MUSC offers 4 Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Tracks:
- MSN – Primary Care
- MSN – Acute Care
- DNP – Primary Care
- DNP – Acute Care
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN – PC | $54.3K | 6 sems (FT) | 60 |
| MSN – AC | $54.3K | 6 sems (FT) | 60 |
| DNP – PC | $68.8K | 8 sems (FT) | 76 |
| DNP – AC | $68.8K | 8 sems (FT) | 76 |
In-state / out-of-state. Tuition estimates include the $70-per-credit online program fee but exclude per-semester fees.
MUSC’s defining advantage is South Carolina’s first acute care pediatric NP track, opening Fall 2026 with a clinical partnership at MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Both pediatric populations are available at either MSN or DNP entry from a BSN, and the acute care track carries a hard PICU experience gate that the primary care track does not.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | BSN-entry MSN (60 credits); BSN-entry DNP awarding both MSN and DNP (76 credits) |
| Format | Mostly Online — online coursework plus required on-campus intensives; MUSC labels it “hybrid” |
| Population Focus | Primary Care and Acute Care, offered as separate tracks (not dual) |
| Clinical Hours | Not clearly stated. MSN carries 25 clinical credits; DNP carries 35 |
| Clinical Placement | College guides placement from orientation; approved sites required. Guarantee not stated |
| Distinctive Coursework | Advanced Care Management I–III (18 credits); 7-credit Role Practicum |
| Concentrations | Optional Nurse Educator add-on (4 courses, 12 credits) |
| RN License Requirements | Active, unencumbered RN license in the state where practicums occur, by enrollment |
| RN Experience Requirements | None stated for primary care. Acute care: 1 year PICU or high-acuity pediatrics within 5 years |
| Tuition | $835/credit in-state, $1,120/credit out-of-state, plus $70/credit online program fee |
| Accreditation | Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) |
Curriculum Structure
MUSC publishes a single plan of study shared across all five NP specialties. Population-specific pediatric content is delivered inside the Advanced Care Management sequence and the Role Practicum rather than in separately titled pediatric courses. Practically, this means the published course list looks identical whether you enter as a PNP, FNP, or PMHNP student — you cannot preview pediatric-specific course titles before enrolling, and you should ask admissions directly how acute versus primary care content is split within those shared course numbers.
Shared Core Sequence
- NRDNP838 Advanced Pathophysiology (3)
- NRDNP856A/B Advanced Clinical Assessment and Reasoning I and II (6)
- NRDNP842 Advanced Pharmacotherapeutics (4)
- NRDNP860 Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics (4)
- NRDNP864/865/866 Advanced Care Management I, II, III (18)
- NRDNP848B Role Practicum (7)
- NRDNP846 Frameworks for Leadership (3)
- NRDNP836 Informatics in Healthcare Delivery (3)
Two structural notes matter for pediatrics. First, the assessment core is split across two semesters (six credits total) rather than compressed into one, which is heavier than most PNP programs and useful preparation for pediatric physical exam variation. Second, MUSC states that all tracks receive mental health and palliative care education within the curriculum — relevant for PNPs, since behavioral health presentations dominate pediatric primary care and pediatric palliative exposure is rare in NP training.
Clinical Education
All four tracks share one placement model. The College of Nursing begins the placement process at new student orientation and provides resources, timelines, and expectations, but MUSC does not publish a placement guarantee. Clinical hours must be completed at approved sites with an approved preceptor. Published site categories include outpatient pediatrics, school health, developmental pediatrics, and specialty clinics; the acute care track adds pediatric intensive care units, emergency departments, and inpatient specialty services through the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital partnership.
- Clinical coursework: Advanced Care Management I–III plus Role Practicum (25 credits) in the MSN; the DNP adds 10 residency credits
- Clinical course fee: $250 per clinical course
- Out-of-state students must confirm their own Board of Nursing distance-education requirements and notify the program director
The missing hour total is the single biggest gap on this page. Certification requires a minimum of 500 supervised direct patient care hours, and most single-population PNP programs land between 600 and 750. MUSC’s 25 credits of precepted clinical coursework almost certainly clears that floor comfortably by any standard credit-to-hour conversion, but “almost certainly” is not a number you should enroll on. Ask for the documented hour total per track in writing before you accept a seat, particularly for the acute care track, where inpatient hour distribution across PICU, ED, and specialty services determines how prepared you actually are.
