Post-Master’s Certificate: Family Nurse Practitioner

This program prepares licensed registered nurses, who already have a Master of Science in Nursing degree, for another exciting level of practice - the role of Family Nurse Practitioner. The Family Nurse Practitioner Program is designed for RN’s who are ready to continue graduate education that will lead to a primary care focused advanced practice nursing role. The Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) provides comprehensive primary health care services to individuals from infancy through adulthood. The goal of the FNP program is to prepare highly skilled and culturally sensitive advanced practice nurses who are committed to providing quality, cost-effective primary care services to individuals, families and communities.

Students graduating from the FNP Post-MS Certificate Nurse Practitioner track will be eligible for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) certification examinations.

Student Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the Family Nurse Practitioner track, graduates will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Assume advanced nursing roles in clinical practice
2. Deliver competent health care to diverse populations within the community
3. Facilitate the use of evidence-based practice in nursing
4. Use epidemiological, social, and environmental data to draw inferences to effectively assist patients in achieving and/or maintaining optimal health or to stabilize chronic conditions
5. Design health promotion and disease prevention clinical programs for individuals and families in primary care settings
6. Evaluate nursing practice and health care to produce quality outcomes of evidence-based primary care services throughout the community
7. Demonstrate leadership in clinical practice
8. Use ethical decision making in the delivery of primary care services for vulnerable populations
9. Collaborate with intra and interdisciplinary professionals to achieve quality outcomes in nursing practice
10. Promote nursing as a profession and a discipline
11. Demonstrates scholarly inquiry through verbal and written communication in clinical scholarship
12. Analyzes ethical, legal, and social factors influencing policy and the interdependence and impact of policy on health care practice across disciplines (updated January 24, 2017)