Family Nurse Practitioner
The Role
Nurse practitioners provide primary care to health families and families experiencing acute health problems and/or chronic health problems in ambulatory care, sub-acute and acute care, and long term care settings.
The Content
Clinical coursework in the Nurse Practitioner program includes assessment, management, diagnosis and treatment of both chronic and acute illnesses across the lifespan. The program emphasis is in the area of family practice, but the curriculum allows flexibility for those students who wish to pursue clinical experiences in a specialty area. The content prepares students in a variety of clinical areas including family practice, adult and geriatric medicine, pediatrics, rural health, community health, internal medicine, emergency medicine and other specialty areas. This allows a broad scope of practice opportunities for the ARNP graduate.
The Family Nurse Practitioner program prepares students for advanced practice in a complex health care system which requires integration of all the roles of the advanced practice nurse: clinician, leader, educator, consultant, and researcher. In addition to clinical coursework, the curriculum includes topics such as pathophysiology, pharmacology, nursing theory, professional role development, health policy, bioethics, and research. The curriculum meets the requirements of the nurse practitioner advanced practice role as recommended by the National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF). The curriculum is consistent with the Florida Board of Nursing requirements and is regulated by Florida Statutes for Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNPs). Clinical experiences are structured to meet program outcomes required for the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) certification and licensure.
The Faculty
Our highly skilled faculty, along with our talented group of preceptors, provides excellent classroom and clinical experiences for students. Faculty are educated and certified in adult and family medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. In addition to multiple clinical specialties, the faculty have numerous publications and research activities to their credit and maintain active roles in local and national professional associations.
The Opportunity
At no other time in history have there been so many options for non-traditional students to pursue continuing education. The Florida State University web-based MSN Family Nurse Practitioner program is designed to allow the working nurse to integrate school into an already busy lifestyle. A flexible schedule, coupled with the ability to arrange convenient clinical placements make distance learning the option of choice for many professionals interested in expanding their education and employment potential.