Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
Kent State's Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner master's concentration will prepare you to provide comprehensive primary health care in an outpatient setting for newborns through late adolescence.
Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioners (referred to as PPCNPs, CPNP-PCs, or PNPs) are primary care providers who offer preventative health services, health education, and disease management to the pediatric population. They specialize in diagnosing, treating, and managing illness for acutely ill and chronically ill children. They also provide thorough wellness exams for healthy pediatric patients.
Students in the Pediatric Primary Care NP concentration learn health promotion, illness prevention, risk identification and acute and chronic care of infants, children, and adolescents from birth to age 21. Practicum experiences take place in outpatient primary care and specialty settings. These experiences offer the opportunity for students to provide individualized and culturally competent advanced practice nursing care to children within the context of their families.
In this role, you may work in doctor's offices, hospitals, outpatient clinics and specialty clinics, such as cardiology and gastroenterology, home health care settings and schools.
Why Kent State? We offer you:
- Faculty mentorship and advising from nationally certified advanced practice nurses, as well as active researchers with decades of experience
- Full- and part-time customizable academic plans
- Many online courses
- Fall and spring semester start dates
- A program that is known for its intellectual rigor and clinical quality
Admissions Criteria
We invite you to apply to the MSN program if you meet the following criteria:
- Bachelor's and/or graduate degree from an accredited registered nursing program.1
- Minimum 3.000 undergraduate/graduate GPA on a 4.000 point scale. 2
- The completion of an undergraduate statistics course with a minimum C grade.
- Active, unrestricted registered nurse license in Ohio
Curriculum
The Pediatric Primary Care NP concentration is 41 credit hours which includes 600 practicum hours. Options for part-time plans of study are also available.
Post-Master's Certificate
We also offer a Pediatric Primary Care NP post-master's certificate for nurses who already hold a Master's degree or higher in nursing.
Learn more about the Pediatric Primary Care NP post-master's certificate
Meet the Faculty
Learn more about the Pediatric Primary Care NP course instructors:

Ann Ancona
Ph.D., APRN, CPNP-PC, CNE
Coordinator

Tracy Gidden
MSN, RN, PPCNP-BC, CNE
Senior Lecturer
Begin Your Transformation
Discover why Kent State's Pediatric Primary Care NP master's concentration is right for you. Enrollment advisors can be reached at 330-672-7911.
The baccalaureate degree program in nursing, master’s degree program in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and post-graduate APRN certificate program at Kent State University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 655 K Street, NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202-887-6791. Kent State University College of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) concentrations within the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program and APRN Certificates, along with the Bachelor of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice (BSN-to-DNP) program qualify graduates to sit for national APRN certification and APRN licensure in Ohio. States other than Ohio may have additional requirements to apply for or obtain an APRN license, including but not limited to specific state examinations, letters of recommendation, or proof of completion of an accredited nursing program. The College of Nursing is in the process of collecting information from all states and has not yet made a determination whether graduates from the Kent State University College of Nursing MSN, Certificate, and BSN-to-DNP programs meet the requirements for APRN licensure outside the state of Ohio.