About Our Department
Global Leaders
The Family and Community Health (FCH) department also defines our community as a global one. With our longstanding participation in the Global Network of World Health Organization of Collaborating Centers for Nursing and Midwifery Development, we can look to carefully crafted community-based participatory research to affect change.
The Department’s commitment to enhancing the experiences of families and communities leads inexorably to its commitment to diversity - diversity of thought, of experiences, and a faculty dedicated to eliminating the disparities that plague our health and educational systems.
It also leads to our unique emphasis on historical methods to understand, challenge and change the systems we have inherited from the past as we look to a more just and equitable future.
We also have a long tradition of interprofessional leadership in our teaching, research and practice. And we now seek the same in our education of students who will assume new roles in a changing healthcare environment.
Department Programs
Undergraduate
Global Health
Health Communication
Master’s Programs
Nurse Practitioner Programs - Acute Care APRN Track
Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
Nurse Practitioner Programs - Primary Care APRN Track
Family Nurse Practitioner
Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Women’s Health/Gender-Related Nurse Practitioner
Advanced Specialist Programs
Master’s Minors
Starting the Conversation: Implications of Generative AI for Gerontology
Recently, Penn Nursing and the Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technologies Collaboratory for Healthy Aging (PennAITech) – funded by the National Institute on Aging – invited experts from academia, industry, and government to participate in a two-day (December 5-6, 2023) roundtable discussion to discuss challenges and opportunities in the use of Large language models (LLMs) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in gerontology. LLMs and the platforms they support such as ChatGPT have experienced an exponential growth in popularity and use in recent months.
Cacchione to Receive 2024 Norma M. Lang Award for Scholarly Practice and Policy
Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, CRNP, BC, FGSA, FAAN, the Ralston House Term Chair in Gerontological Nursing, Professor of Geropsychiatric Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health, and a Nurse Scientist at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center will be the 2024 recipient of Penn Nursing’s prestigious Norma M. Lang Award for Scholarly Practice and Policy. The award, given biennially to a Penn Nursing faculty member or a graduate from the School’s doctoral program who has made a distinguished contribution to nursing through scholarly practice, honors Norma M. Lang, PhD, the Professor and Dean Emerita of Penn Nursing, for her world-renowned contributions to health policy and practice.
Supporting the Well-Being of LGBTQ+ Adolescents and Their Families
Penn Nursing’s Dalmacio Dennis Flores, PhD, ACRN, FAAN, Assistant Professor of Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health, has been awarded a 2023 grant from the Hillman Innovations in Care (HIC) program. The $600,000 grant will be used to expand a Penn Nursing-led program that supports the well-being of LGBTQ+ adolescents and their families. This grant is awarded by The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation.
Integrating the Transitional Care Model into Nurse Practitioner Curricula to Improve Outcomes for High-Risk Older Adults
Managing transitions in care for older adults and their family caregivers, no matter the care setting, is especially challenging in a rapidly changing health care system. Patient discharges which typically require prescription writing, discharge summary creation, and team consultations for home care entail more complex coordination and planning.
Living Legend Designation for Penn Nursing Professor
The American Academy of Nursing has named Martha A.Q. Curley, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and the Ruth M. Colket Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing Science at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a Living Legend. This honor is bestowed upon a person who has made significant contributions to nursing and health care over the course of their career. The official designation will be made at the Academy’s 2023 Health Policy Conference: Celebrating 50 Years of Leadership, Policy, and Partnerships, to be held October 5-7, 2023. This is the Academy’s highest honor.