Master of Science in Nursing-Family Nurse Practitioner

USC’s Master of Science in Nursing program prepares nurses to deliver high-quality health care while considering the social determinants that affect health and well-being. Coursework encompasses health promotion and education, disease prevention, physical assessment and diagnosis, pathophysiology and pharmacology, and illness management.

MSN students must complete 50 credit hours of coursework and 680 clinical hours. Students who are required to take the bridge course prior to admission will complete 52 credits. The program is offered on a full-time (five semesters) and part-time (eight semesters) basis and can be completed in 21 to 33 months. To see full-time and part-time options, visit our Course Schedules page.

Program Overview

Online FNP Program

The online Master of Science in Nursing from USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work Department of Nursing, offers a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program that prepares advanced practice nurses to deliver primary care to infants, children, adolescents and adults throughout their lives.

The MSN program emphasizes health care grounded in an understanding of the biomedical and social factors that influence patient well-being. The MSN program trains nurse practitioners to provide integrative care alongside other professionals, such as physicians, pharmacists, social workers and case managers. Classes for the FNP program are held online, with clinical placements in or near your own community.

Full-Time and Part-Time Program Tracks

With the USC MSN-FNP program, you can balance your personal and professional obligations with your education. The online FNP program is offered on both a full-time and part-time basis, allowing you to determine how you want to manage your time and lifestyle. The full-time track can be completed in 21 months, and the part-time track can be completed in 33 months.

USC Curriculum — Delivered Online

The online FNP program’s curriculum is designed and delivered by distinguished faculty, who are active, respected nurses in the field. With an integrative approach to health care, the MSN program teaches you to identify the root causes of health issues such as illness and premature death. As a student, you will explore the biomedical, psychological, social, cultural, environmental and economic influences on health care through an understanding of clinical research and evidence-based practice.

The program incorporates online and in-person education. The online format allows you to seamlessly connect with USC faculty and fellow aspiring FNPs. You are encouraged to collaborate with your peers and faculty during online discussion groups, regularly held office hours and while attending two on-campus intensives.

Courses

NURS 501 – Pathophysiology for Advanced Nursing Practice (4 units)

This course in organ systems physiology is designed to integrate advanced physiology with pathophysiology and clinical implications across the lifespan for advanced nursing practice. Organ systems function and dysfunction from cell level through integrated organ levels will be presented, as well as the genetic basis of disease. An understanding of alterations in biological processes that affect the body’s dynamic equilibrium or homeostasis will be discussed allowing students to differentiate abnormal physiologic functions that result in illness.

NURS 502 – Advanced Health Assessment Across the Life Span (3 units)

This is a theory/laboratory course designed to help advanced nurse practitioner students develop advanced clinical assessment skills and diagnostic reasoning appropriate for advanced clinical practice. Building on undergraduate course work and previous clinical experience, this course utilizes life span development and health risk appraisal frameworks as the basis for health assessment. This allows the learner to differentiate the normal anatomic and physiologic variation across the life span. Health assessment skills and interviewing techniques are practiced with fellow students and human simulators.

NURS 503 – Theory: Clinical Management of Adult Patients (3 units)

This course provides the nurse practitioner student with the necessary knowledge and experience to diagnose and manage individuals with common health problems, including acute episodic illness. Emphasis is placed on assisting adults to reach or maintain the highest level of health and functioning, with a focus on health promotion, health maintenance, and primary care management of common problems encountered by adult patients.

NURS 504 – Clinical Pharmacology for Advanced Practice Nursing (3 units)

This course is a comprehensive review of pharmacological concepts and principles. The course builds on the pharmacology knowledge base acquired in the baccalaureate nursing program. It focuses on use of pharmacotherapeutics in health promotion and the treatment of disease. The interrelationships of nursing and drug therapy will be explored through study of pharmacodynamics, dynamics of patient response to medical and nursing therapeutic regimens, and patient teaching as well as the psychosocial, economic, cultural, ethical, and legal factors affecting drug therapy, patient responses, and nursing practice.

NURS 505 – Clinical Practicum: Management of Adult Patients (3 units)

This course provides advanced practice nursing students in the FNP track the clinical experience to apply the theoretical concepts studied in Theory: Clinical Management of Adult Patients course. The focus is on systemic assessment of adult health status incorporating health promotion, health maintenance and delivery of care strategies. In addition, the clinical experience will foster skills in the planning and implementation of care for adults with an altered health status. The clinical experience will take place in a variety of practice settings.

NURS 507 – Theory: Clinical Management of the Childbearing/Childrearing Family (3 units)

The course provides the nurse practitioner student with the necessary knowledge and experience to diagnose and manage the childbearing/childrearing families with common health problems, including acute episodic illness. Emphasis is placed on assisting the childrearing families to reach or maintain the highest level of health and functioning, with a focus on health promotion, health maintenance, and primary care management of common health problems. This includes care of children from birth through adolescents.

SOWK 506 – Human Behavior in the Social Environment (3 units)

This course prepares students with a critical working knowledge of a set of core theories of human behavior and development as foundational preparation for the social work field. The course introduces students to the values and ethics of social work and to the profession’s person-in-environment orientation for understanding human behavior.

