Palm Beach Atlantic University offers 2 Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner pathways through its School of Nursing in West Palm Beach:
- MSN
- DNP (BSN entry or post-master’s entry)
Both run in what PBA calls an online hybrid format, both require on-campus attendance in West Palm Beach, and both are built around Florida licensure. PBA states that it has determined its AGPCNP curriculum meets the educational requirements for licensure in Florida, and refers out-of-state applicants to its eLearning office rather than publishing a state-by-state list.
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN AGPCNP Concentration | $39,100 | 4 semesters | 46 |
| DNP – AGPCNP Track | $850 per credit; total not published | Not published | Not published |
The MSN estimate multiplies PBA’s 2026–2027 graduate nursing rate of $850 per credit by the 46 credits PBA publishes for the AGPCNP concentration. PBA publishes no credit total for the DNP track, so no total is calculated here.
- Why choose it: 46 credits and 780 clinical hours completed in four semesters.
- Trade-off: Three West Palm Beach campus sessions in each specialty semester, no published placement policy, and almost no published detail on the DNP track.
Quick Facts
| Program Types | MSN with AGPCNP concentration; DNP-AGPCNP track with BSN and post-master’s entry |
| Format | Online hybrid with required on-campus sessions in West Palm Beach |
| Campus Attendance | MSN: 3 in-person sessions per semester during the four specialty courses. DNP: not published |
| Clinical Hours | MSN: 780. DNP: not published |
| Clinical Placement | PBA does not publish who is responsible for finding sites and preceptors |
| Population Focus | Adults and older adults in primary care settings |
| Licensure Required | Florida RN license, or an out-of-state RN license plus proof of application to the Florida Board of Nursing |
| Certification | ANCC or AANP AGPCNP national board certification |
| Tuition | $850 per credit for both the MSN and the DNP (2026–2027) |
| Accreditation | CCNE |
MSN with AGPCNP Concentration
The MSN with Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Concentration is 46 credits and 780 clinical hours across four semesters. At PBA’s 2026–2027 graduate nursing rate of $850 per credit, tuition comes to roughly $39,100 before fees. Entry requires a BSN, with one exception: PBA’s own BSN students may enter through Dual Enrollment and take up to two 3-credit graduate courses during their senior year.
MSN Curriculum
The plan of study divides into three parts. A graduate core covers nursing science, research, leadership, healthcare technology and a faith-and-science course. An advanced practice core delivers the three Ps: pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment with diagnostic reasoning. The specialty sequence then pairs each didactic course with its own clinical course, so students carry theory and patient care in the same term rather than finishing classroom work first.
Two features of the sequence are worth noticing. The specialty courses are numbered Primary Care I and Primary Care III, with Geriatric Health Issues sitting between them; PBA does not explain the missing Primary Care II, which appears to belong to another population focus. The catalog also carries prerequisite notes referencing FNP students on courses inside the AGPCNP plan. Both are published as written and neither is described as an error, but applicants comparing plans of study should ask which courses are shared with the family track.
The 46 credits reconcile exactly to the listed courses:
- NUR 5013 Scientific and Philosophical Foundations of Nursing Practice (3)
- NUR 5023 Advanced Nursing Research (3)
- NUR 5113 Leadership in Organizations and Systems (3)
- NUR 5223 Faith and Science (3)
- NUR 6003 Advanced Pathophysiology (3)
- NUR 6013 Healthcare Technology and Quality Improvement (3)
- NUR 6103 Advanced Pharmacology (3)
- NUR 6104 Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning (4) – 60 clinical hours
- NUR 7033 Primary Care I: Acute and Chronic Health Problems (3)
- NUR 7053 Primary Care I Clinical (3) – 180 clinical hours
- NUR 7233 Geriatric Health Issues (3)
- NUR 7253 Geriatric Health Issues Clinical (3) – 180 clinical hours
- NUR 8033 Primary Care III: Complex Family Health (3)
- NUR 8053 Primary Care III Clinical (3) – 180 clinical hours
- NUR 8153 APRN Clinical Immersion (3) – 180 clinical hours
Faith and Science is the course most likely to be unfamiliar to applicants coming from secular programs. It is a required 3-credit course, not an elective, and it occupies a slot another school would spend on population health or informatics.
View the current MSN curriculum in PBA’s course catalog.
MSN Clinical Requirements
- 780 clinical hours, the figure PBA publishes for the AGPCNP concentration
- Distribution: 60 hours in NUR 6104, then 180 hours each in NUR 7053, NUR 7253, NUR 8053 and NUR 8153
- Population focus: adults and older adults in primary care settings
- Campus attendance: three in-person sessions per semester on the West Palm Beach campus during the four specialty courses
- Placement responsibility: not published. PBA does not state whether the School of Nursing arranges clinical sites and preceptors or whether students secure their own
- Geographic limits on placement: not published
- Start terms and application deadlines: not published on the program page
The distribution matters more than the total. Four consecutive 180-hour clinical courses in a four-semester program means roughly 12 to 15 clinical hours a week on top of coursework, sustained from the first specialty term to the last. Nurses planning to keep full-time hospital shifts should map that against their schedule before applying.
