MSN: Family Nurse Practitioner

MSN Family Nurse Practitioner Program at a Glance

• 46 Credit Hours – Taken 100% Online
• 7 semesters to complete
• Affordable tuition
• 733 clinical hours

Family Nurse Practitioner Program Structure

HCU’s FNP program courses are 100% online and asynchronous. Students can finish the 46 required credits in as little as 7 semesters. They will also complete 733 clinical hours at local healthcare facilities.

MSN-FNP degree plan

Course Summaries and Highlights

• Theory Integration: Explores and analyzes theories from social, psychological, medical, nursing, and interpersonal relations as a foundation for understanding research, practice, and scholarship in nursing.
• Research Integration: Teaches students to integrate appropriate research to resolve clinical issues using evidence-based practice that incorporates patient preferences, clinical expertise, and research data.
• Leadership for Quality, Safety and Health Policy: Explores leadership principles in relation to healthcare organizations, quality improvement processes, health policy development, and ethical-legal dimensions of advanced nursing practice within healthcare systems.
• Advanced Pathophysiology: Focuses on pathophysiological processes across the lifespan and developing clinical reasoning skills to distinguish relationships between normal physiology and system alterations caused by injury and disease, with emphasis on etiology, pathogenesis, developmental influences, and clinical manifestations.
• Advanced Pharmacology: Provides advanced knowledge in therapeutic pharmacology, exploring treatment of major health problems through principles of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics while considering cultural, demographic, and legal aspects of prescribing.
• Advanced Health Assessment: Builds on basic health assessment skills to develop theoretical and clinical bases for comprehensive physical, psychosocial, and cultural assessment across the lifespan relevant to common health problems in advanced nursing practice.
• Adult Health and Clinicals: Explores advanced studies in the diagnosis and management of acute and chronic illnesses in adult patient populations and over 130 clinical hours.
• Growth and Development Across the Lifespan and Clinical: Provides comprehensive study of human growth and development from conception through late adulthood, combining theoretical knowledge with over 80 hours of hands-on clinical experience in patient care across the lifespan.
• Advanced Role: Provides a conceptual basis for advanced practice nursing with emphasis on leadership roles in healthcare delivery, policy, and complex systems.
• Advanced Diagnostics and Skills: Focuses on managing complex healthcare problems through the development of evidence-based diagnostic and clinical decision-making skills. Participants evaluate the use of advanced diagnostic techniques in terms of best evidence, client values/beliefs, available resources, and clinical expertise. This course will also provide hands-on practice with the advanced skills needed in primary care.
• Advanced Practicum: Provides advanced evidence-based care in primary care clinics and other approved outpatient settings under the supervision of a preceptor. Students will be expected to integrate knowledge and skills gained in previous courses.
• Woman’s Health and Clinical: This course provides studies in the diagnosis and management of women’s health issues for advanced nursing practice, including over 80 clinical hours.
• Pediatric Health and Clinical: provides advanced nursing practice in the diagnosis and management of common, acute and chronic illness in the pediatric patient population, including over 80 clinical hours.

Tight-Knit Community

At HCU, small class sizes foster connections with your professors and peers that extend beyond the walls of the classroom.

Personalized Support

We’ll match you with a success coach who will assist you with registration, organization, and academic guidance.

Mission-Driven

Our Christian values make up the heart of our institution. The MSN: Family Nurse Practitioner curriculum reflects our focus on community-based care, with opportunities for service-based learning.

Affordable

Make the most of annual tuition reimbursement from employers to complete the program affordably.

HCU partners with numerous healthcare organizations, including the Texas Medical Center, to connect students with leading healthcare experts and top facilities so they can hone their clinical skills.

The mean income for a nurse practitioner in Houston as of May 2023 – Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Projected growth in employment of nurse practitioners from 2022 to 2032 – BLS

Number of NPs nationwide in 2023, 70% of them FNPs – American Academy of Nurse Practitioners

What Our Students And Faculty Are Saying