Bio-psycho-social dimensions of human behavior are critically examined through focused study in four intellectual domains considered essential for 21st century social work: neurobiological aspects of behavior, psychodynamic theory, social cognitive behavioral theory, and social network theory. These domains provide a core set of lenses through which students will learn to critically analyze how people develop and function across a spectrum of micro to macro social systems (e.g., individual, family, social group/network, organizational/institutional, community, cultural, and temporal), and how these systems promote or impede health, well-being, and resiliency.

The course will afford students the opportunity to thoughtfully apply theoretical concepts and empirical knowledge to case studies of contemporary situations involving a range of adaptive issues for a diverse array of client systems. Special attention will be given to the influence of diversity characterized by (but not limited to) age, gender, class, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability and religion. The course makes important linkages between theory, practice and research, specifically in evaluating bio-psycho-social factors that impinge on person-in-environment functioning across micro, mezzo, and macro contexts.

NURS 600 – Theory: Clinical Management of Adult Patients With Complex Medical Issues (3 units)

This course provides the nurse practitioner student with the necessary knowledge and experience to conduct comprehensive assessments, formulate differential diagnoses, and develop plans of care to manage acute and chronic complex health problems. Emphasis will be placed on the development of advanced clinical skills. The unique perspective the family nurse practitioner brings to the patient encounter, as well as interprofessional collaboration with colleagues, and knowledge of specialty referrals are important aspects of the course.

NURS 601 – Clinical Practicum: Management of the Childbearing/Childrearing Family (3 units)

This course provides advanced practice nursing students in the FNP track the clinical experience to apply the theoretical concepts studied in Theory: Clinical Management of the Childbearing/Childrearing course. The course focuses on systemic assessment of these families status incorporating health promotion, health maintenance and delivery of care strategies. In addition the clinical experience will foster skills in the planning and implementation of care for childrearing families with an altered health status. The clinical experience can take place in a variety of practice settings.

NURS 602 – Research/Analytical Methods (3 units)

This course provides students the ability to critically analyze research literature to continue to build the foundation needed for nurses in advanced roles to engage in scholarly practice and quality improvement. Students are helped to examine the continuum of scholarly inquiry and how to contribute to such efforts. They also acquire the knowledge and skills essential to form investigative questions, conduct structured literature and database searches, and critical evaluate published research findings and conclusions. Course content prepares students to appraise quantitative and qualitative research, and evaluate the scientific merit and clinical significance of research for translation into practice. This course provides a foundation for understanding and applying commonly used research methodologies and data analysis techniques in health care research.

NURS 603 – Transforming Research Evidence Into Practice (3 units)

This course is designed to prepare the advanced practice nursing student to critically evaluate knowledge, research and evidence for implementation of best practices in health care. Students will formulate and conceptualize a clinical research question, critically appraise the evidence, and synthesize research findings to develop an integrated review paper that is publishable.

NURS 604 – Clinical Practicum: Management of Adult Patients With Complex Medical Issues (3 units)

This course provides advanced practice nursing students in the FNP track the clinical experience to apply the theoretical concepts studied in Theory: Clinical Management of Adult Patients with Complex Medical Issues. The course focuses on comprehensive assessments, formulation of differential diagnoses, and the development of plans of care to manage acute and chronic complex in a variety of practice settings.

NURS 605 – Professional Issues in Advanced Practice Nursing (2 units)

This course explores professional issues relevant for both entry into the advanced practice role and professional growth throughout a career. This course will focus on legal and professional responsibilities of the nurse practitioner with an emphasis on the value of inter-professional collaboration. The learner will consider effective leadership and management styles and their impact on practice. Common challenges experienced by nurse practitioners in the health practice arena will be reviewed.

NURS 606 – Health Policy Principles in Changing Health Care Contexts (2 units)

The purpose of this course is to provide a foundation for leadership in interprofessional collaborative endeavors to address health policy. This introductory course prepares learners to analyze and influence health policy and explores the role of nurse practitioners in the creation and modification of health policy. Current trends in health policy and the financing of healthcare delivery in the United States will be examined, including an evaluation of national healthcare expenditures and strategies for cost containment. The primary focus of this course is to prepare nursing leaders to become change agents with an emphasis on improving access to healthcare and eliminating health disparities. Learners will examine approaches used to advocate for healthcare equity on behalf of populations served and will be provided with an opportunity to design individual and organizational strategies to influence the policy-making process.

NURS 607 – Theory: Family Primary Care (2 units)

This capstone course is the culmination of theoretical and clinical knowledge for family nurse practitioner students in the care of individuals and families across the lifespan. Complex health related, biophysical, psychosocial and cultural concerns will be a focus in the theoretical aspect of this course. The capstone project for this course includes writing an abstract, creating an evidence-based research poster, and presentation, tied to an area of interest identified by the student in prior clinical theory courses and builds on coursework/assignments throughout the program.

NURS 608 – Clinical Practicum: Family Primary Care (3 units)

This capstone course is the culmination of clinical knowledge for family nurse practitioner students in the care of individuals and families across the lifespan. Students will conduct comprehensive assessments, formulate differential diagnoses, develop and implement plans of care to manage acute and chronic health problems across the lifespan.

Plus one elective in Social Work (3 units)

Some students may also be required to complete a graduate-level bridge course before beginning the program. This 2-credit course matches the rigor of the traditional curriculum and prepares students for pathophysiology and pharmacology, two of the most challenging courses in the program.

The course is offered through the same online platform as all other MS in Nursing courses, and will help students acclimate to USC’s unique online learning environment.

The course will be required for admitted students who have one or more of the following: