Drexel PNP clinical courses: primary care, acute care and dual

All three pediatric tracks open with the same two primary care courses in Summer of year two and Fall of year three. After that, the sample plans diverge: primary care stays in the office, acute care moves into acute and chronic illness management, and the dual option does both, adding a fourth year.

Every course carries 5.0 quarter credits, inside MSNs of 52.0 credits for primary care, 57.0 for acute care and 62.0 for the dual option. The clinical hours overview compares these totals with the other Drexel tracks.

No pediatric course description states an hour count. For primary care, 640 over four courses gives 160 each, and for acute care, 800 over five gives the same 160; both are derived figures, consistent with the per-course hours Drexel states for FNP and WHNP.

The dual option does not divide cleanly. Its catalog entry states 1,000 clinical hours over six courses, but six courses at 160 would make 960, and no split is published. The option also looks different from the other two in the admissions calendar: it averages four years, Winter 2027 is its only listed MSN start, the certificate version lists no start term, and it is missing from the 2027–28 semester catalog. Ask the program about its future before you enroll, and ask your track director how the 1,000 hours are divided before you plan preceptors.

The course titles map fairly clearly onto settings. NURS 642 and NURS 643 belong in pediatric primary care, with well visits and episodic illness. NURS 647 concentrates on adolescents in primary care, and NURS 648 on children with special health care needs. NURS 649 and NURS 650 cover acute and chronic illness management, and NURS 651 follows medically fragile and technology-dependent children in the community. For the dual option, Drexel's catalog describes a blend of inpatient and outpatient work running from specialty clinics through primary care.

Near Philadelphia, pediatric hospitals set their own terms. At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a graduate placement request has to come through the school, and CHOP forbids students from approaching its units or preceptors on their own. The Philadelphia sites page covers CHOP and its neighbors, and Drexel's preceptor rules are on the requirements page.

NURS 642 sits behind the same B-or-better gate as every Drexel NP track, with NURS 646 as the pediatric pharmacology course, and behind NUPR 520 about three quarters earlier; the NUPR 520 guide explains that seminar. Experience rules also apply before clinicals, and they differ by track, as the questions below explain.

PALS appears on Drexel's compliance list for pediatric NP students, with no distinction drawn between primary and acute care, and the acute care program page names current PALS among its admission criteria. The certification page covers PALS alongside BLS. The pediatric OCI opens NURS 642 at the start of the summer quarter and lasts four days for primary care students, five for acute care and dual students.

Drexel's pediatric pages go further than its other tracks on licensing. Applicants are strongly encouraged to hold RN licenses in all three of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, because that opens more preceptors and sites. This sits on top of the general rule: a Pennsylvania license or a home-state multistate license, plus coverage in any state where you train.

All three states belong to the Nurse Licensure Compact, with Pennsylvania fully in since July 7, 2025, so one multistate license issued by a compact state may already let you practice as an RN in all three. Individual sites can still ask for more. CHOP, for one, wants graduate students to hold a Pennsylvania license, or a New Jersey one where that applies. Check each site's rule, and see the Pennsylvania RN license page and the New Jersey and Delaware sites page.

From Fall 2027 the two remaining pediatric MSNs each run four 5.0-credit clinical courses in a 43.0-credit program, sharing NURS 7700 as their first course. None lists clinical hours.

The catalog prints some titles inconsistently, with NURS 7702 and NURS 7703 missing numerals and NURS 7712 labeled II, so rely on the course number. Acute care drops from five clinical courses to four. On the quarter plan, NURS 642 and NURS 651 fall in summer, and Summer 2027 is a shortened transition term; the semester conversion guide covers what to ask.

Pediatric tracks change settings more than most, so we start from your full sequence rather than the next quarter alone. For primary care we look for pediatric offices that can carry well, episodic, adolescent and special-needs care. For acute care and the dual option we plan the move from office to acute and chronic care early, including community-based care for NURS 651, and we learn each hospital's student request process before you need it.

Every preceptor we put forward fits Drexel's rules, and the CV, license, board certification and site contact that the contracting and compliance teams need come packaged with the match. Drexel approves each placement; our part is a file that is complete and fits its rules when it arrives. Should a pediatric preceptor drop out, we begin the replacement search at once. Choose your track: primary care, acute care or dual.