Family Nurse Practitioner
Post-Baccalaureate to Master's or Doctor of Nursing Practice
The Family Nurse Practitioner specialty
Nurse practitioners are an integral part of today’s healthcare system. NP’s provide high quality, cost-effective care that results in a high level of patient satisfaction. Nurse practitioners practice in all 50 states and have become recognized and respected members of the healthcare community. Increasingly, people are choosing nurse practitioners as their regular healthcare providers.
In Oregon, family nurse practitioners deliver critically important services especially to rural and medically underserved populations. Family nurse practitioners apply advanced knowledge and clinical skills in many facets of healthcare, including providing prenatal care and family-planning services; providing well-child care; obtaining medical histories and performing physical examinations; diagnosing, treating, and monitoring acute health problems and chronic diseases; ordering, performing and interpreting diagnostic studies. FNP’s have prescriptive rights and work in a variety of settings including hospitals, clinics, businesses, physician offices, independent nurse practitioner offices, and schools of nursing.
The family nurse practitioner program has been designed to cover a combination of advanced practice core, FNP specialty courses, and doctor of nursing practice core courses. This combination prepares students for practice in the field and simultaneously provides a framework for clinical leadership and policy that is critical for any nurse practitioner in practice today.
Students in this program can either take two years of full-time study and complete the MN degree and elect to get licensed as a FNP. Students may also attend for three years of full-time study and achieve the MN on the way to receiving the DNP. Either option offers a practice-focused curriculum that will support the career trajectory for those pursuing expert clinical practice and leadership as a family nurse practitioner. A post master’s certificate option is also available in this area.
What You Will Study and Learn
The program emphasizes care that is interdisciplinary, collaborative and culturally appropriate. In addition to content with a focus on all age groups, the program of study also provides you with in-depth knowledge and clinical experiences in such areas as: advance health assessment/physical, diagnosing/ pathophysiology, health promotion, acute and chronic illness management, role development as a primary care, clinician, pharmacology and reproductive and prenatal care.
Additionally, the program incorporates core DNP courses that prepare graduates to be leaders in innovative evidence-based practice and shape the future of healthcare.
Coursework – Offered for students in Portland and Regionally
The FNP program is offered to students in two cohort options; a Portland cohort and a Regional cohort. The Portland cohort is designed for students who live within a two hour commute of the OHSU Portland Campus. Students complete their coursework predominantly in via face-to-face classes at the main OHSU campus. However, some courses or portion of courses may also be online. Clinical rotations for the Portland cohort may occur in the metro area or within two hours driving time of Portland.
The Regional cohort is designed for students living outside of a two hour commute or in neighboring states border counties (Wash.*, Idaho, Calif.). Students complete the same coursework as the Portland-based cohort, using time specific online class schedules. Clinical rotations for the regional group will be arranged based on available and appropriate sites.
*Washington state students living within a two hour commute of OHSU will be part of the Portland cohort
All students may be required to travel if local sites are not adequate or suitable. All courses are supported through an online web based course management system (Sakai) which allows asynchronous delivery of additional class materials and a discussion forum.