The unpublished placement policy is the larger planning risk. At schools that place students, a preceptor shortage is the school’s problem; at schools that do not, it is the student’s, and failing to secure a site can push graduation a full term. PBA’s pages do not say which model applies, so this is the first question to put to Graduate Admissions. The same applies to the campus sessions: PBA states the cadence but not the dates, so applicants cannot yet judge whether the sessions are weekday or weekend commitments.
MSN Admissions
- Apply through NursingCAS
- BSN required for post-BSN entry
- PBA BSN students may qualify for Dual Enrollment entry and begin graduate coursework in their senior year
- Graduates apply for APRN licensure in Florida after completing the program and sitting for ANCC or AANP certification
PBA does not itemize MSN admission requirements on the MSN program page the way it does for its doctoral tracks. It publishes no GPA floor, experience minimum, reference count or interview requirement for the master’s, and points applicants to NursingCAS and Graduate Admissions instead. The DNP requirements below are the closest published benchmark, but PBA does not state that they apply to the MSN, so applicants should not assume they do.
DNP Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Track
The DNP-AGPCNP track admits BSN-prepared nurses and, through a separate post-master’s entry, nurses who already hold an MSN. Tuition is $850 per credit in 2026–2027, the same rate PBA charges for the master’s. The eligibility line that decides who applies where is simple: BSN holders enter the BSN-to-DNP route, MSN holders enter the post-master’s route, and PBA’s own BSN and MSN graduates are eligible for seamless progression.
A publishing gap worth knowing about. PBA’s DNP-AGPCNP page does not state a credit total, a clinical hour requirement, an expected length, or a campus attendance pattern for this track. The course catalog link in the Courses section of that page points back to the program page itself rather than to the catalog, and the catalog link further down the page goes to an older catalog edition than the one PBA links from its master’s page. That leaves the two figures a prospective student most needs, total cost and total time, unavailable from PBA’s published materials. Request the current plan of study from Graduate Admissions before comparing this track against a doctoral program that publishes both.
What PBA Publishes About the Track
- Graduates are eligible to sit for ANCC and/or AANP AGPCNP national certification on completing the NP program
- Students may sit for the national certification exam before graduation
- A Professional Transition Mentorship Program is included; PBA does not describe what it involves
- Faculty maintain clinical practice alongside teaching
- Practice settings PBA names: primary care, national health agencies, home care, and rural health
- PBA has determined the curriculum meets the educational requirements for licensure in Florida; out-of-state licensure questions go to the eLearning office
Early board eligibility is the one item here with real financial weight. A student certified before the degree conferral date can begin the APRN job search, and in some cases start work, months earlier than a classmate at a program that certifies only after graduation.
DNP Admissions
- Apply through NursingCAS
- BSN from a regionally accredited university and a nationally accredited nursing program; post-master’s applicants need an MSN meeting the same standard
- Minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and 3.0 nursing GPA on a 4.0 scale
- No GRE unless GPA falls below 3.0, in which case scores must reach the 50th percentile on verbal and quantitative and 4.0 on analytical writing
- At least one year of RN work experience, or current employment as an RN
- Official transcripts from all schools attended, and a current CV
- Three letters of recommendation addressing academic ability and leadership potential, one from a current supervisor
- Current active Florida RN license, or a valid RN license from another state plus proof of application to the Florida Board of Nursing
- Personal statement of no more than 500 words on goals, faith, and interest in a practice doctorate
- Personal interview with the School of Nursing Graduate Admissions Committee
- On acceptance: $400 non-refundable deposit applied to tuition, background check with fingerprints, drug screen, immunization and titer records, TB test, American Heart Association CPR certification, proof of health insurance, and the Florida RN license
Three of these can disqualify an otherwise strong applicant. The Florida RN license requirement applies at admission, not at graduation, so an out-of-state nurse must at minimum have filed with the Florida Board of Nursing before enrolling. The 500-word personal statement is explicitly asked to address faith, which is a genuine fit question at a Christ-centered university rather than a formality. And the interview is a committee interview, not an optional conversation.
One requirement PBA does not publish is a transfer credit or gap analysis policy for post-master’s entrants. Nurses holding an MSN in another population focus, or a non-NP MSN, have no published way to estimate how much prior coursework will count. Ask for a transcript review before committing, because at $850 per credit the difference between a generous and a restrictive gap analysis runs into five figures.
Tuition
PBA’s 2026–2027 schedule sets both the MSN and the DNP at $850 per credit hour. As a private university PBA charges one rate; there is no resident and non-resident split.