General Admissions
Requirements are identical across both degree levels and both pediatric populations, with one exception: the acute care experience gate covered in that track’s section below.
- BSN from a nationally accredited program by the initial enrollment date
- Active, unencumbered RN license in the state where practicums will occur, by enrollment
- Undergraduate statistics coursework
- Preference for a 3.0 nursing GPA and 3.0 cumulative GPA
- NursingCAS application plus a separate MUSC supplemental application
- Three letters of recommendation, including one academic reference
- Personal essay, resume, and official transcripts from all institutions
- Interview for selected applicants after application verification
- TOEFL 80 minimum if English is not your native language
- Applications are not accepted from residents of Washington, Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Oregon
Application cycle: Spring admission opens July 1 with an October 15 final deadline. Fall admission opens August 15 with a May 1 final deadline. Part-time applicants select the “Part-Time Flex” option rather than the standard program listing — a small detail that routes your file to a different plan of study, so choose deliberately.
The admissions committee explicitly weighs the essay, references, professional goals, and leadership or volunteer experience alongside GPA. That is a holistic review, which favors applicants with a clear pediatric narrative over applicants with marginally higher grades. The five-state exclusion is the harder constraint: it is absolute, not preferential, and it disqualifies otherwise-competitive applicants purely on residence.
MSN – Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (Primary Care)
The estimated tuition for the Master of Science in Nursing at MUSC is approximately $54,300 in-state or $71,400 out-of-state (60 credits at $835 or $1,120 per credit, plus the $70-per-credit online program fee).
The program can generally be completed in six semesters full-time or nine semesters part-time.
MSN – PC Curriculum
This is the shorter, cheaper route to pediatric primary care practice at MUSC. Relative to the DNP, you give up 16 credits — the residency sequence, scholarly inquiry, practice inquiry and IRB, organizational theory, and healthcare economics — and gain a two-course capstone (NURSM820 and NURSM821) in their place. What you keep is the entire clinical spine: all three Advanced Care Management courses and the full 7-credit Role Practicum transfer unchanged into the MSN plan. Clinically, the MSN and DNP prepare you the same way.
- NRDNP864 Advanced Care Management I (6)
- NRDNP865 Advanced Care Management II (6)
- NRDNP866 Advanced Care Management III (6)
- NRDNP848B Role Practicum (7)
- NURSM820 Capstone I (3)
- NURSM821 Capstone II (3)
More curriculum details are available here.
MSN – PC Clinical Requirements
- 25 clinical credits across four precepted courses
- Outpatient pediatric settings, school health, and developmental or specialty pediatric clinics
- Total required clinical hours: not clearly stated
The clinical volume here is structurally generous — a 7-credit capstone practicum is larger than the 3-to-4-credit practicums common in MSN PNP programs, which usually signals a substantial final immersion. Without a published hour total, treat this as a strength you need to verify rather than one you can compare.
MSN – Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
The estimated tuition for the acute care option within the Master of Science in Nursing is approximately $54,300 in-state or $71,400 out-of-state (60 credits at $835 or $1,120 per credit, plus the $70-per-credit online program fee).
The program can generally be completed in six semesters full-time or nine semesters part-time.
MSN – AC Curriculum
The acute care track launched for Fall 2026 as the first ACPNP program in South Carolina, led by faculty at the College of Nursing and built around a clinical partnership with MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Course numbers match the primary care plan; the difference sits inside the Advanced Care Management sequence, which shifts toward multisystem critical illness, procedural skills, rapid response, and inpatient management. MUSC describes required on-campus learning intensives for this track specifically, which is typical for acute care preparation where procedural competency cannot be assessed remotely.
Two implications worth weighing. First, an ACPNP credential is not interchangeable with a primary care PNP credential — certification, scope, and hiring are tied to the population you complete, and switching later means a separate post-graduate certificate. Second, this is a brand-new track. First cohorts generally get intensive faculty attention and freshly negotiated clinical sites, but they have no graduate outcomes, no certification pass-rate history, and no alumni network to draw on.
MSN – AC Clinical Requirements
- Clinical experience in pediatric intensive care units, emergency departments, and inpatient specialty services
- MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital serves as the anchor clinical partner
- Required on-campus learning intensives
- Total required clinical hours: not clearly stated
The hospital partnership is the substantive advantage. Acute care PNP students at schools without an affiliated children’s hospital routinely struggle to secure PICU and pediatric ED placements, because those units are competitive and few. A named tertiary partner removes the most common failure point in acute care pediatric training — provided the partnership scales as cohorts grow, which is worth asking about directly.
