Loma Linda University Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Programs

Loma Linda University School of Nursing offers 2 Pediatric Nurse Practitioner pathways, both built as a single BS to DNP degree:

BS to DNP – Primary Care
BS to DNP – Acute Care

Both pathways carry the same requirements: 117 quarter units, a California RN license, on-campus attendance in most quarters, and clinical rotations assigned by the School of Nursing in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Full-time and part-time schedules are available. There is no MSN-only exit and no post-graduate certificate; nurses who already hold an MSN apply to the BS to DNP program and may have units waived after review by the program coordinator.

Program Tracks Overview

Program	Est. Tuition	Est. Duration	Credit Hours
DNP – PC	$117,468	3 yrs 9 mos (5 yrs PT)	117 units
DNP – AC	$117,468	3 yrs 9 mos (5 yrs PT)	117 units

Tuition figures are the university’s published 2026–2027 tuition-and-fee totals for the four program years ($23,092 + $28,112 + $32,128 + $34,136 for primary care; $23,092 + $25,100 + $32,128 + $37,148 for acute care). Loma Linda does not publish a per-unit nursing rate; across 117 units the published totals work out to roughly $1,004 per quarter unit.

Why choose it: Faculty arrange every clinical placement, and a pediatric acute care track runs alongside primary care.
Trade-off: Clinical placements are confined to Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, the DNP is the only entry point at roughly $117,000, and its 570 clinical hours sit below the typical 600 to 750 range.

Quick Facts

Program Types	BS to DNP only; no MSN or post-graduate certificate pathway
Population Focus	Track 1: Primary Care (CPNP-PC) \| Track 2: Acute Care (CPNP-AC)
Format	Hybrid, both tracks. Recurring on-campus class, lab, and exam sessions
Campus Attendance	Core courses 4–8 hours mid-quarter; NP clinical courses 4+ times a quarter; skills course weekly
Clinical Hours	570 advanced practice hours plus 510 DNP practicum hours (1,080 total)
Clinical Placement	Arranged entirely by School of Nursing faculty; students never self-source
Clinical Locations	Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, California
RN License Required	Yes. Unencumbered U.S. license to apply; California license before classes begin
RN Experience Required	One year full-time before entering clinical courses. No pediatric or ICU requirement
Certification Required	BLS at application; PALS before matriculation, both tracks
Distinctive Coursework	Nine units of religion and ethics coursework required of all DNP students
Start Terms	Autumn and Winter quarters
Tuition	$117,468 over four years, both tracks (2026–2027 published figures)
Accreditation	CCNE; WASC institutionally. PNCB approval of the acute care track listed as pending

Clinical Education at Loma Linda

Both pathways use the same clinical model, and it is the most consequential thing about the program in either direction.

570 hours of advanced practice clinical experience, distributed across the pediatric NP course sequence
510 hours of DNP practicum tied to the Practice Inquiry Project (NGRD 669A–F), documented in a professional portfolio before graduation
Faculty in the CNS and NP programs arrange all rotations, as required by California Code of Regulations Title 16, Division 14, Section 1484(h)(11)
Placements are assigned in the Inland Empire: Riverside and San Bernardino Counties
Clinical courses meet face-to-face on campus at least four times per quarter, with all exams administered on campus
The NP skills course meets weekly during its quarter; lab attendance is mandatory
The DNP Project may be completed in the student’s own workplace

Assigned placement removes the single biggest source of delay and attrition in NP education. At schools where students find their own preceptors, a failed search can push graduation back a full term. Loma Linda takes that risk off the table entirely, and it does so because California regulation requires the school to own the process.

The cost of that guarantee is that the school can only place you where it has contracts. Two counties is a narrow radius, and Loma Linda does not offer to place students near home elsewhere in California, let alone out of state. Budget for the driving; the university itself flags travel to clinical sites as a cost students underestimate.

On volume, 570 advanced practice hours sits above the 500-hour national certification floor but below the 600 to 750 hours most single-population PNP programs require. The combined 1,080-hour figure sounds large, but roughly half of it is doctoral project work rather than direct patient care. If clinical volume is your yardstick, compare the 570 figure, not the total.