That rate supersedes the figures previously carried on this page, which came from PBA’s catalog tuition table and listed $825 per credit for the MSN and $1,000 per credit for the online DNP. The university’s current tuition and fees schedule is the newer source and is the one used throughout this profile. The correction cuts both ways: the MSN is $25 per credit more expensive than previously published, about $1,150 more across 46 credits, while the DNP is $150 per credit cheaper, which on a doctoral plan of study compounds into a difference of roughly ten thousand dollars.
| Pathway | Estimated Tuition |
|---|---|
| MSN AGPCNP Concentration (46 credits) | $39,100 |
| DNP – AGPCNP Track | Not calculable; PBA publishes no credit total |
Calculated from PBA’s published per-credit rate and published credit requirement. PBA does not publish a program total.
Fees Beyond Tuition
- Technology fee: $42 per credit for online programs, $65 per credit for West Palm Beach campus programs
- Course fees: vary by course, from $25 to $500
- Sailfish Smart book program: $27 per credit
- TimelyMD health fee: $55 per semester
- Commuter parking: $250 per year
- Admission deposit: $400, non-refundable, applied to tuition on enrollment
- Student-borne compliance costs: background check with fingerprints, drug screen, immunizations and titers, TB test, AHA CPR certification, and health insurance
- Travel to campus for the required in-person sessions, which PBA does not cost out
The technology fee deserves attention because PBA does not say which rate applies to a program that is online but requires campus attendance. The nursing MSN is listed under both West Palm Beach campus and online. Across 46 credits the online rate adds $1,932 and the campus rate adds $2,990, a spread of about $1,058 a student cannot resolve from the published schedule. PBA notes that all charges are subject to change.
See PBA’s current tuition and fees schedule.
Why Choose This AGPCNP Program?
Best suited for: a Florida-licensed nurse living within regular driving distance of West Palm Beach who wants a short, clinically heavy master’s at a Christian university and can absorb three campus visits a semester.
A Four-Semester Master’s Carrying 780 Clinical Hours
Two years to an AGPCNP credential is fast, and PBA does not get there by thinning the clinical component. Four consecutive 180-hour clinical courses plus 60 assessment hours is a demanding load compressed into a short calendar. For a nurse who wants to be practicing sooner and can carry the intensity, that is the strongest argument for this program. For a nurse who needs to stretch the degree across more terms while working full time, PBA publishes no part-time plan of study, and that silence is itself an answer.
Online Hybrid Means Roughly a Dozen Trips to South Florida
Three in-person sessions per semester across the four specialty courses is a recurring commitment, not a one-week annual intensive. That cadence effectively limits the program to students who can reach the West Palm Beach campus repeatedly, and it makes PBA a poor comparison against programs that concentrate campus time into a single immersion. Anyone outside South Florida should price the travel before treating this as an online degree.
Florida Licensure Is Designed In; Other States Are Not Addressed
PBA states only that the curriculum meets Florida’s educational requirements for licensure, and routes every other state to a phone number. A Florida RN license, or a filed application to the Florida Board of Nursing, is also an admission requirement rather than a graduation one. Taken together, the program is built for nurses who intend to practice in Florida. An applicant planning to license elsewhere should get the eLearning office’s answer in writing before enrolling.
The Doctoral Track Costs the Same Per Credit, but PBA Will Not Say How Many
Pricing the DNP at the same $850 per credit as the master’s is unusual and favorable; many universities charge a doctoral premium. Early board eligibility is a real advantage on top of that. But without a published credit total, clinical hour requirement or length, the track cannot be compared against any doctoral program that publishes those figures, and a prospective student cannot calculate what it costs. That is a documentation problem rather than a quality judgment, and it is fixable with one email to Graduate Admissions. Fix it before an application goes in.
The Verdict
The strongest case for PBA belongs to a South Florida nurse who holds a Florida RN license, wants an AGPCNP credential in two years rather than three, values a Christ-centered curriculum enough to spend three required credits on Faith and Science, and can build three campus days a semester into their schedule. For that person the MSN is a coherent, clinically serious, reasonably priced private-school option.
Compare other options if you live outside driving range of West Palm Beach, if you need to know before applying who arranges your clinical placements, if you intend to practice outside Florida, or if you are choosing a DNP and need published credit and clinical hour totals to decide. On each of those points PBA either imposes a real constraint or publishes nothing, and several Florida programs publish more.
Accreditation
PBA’s nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), which the School of Nursing states directly. Graduates of both AGPCNP pathways are eligible to sit for the ANCC or AANP Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner national certification examination.
On licensure, PBA publishes a narrow determination: the curriculum is sufficient to meet the educational requirements for licensure in the state of Florida. It does not publish a state-by-state authorization list and instead directs out-of-state applicants to its eLearning office at (561) 803-2652 or onlinehelp@pba.edu. Applicants who intend to practice outside Florida should get that answer for their own state before applying, since a program that satisfies Florida’s requirements may not satisfy another board’s.
More AGPCNP Programs in Florida
- Florida A&M University - Tallahassee
- Florida Atlantic University - Boca Raton
- Florida Southern College - Lakeland
- University of Central Florida - Orlando
- University of Miami - Miami
- University of South Florida - Tampa
Compare tuition, clinicals, admissions for all Florida AGPCNP programs