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Graduate Catalog | 2015-2016 
    
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Graduate Catalog | 2015-2016 Previous Edition

Family Nurse Practitioner Across the Lifespan, M.S.N

This specialty leads to a MSN with a specialty in Family Nurse Practitioner Across the Lifespan.  These Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) will be prepared to function as Nurse Practitioners providing primary care to families across the lifespan.  The graduates of this program will be eligible to take the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) examination for Nurse Practitioner Across the Lifespan certification.  The Family Nurse Practitioner program is a full-time, campus-based program.

Additional Admission Requirements

  1. Unencumbered license as a Registered Nurse in North Carolina
  2. BSN degree from a nationally accredited program. The RN-to-MSN option is not available to NP applicants. 
  3. Total score of 293 on the revised GRE or 950 on the old GRE on verbal and quantitative portions (Note:  the Miller Analogy Test is not accepted.)
  4. One year of professional nursing practice
  5. Overall GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in the last degree and in the last 60 hours of nursing coursework
  6. Completion of an undergraduate statistics course with a grade of C or above
  7. Statement of Purpose in the application packet explaining the applicant’s career goal in relation to primary care and family practice.  (Note: Statement of Purpose should not exceed two double-spaced typed pages.)
  8. References should be from professional colleagues and should speak to clinical knowledge and expertise and one’s ability to function a member of the healthcare team.  At least one reference from a supervisory person is preferred.

Application is competitive.  Students are admitted annually in the Fall semester.  See the School of Nursing website at nursing.uncc.edu for application deadline. 

Degree Requirements

The program requires completion of 46 credit hours in approved courses.

Core Courses (9 credit hours)

Cognate Courses (6 credit hours)

Advanced Clinical Core (7 credit hours)

FNP Specialty Courses (21 credit hours)

Synthesis Project or Thesis (3 credit hours)

Additional Degree Requirements

  1. A minimum of 600 hours of supervised clinical experience as a Nurse Practitioner is required.
  2. Students may receive no more than one C grade in any graduate course. The second C will result in suspension from the program.
  3. In order to progress in the specialty, a grade of B is required in the following courses:
    1. BIOL 6274 - Advanced Human Pathophysiology  (3)
    2. NURS 6220 - Pharmacotherapeutics in Advanced Nursing Practice  (3)
    3. NURS 6230 - Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning for Advanced Practice  (3)
    4. NURS 6430 - Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning Practicum  (1) *
    5. All required courses with a NUNP prefix.
  4. Faculty advising is required.

*Clinical Course that requires 60 hours practice for each 1 credit hour.  Clinical courses may require travel to clinical sites outside Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

Research Opportunities

Students who choose to do so will have the opportunity to serve as Research Assistants on faculty research projects. Students will have an opportunity to choose a mentored research experience in their Synthesis courses.