Family Health Nurse Practitioner Program

Penn's FNP program, begun in 1973, is among the oldest NP master's degree program in the United States. It is consistently ranked in the top three by US News & World Report. Every FNP faculty member is currently in practice offering students a uniquely relevant educational experience. Our clinical preceptors include nurse practitioners and physicians in the inner city and suburbs. Opportunities also exist for students to work with patients speaking languages other than English.

The Global Nursing and Healthcare Minor enables graduates to deliver primary care throughout the world and involves four additional courses. Students have the opportunity to study abroad with faculty mentors.

The Family Health NP program offers full-time, part-time, post-master's, and BSN/MSN study. The full time program is 16 months in length, beginning each September, and continuing through the year to the following December. Course work includes 4 core courses (graduate research and sciences), 1 elective, and 9 theory/clinical courses. The clinical courses include classroom work, lab sessions, and clinical preceptorships focused on physical assessment and pathophysiology, health maintenance and the management of common acute and chronic health problems.

Graduates are eligible to become certified by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as Family Health Certified Registered Nurse Practitioners (CRNP) and are eligible for prescriptive authority. Successful completion of the program also qualifies graduates to apply for national certification from either the American Nurses' Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).