General Admissions

Admission requirements are nearly identical across both pathways. The catalog lists these criteria for every BS to DNP applicant:

Baccalaureate degree or equivalent in nursing from an accredited institution
GPA of 3.0 or higher, both cumulative and in nursing coursework
Current unencumbered U.S. RN license at the time of application
California RN license required before classes begin and maintained throughout
One year of full-time RN experience before entering clinical courses
Current American Heart Association BLS certification
Two electronic recommendations: one from a recent nurse manager or director, one from a nursing peer or spiritual advisor
Emotional Intelligence Interview with the program coordinator and a second faculty member, if an interview is granted
Application through NursingCAS plus a secondary Loma Linda application
Health clearance including immunizations, and a background check

A published conflict worth knowing about. The catalog sets NP application deadlines at April 1 for Autumn entry and August 1 for Winter entry, with supporting documents due a month later. The individual program pages publish a per-cycle table with later final deadlines: September 15, 2026 for Winter 2027 entry, and July 15, 2027 for Autumn 2027 primary care against April 15, 2027 for Autumn 2027 acute care. The School of Nursing program pages also carry an “apply by April 15, 2026” banner. The catalog dates are the safer ones to plan against; check the program page before assuming a later date still applies to your track.

Two details reward attention. First, the California license requirement is written two ways: program pages say the license must be in hand before classes start, while the catalog allows up to three quarters after matriculation. Out-of-state applicants should plan for the earlier deadline and confirm with the program. Second, up to 12 units of required core coursework can be taken as a non-degree student while an application is under review, and those units count toward the degree if you earn a B or better. That is a genuine way to test the program before committing.

BS to DNP – Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

The Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner concentration runs 117 quarter units and costs about $117,468 in tuition and fees. Full-time students finish in 3 years and 9 months across 15 quarters; the part-time route takes about 5 years. Graduates are prepared for the PNCB primary care exam (CPNP-PC) and for ambulatory practice with patients from birth through age 21.

Primary Care PNP Curriculum

The degree divides into three blocks: a 49-unit DNP core taken by every Loma Linda DNP student, a 49-unit pediatric concentration, and a 19-unit Practice Inquiry Project. The core is where Loma Linda’s Seventh-day Adventist identity shows up in the transcript, with nine units of required religion and ethics coursework. Those nine units are not electives and they are not waived.

Advanced practice foundation (13 units)

NGRD 621 – Pharmacology in Advanced Practice I (2)
NGRD 622 – Pharmacology in Advanced Practice II (3)
NGRD 624 – Advanced Health Assessment (4)
NGRD 625 – Advanced Clinical Pathophysiology (4)

Pediatric primary care sequence (36 units)

NGPE 531, 532, 533, 534, 535 – Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner I through V (4, 6, 6, 6, 6)
NGPE 536 – Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner VI: Practicum (7)
NGPE 539 – Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner: Skills Laboratory (1)

Six graded clinical courses in a single unbroken sequence is more sequencing than most PNP programs use, and it means the pediatric content is spread thin across quarters rather than front-loaded. The practical effect is a longer runway: you are in pediatric coursework for most of the program, but carrying only one or two courses per quarter. That suits a nurse still working, and it is why the program takes nearly four years full-time when comparable BSN-to-DNP programs finish in three.

The skills laboratory (NGPE 539) is the one hands-on procedural course in this track, covering assessment and treatment techniques used in ambulatory pediatrics. It meets weekly during its quarter.

See the official catalog page for the full plan of study.

Primary Care PNP Clinical Requirements

570 advanced practice clinical hours, plus 510 DNP practicum hours
Placement settings are ambulatory: private practice, clinics, school districts, and community primary care
All rotations assigned by faculty in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties

At 570 hours this track sits at the lower end of what accredited PNP programs require. It clears certification eligibility comfortably, but a graduate comparing offers against someone from a 750-hour program will have roughly five fewer weeks of supervised pediatric practice. Whether that matters depends on how much pediatric RN experience you bring in.

Primary Care PNP Admissions

No requirements beyond the general BS to DNP criteria above, with one addition: PALS certification is required before matriculation and must be maintained until completion. There is no pediatric-specific RN experience requirement, which makes this one of the more accessible entry points into pediatric advanced practice for a nurse coming from adult med-surg.