DNP – Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (Primary Care)
The estimated tuition for the Doctor of Nursing Practice and Master of Science in Nursing at MUSC is approximately $68,800 in-state or $90,400 out-of-state (76 credits at $835 or $1,120 per credit, plus the $70-per-credit online program fee).
The program can generally be completed in eight semesters with a fall start, ten semesters with a spring start, or eleven semesters part-time.
DNP – PC Curriculum
This pathway awards both the MSN and the DNP, so you finish with the terminal degree without a separate post-master’s application. The 16 credits beyond the MSN are doctoral rather than clinical: scholarly inquiry, practice inquiry and IRB, organizational theory, healthcare economics, and a 10-credit residency (NRDNP890) split across two semesters where the practice improvement project is implemented.
- NRDNP873 Scholarly Inquiry in Practice Systems (3)
- NRDNP862 Practice Inquiry and IRB (3)
- NRDNP850 Organizational Theory and Healthcare Systems (3)
- NRDNP830 Applied Healthcare Economics and Finance (3)
- NRDNP858 Evidence-Based Practice, Quality and Safety (3)
- NRDNP890 Residency (10 across two semesters)
NOTE: Start term materially changes your timeline and cost. The fall-start plan completes 76 credits in eight semesters; the spring-start plan takes ten semesters for the same 76 credits, because early terms carry only six to seven credits. Two additional semesters means two more rounds of per-semester fees and roughly eight extra months to licensure — with no curricular difference at the end.
More curriculum details are available here.
DNP – PC Clinical Requirements
- 35 clinical credits: the 25-credit MSN clinical spine plus 10 residency credits
- Residency carries a separate $233 course fee (NRDNP890)
- Total required clinical hours: not clearly stated
The DNP residency is project and systems work, not additional pediatric direct patient care. Choose this pathway for the doctoral credential, leadership positioning, or faculty ambitions — not because it makes you a stronger clinician than the MSN graduate. On pediatric clinical preparation, the two are equivalent.
DNP – Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
The estimated tuition for the acute care option within the Doctor of Nursing Practice and Master of Science in Nursing is approximately $68,800 in-state or $90,400 out-of-state (76 credits at $835 or $1,120 per credit, plus the $70-per-credit online program fee).
The program can generally be completed in eight semesters with a fall start, ten semesters with a spring start, or eleven semesters part-time.
DNP – AC Admissions
This is the only pediatric track at MUSC with a bedside experience requirement, and it is a hard gate rather than a preference.
- Minimum 1 year of experience in a PICU or comparable high-acuity pediatric setting
- That experience must have been gained within the past 5 years
- All general admissions requirements above also apply
The recency clause is the part applicants miss. A nurse who spent three years in a PICU seven years ago and has worked outpatient since does not qualify as written. If your high-acuity experience is aging out, apply now or plan a return to inpatient pediatrics before applying.
DNP – AC Clinical Requirements
- 35 clinical credits, combining acute care pediatric clinical coursework with the DNP residency
- PICU, pediatric emergency, and inpatient specialty rotations via the Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital partnership
- Required on-campus learning intensives
- Total required clinical hours: not clearly stated
Worth noting: MUSC’s published clinical hour structure is the same 76-credit frame for both acute and primary care. Programs that prepare both populations often build extra hours into the acute care track to cover procedural competency. Confirm whether MUSC does, or whether the acute track simply reallocates the same hours to inpatient settings.
Tuition
Expect roughly $54,300 to $90,400 in tuition and online program fees, depending on degree level and residency, with in-state students paying about 25 percent less per credit than out-of-state students.
| Program | Est. In-State | Est. Out-of-State |
|---|---|---|
| MSN – PC or AC | $54,300 | $71,400 |
| DNP – PC or AC | $68,800 | $90,400 |
Estimates use MUSC’s published per-credit rates of $835 in-state and $1,120 out-of-state, plus the $70-per-credit online program fee that applies to all distance coursework. They exclude per-semester fees, which vary by pacing.
