Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program

* Pictured above: Second year AG-ACNP student during Simulation August 2023 at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Why Did We Create the Program?

• The acuity and complexity of patient needs requires a highly trained, specialized nurse.
• Inpatient settings that hire advanced practice providers (APPs) prefer APPs with acute care nurse practitioner certification.
• Advanced practice nurses will deliver an increasing portion of patient care and care coordination.
• An educational partnership between a university and a health provider gives students unparalleled academic expertise and top notch clinical access.

Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program

Atrium Health and the University of North Carolina Charlotte are partnering to offer the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) program, an accredited, clinically focused, campus-based graduate nursing program designed to prepare advanced practice nurses for the changing healthcare workforce.

Program Description

The Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program, a 47-credit-hour master's degree program, readies graduates for inpatient/outpatient acute care settings and specialty practices. Students will learn how to manage patients ranging from adolescence to older adulthood who have complex acute and/or chronic health problems.

The program focuses on a theoretical foundation and evidence-based clinical practice with particular attention to pathophysiology, differential diagnosis, critical decision making, patient management, advanced technical skills and promoting physical and psychological well-being.

Clinical Experiences

Atrium Health's board-certified physicians and nurse practitioners make the System a prime resource for the clinical experience. Our exceptional healthcare providers offer individual attention to students in a variety of clinical settings, including:

• Inpatient Medicine/ Hospital Medicine
• Medical/Surgical Critical Care/Cardiovascular Recovery
• General Surgery/Trauma
• Cardiology (Inpatient/Outpatient)
• Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery
• Nephrology
• Medical/Surgical Critical Care
• General Surgery/Trauma
• Gastrointestinal
• Hepaticopancreaticobiliary Surgery HPB
• Transplant Surgery
• Neurology/Neurosurgery

Certification Eligibility

Graduates of the AGACNP program will be prepared to sit for national certification from either the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN).

Post Master's Certificate

The Post Master's Certificate for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program consists of coursework and clinical experiences totaling approximately 20 graduate credit hours. This program is ideal for actively practicing nurse practitioners who want to obtain board certification as an AGACNP. While graduate admissions criteria state that applicants for the Post Master's Certificate in AGACNP are required to have completed Advanced Pathophysiology, Health Assessment and Advanced Pharmacology within the last five years, transcripts of actively practicing nurse practitioners board certified as Adult (Adult-Gerontology Primary Care), Family, Psychiatric or Pediatric will be assessed in terms of admission requirements by the UNCC Graduate Admissions Committee. All course work must be completed within four years and a 3.0 GPA is required.

Please visit the UNCC graduate nursing website for additional information:

• UNCC AGACNP Program Overview
• UNCC School of Nursing Faculty and Staff
• UNCC School of Nursing Graduate Course Descriptions
• Frequently Asked Questions
• UNCC AGACNP Admissions and How to Apply

2025 deadline for applications:

• Applications are currently being accepted for the August 2025 traditional student cohort and May 2025 post-Masters student cohort until they are full. Applications will be reviewed after the start of the fall semester in October 2024 by the graduate admissions committee.

Atrium Health Contact for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program:

Amy M. Winiger, DNP, ACNP-BC,FACC
Atrium Health AGACNP Program Coordinator
Email: Amy.Winiger@AtriumHealth.org

Leslie Beth Sossoman, DNP, ACNP-BC, CV-RN, CHPQ
Faculty Specialist AGACNP Program
Email: Leslie.Sossoman@AtriumHealth.org

University of North Carolina at Charlotte Contact:

Assistant Coordinator of the AGACNP program
Erin Najarian, DNP, ACNP-BC, RN, CCRN
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Email: ecloning@charlotte.edu

Advanced Clinical Nursing Coordinator
Dr. Tonya Anderson, PHD, RN, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, CNE
UNC Charlotte School of Nursing
Email: hander19@charlotte.edu