BS to DNP – Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

The Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner concentration matches the primary care track on every headline number: 117 quarter units, about $117,468, 3 years and 9 months full-time or 5 years part-time, with a 7-year maximum to completion. It prepares graduates for the PNCB acute care exam (CPNP-AC) and for emergency departments, inpatient units, sub-specialty clinics, and pediatric ICUs.

A published conflict worth knowing about. Loma Linda’s program page for this track states that graduates are prepared for Pediatric Nursing Certification Board certification with “program approval pending.” The catalog states certification preparation without that qualifier. Program approval is what allows a school’s graduates to sit the CPNP-AC exam, so anyone applying to this track should confirm the current status with the program coordinator before enrolling. The primary care track carries no such notation.

Acute Care PNP Curriculum

The core and the DNP project are identical to the primary care track. The concentration differs in two ways, and the second is unusual enough to matter when you compare this program to acute care tracks elsewhere.

First, the second pharmacology course is swapped for an acute care version, and the primary care skills lab is replaced with an acute care skills lab covering emergency management and inpatient assessment. Second, the clinical sequence is a blend rather than a pure acute care track: three of its six graded clinical courses are the primary care pediatric courses, taken alongside three acute care courses.

Advanced practice foundation (13 units)

NGRD 621 – Pharmacology in Advanced Practice I (2)
NGAC 502 – Acute Care Advanced Pharmacology II (3)
NGRD 624 – Advanced Health Assessment (4)
NGRD 625 – Advanced Clinical Pathophysiology (4)

Clinical sequence (36 units)

NGAC 540 – Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Skills Lab (1)
NGPE 531, 532, 534 – Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner I, II, IV (4, 6, 6)
NGAC 533 – Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner III (6)
NGAC 535 – Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner V (6)
NGAC 536 – Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner VI (7)

That blend is worth thinking about. Roughly 16 of the 36 clinical units are primary care content, so the acute care track gives you a grounding in ambulatory pediatrics that a pure inpatient program would not. It also means the acute-care-specific teaching is concentrated in three courses rather than six. Applicants who want maximum inpatient depth should compare the acute care course count directly against other CPNP-AC programs rather than assuming the unit total is comparable.

See the official catalog page for the full plan of study.

Acute Care PNP Clinical Requirements

570 advanced practice clinical hours, plus 510 DNP practicum hours
Settings span emergency departments, hospitals, sub-specialty clinics, and intensive care units
All rotations assigned by faculty in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties
The acute care skills lab meets weekly during its quarter

The hour requirement is the same as the primary care track, which is the figure to weigh most carefully. Acute care preparation is usually the heavier of the two populations, and many CPNP-AC programs require more direct patient hours than their primary care counterparts at the same school. Loma Linda does not differentiate. Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital anchors the region’s pediatric acute care capacity, which is the practical reason the school can staff these rotations at all.

Acute Care PNP Admissions

The catalog’s additional criteria for acute care pediatric applicants are narrow: an unrestricted U.S. RN license with a California license before matriculation, current BLS, and PALS before matriculation maintained through completion. That is the same short list the primary care track carries.

This is unusual and worth stating clearly: Loma Linda does not require prior PICU, emergency, or acute pediatric RN experience for its acute care track. Most CPNP-AC programs do, often with a one-year minimum in a specified setting. The general one-year full-time RN requirement applies, but it is not population-specific. For a nurse without an ICU background who wants to move into pediatric acute care, that removes the most common barrier. For applicants weighing cohort quality, it means classmates will arrive with a wider range of backgrounds than at programs that gate on critical care experience.

Tuition

Loma Linda is a private university with a single tuition rate, so there is no resident or non-resident distinction. It also does not publish a per-unit graduate nursing rate. Instead it publishes an expected annual tuition-and-fee total for each program year, built on the assumption of three quarters at roughly 10 units each. The two tracks reach the same four-year total by different annual paths.

Program Year	Primary Care	Acute Care
Year 1 (9 months)	$23,092	$23,092
Year 2	$28,112	$25,100
Year 3	$32,128	$32,128
Year 4	$34,136	$37,148
Four-year total	$117,468	$117,468

Figures are Loma Linda’s published 2026–2027 tuition and fees for each program year. Totals are the sum of those four years and assume full-time progression.