Key Cost Takeaways
- Part-time pacing costs more, not less. Part-time students pay an $861 student fee plus a $285 program fee every semester. Across the nine-semester MSN plan that is about $10,300 in repeating fees; across the eleven-semester DNP plan, about $12,600. Full-time students pay a $560 program fee per semester instead. The net effect is roughly $7,000 to $8,000 more for the same degree at slower pace.
- The $70-per-credit online fee is unavoidable and material. It adds $4,200 to the MSN and $5,320 to the DNP.
- The spring-start DNP plan spans ten semesters for the same 76 credits. Every added semester compounds per-semester fees. A fall start is the cheaper and faster route to the identical degree.
- Clinical courses carry their own fees. $250 per clinical course, about $1,000 across the MSN clinical sequence, plus a $233 residency fee in the DNP.
- Budget $535 in one-time costs — a $50 application fee and a $485 matriculation fee due at acceptance.
- On-campus intensives are unbudgeted. MUSC does not publish how many campus visits either pediatric track requires, so travel and lodging to Charleston are unpriced. Acute care students should assume more visits than primary care students.
- Rates shown are for 2026–27 and are not locked for the duration of your program.
- Scholarships require a completed FAFSA and are awarded after admission, based on need and merit.
What makes MUSC’s pricing unusual is that the cheapest published rate is not the cheapest path. Most nursing schools reward flexibility; MUSC penalizes it through per-semester fees that repeat regardless of course load. In-state full-time students get real value for an academic health center education. Out-of-state students at the DNP level approach $90,000 in tuition and fees alone — competitive with private universities, which changes the calculus considerably. Confirm current figures on MUSC’s tuition and fees page.
Why Choose This PNP Program?
Best For
- Pediatric ICU nurses in South Carolina who want acute care preparation without relocating
- South Carolina residents, who pay roughly 25 percent less per credit
- Nurses who want both pediatric populations available at one school, at either degree level
- BSN nurses who want the DNP without a second application cycle
- Applicants who interview well and have a strong pediatric essay, given the holistic review
- Students who want a named children’s hospital behind their inpatient rotations
Biggest Strengths
A real acute care pathway with a real hospital behind it. Acute care PNP tracks are scarce nationally, and the ones that exist frequently leave students to find their own PICU placements. MUSC built this track around MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, the state’s tertiary pediatric center. For a specialty where placement access is the binding constraint, that affiliation is worth more than most curricular features.
Two entry points, one clinical spine. The MSN and DNP share the same Advanced Care Management sequence and the same 7-credit Role Practicum. That means the degree choice is genuinely about credential and career trajectory rather than clinical quality — you are not buying weaker clinical training by choosing the shorter route, and you can compare the $14,500 in-state price difference against what the doctorate actually adds for you.
Academic health center resources. MUSC is South Carolina’s only academic health science center, with faculty who maintain active pediatric practice in primary care, specialty clinics, and palliative care. The curriculum also embeds mental health and palliative content for all tracks, which is unusually relevant for pediatrics and rarely built into standard PNP plans of study.
Potential Drawbacks
- No published clinical hour total for either pediatric track — the most important number for comparing PNP programs is missing
- The published plan of study is identical across all five NP specialties, so pediatric-specific coursework is not visible before enrolling
- The acute care track is brand new, with no graduate outcomes or certification pass-rate history
- Number of required on-campus intensives is not published, leaving travel costs unbudgeted
- Part-time pacing adds roughly $7,000 to $8,000 in repeating per-semester fees
- Acute care applicants need one year of PICU experience gained within the last five years
- Out-of-state DNP tuition approaching $90,000 competes with private-university pricing
Bottom Line
MUSC is the strongest choice in South Carolina for nurses who want acute care pediatric preparation, because it is currently the only one, and because it is anchored to the state’s tertiary children’s hospital rather than to placements students must find themselves. In-state students at the MSN level get an academic health center education at a defensible price. The reservations are real, though: MUSC publishes less program detail than comparable PNP programs — no clinical hour totals, no pediatric course titles, no campus visit count — and the acute care track has no track record yet. If you are in-state with PICU experience, this is likely your program, but go into your admissions interview with a written list of those unpublished numbers and get answers before you deposit.
Accreditation
The MSN and DNP programs at the Medical University of South Carolina are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE); MUSC does not publish an accreditation expiration date. MUSC states that graduates are eligible to sit for national certification in their area of study, and its published list names the acute care pediatric credential (CPNP-AC).