credited to first-semester tuition
Be aware: UF’s College of Nursing expense page still publishes $530.69 and $1,327.88 per credit. Those are 2025-26 figures. The university’s 2026-27 schedule supersedes them, and the non-resident gap between the two is large enough to matter when budgeting.
See the official UF tuition and fees schedule for the current rate table.
Financial aid
UF lists nursing scholarships and fellowships through the College of Nursing’s financial aid page. Because every acute care pathway here is a degree program rather than a certificate, students are not subject to the aid exclusions that non-degree certificate enrollees face elsewhere.
Why Choose This ACNP Program?
- Experience requirements stated at the unit level. Most programs ask for a year of acute or critical care and leave the definition open. UF names ICU and ED as qualifying for AGACNP and rules out intermediate care, step-down, and PACU.
- Two acute care population foci under one program. A nurse choosing between adult and pediatric acute care practice can compare both tracks, plus a dual pediatric option, against the same core, the same placement model, and the same admissions cycle.
- UF arranges the clinical placements. Sites are matched to a student’s region of Florida where possible, which removes the preceptor search but fixes the geography.
- In-state cost. Florida residents pay roughly a third of the non-resident total on every track, the widest resident advantage among the cost drivers here.
- Academic health center clinical base. Pediatric acute care students rotate through UF Health Shands Hospital for Children.
This program fits a Florida-based ICU or ED nurse who already has the year of qualifying experience and wants a doctorate rather than a master’s. Nurses coming from step-down, PACU, or mother-baby units, and anyone who cannot complete clinical rotations inside Florida, should look elsewhere.
Accreditation and Certification
The University of Florida College of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, which also accredits the college’s baccalaureate program and its post-master’s certificates. All three acute care tracks sit inside the BSN to DNP program and are covered by that accreditation.
The University of Florida is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
AGACNP graduates are eligible for national certification through the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. That focus covers young, middle-aged, and older adults with acute, critical, or chronic illness.
Pediatric acute care graduates are eligible for the acute care pediatric nurse practitioner examination through the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. Dual track graduates are eligible for both the acute care and primary care pediatric examinations through PNCB.
Explore More Florida Acute Care NP Programs
- Barry University - Miami Shores
- Nova Southeastern University - Fort Lauderdale
- University of Central Florida - Orlando
- University of Miami - Coral Gables
- University of South Florida - Tampa