Key Cost Takeaways

Books and equipment add about $6,800 across the four years, front-loaded into Year 1 ($2,865 primary care, $2,915 acute care) and tapering to $550 by Year 4
Licensure costs land in Year 4, budgeted at $2,100 for primary care and $2,200 for acute care
Rates rise annually. The university states outright that amounts increase each year with inflation in professional education, so the four-year total a 2026 entrant actually pays will exceed $117,468
Travel is unbudgeted and non-trivial. Campus sessions and assigned rotations across two counties both require driving, and neither appears in the tuition line
Financial aid is widely used. Loma Linda reports that 70 to 75 percent of its nursing students receive aid. Half-time status for graduate aid eligibility is 4 units per quarter, so most part-time students still qualify
The published totals assume 10 units per quarter. Part-time students spread the same total over five years rather than paying less

What makes Loma Linda’s pricing unusual among PNP programs is not the number but its shape. A doctorate with no master’s exit means the full $117,468 is the entry price for becoming a PNP here; there is no cheaper MSN route and no post-graduate certificate for nurses who already hold an APRN credential. Programs that offer an MSN pathway typically put a PNP credential within reach for half this. The value proposition rests on assigned placements and a DNP at the end, not on cost.

See Loma Linda’s official cost of attendance page for the primary care track or the acute care track.

Why Choose This PNP Program?

Best suited for: a nurse living within commuting distance of the Inland Empire who wants a doctorate, does not want to hunt for preceptors, and is choosing between pediatric primary and acute care without prior ICU experience.

Placement is handled, start to finish

This is the strongest argument for Loma Linda and it is not marketing language. California regulation obliges approved NP programs to arrange rotations, and the School of Nursing states that students never identify their own site. For anyone who has watched a classmate lose a term to a failed preceptor search, that is worth real money.

An acute care track without an ICU experience gate

Pediatric acute care programs are scarce nationally and scarcer in California. Most that exist screen for prior PICU or pediatric emergency nursing. Loma Linda’s published criteria do not, which makes the CPNP-AC credential reachable for nurses whose experience sits elsewhere. Verify the PNCB approval status noted above before you count on it.

Part-time pacing that assumes you are still working

The published schedule averages two courses per quarter, and the catalog says core courses are scheduled around the working nurse. A five-year part-time route exists for both tracks. The non-degree option, which lets you take up to 12 core units before acceptance, lowers the cost of finding out whether the format works for you.

Potential Drawbacks

Two-county radius. Clinical placements are confined to Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. This is not a program you can complete from Northern California or out of state
“Online” is a stretch. Exams are proctored on campus, health assessment labs meet every two weeks, clinical courses meet at least four times a quarter, and the skills course meets weekly
570 advanced practice hours is below the typical 600 to 750 range, and the acute care track gets no more than the primary care track
PNCB program approval for the acute care track is listed as pending on the university’s own page
No MSN or certificate option. The doctorate is the only way in, at roughly $117,000 and nearly four years
Nine required units of religion and ethics coursework that transfer poorly and will not appeal to every applicant
Published deadlines conflict between the catalog and the program pages, so applying on the later date is a risk

The Verdict

Loma Linda solves the problem that derails more NP students than any other: finding clinical placements. It pairs that with a pediatric acute care track that is rare in California and, unusually, open to nurses without ICU experience. If you live in the Inland Empire, want a DNP rather than an MSN, and can absorb a four-year, $117,000 commitment, the case is strong. If you live anywhere else, the two-county placement radius ends the conversation regardless of how the rest of the program reads. Applicants set on acute care should confirm the PNCB program approval status first, and anyone comparing on clinical volume should look closely at the 570-hour figure against programs requiring 700 or more.

Accreditation

Loma Linda University is accredited institutionally by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. The baccalaureate, master’s, and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The California Board of Registered Nursing has approved the School of Nursing’s programs and granted continuing approval in 2010.

Primary care graduates are prepared for California NP certification and for the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board’s CPNP-PC examination. Acute care graduates are prepared for the CPNP-AC examination, though the university’s acute care program page notes that PNCB program approval is pending. Because all clinical placement happens in California and a California RN license is required, the practical licensure question is a California one rather than a multi-state one.

Other PNP Programs in California

Azusa Pacific University - Azusa
University of California, San Francisco - San Francisco

View our comparison of all California pediatric nursing programs