Care for patients at every age, from newborns to older adults. Build the broadest scope of practice in advanced nursing.
Master of Science in Nursing
Prepare to provide and direct comprehensive primary care for patients of every age with a CCNE-accredited Master of Science in Nursing, specializing in Family Nurse Practitioner at Florida Southern College.
You will care for newborns, children, adults, and older adults, often within the same family and often for years at a time: managing wellness visits and chronic disease, diagnosing and treating acute illness, and practicing preventive care across the full lifespan. It is the broadest scope in advanced practice nursing, and it asks you to be fluent in all of it. FSC prepares you through close cohorts, mentorship from practicing nurses, and a curriculum that adds dedicated pediatric and childbearing family coursework to a full primary care core.
FNP offers the broadest scope in advanced practice nursing. You will care for patients of all ages and handle a wide range of needs. No other track covers the entire lifespan or opens as many career doors.
That range becomes flexibility. FNPs work in clinics, urgent care, schools, and community health, often connecting outpatient and inpatient care. It is also the track that travels best if your life changes: an FNP credential fits nearly any primary care setting in the country.
What separates FNP from Adult-Gerontology comes down to two courses: primary health care of the childbearing family, and pediatric family health. Those courses let you follow a family through every stage, from pregnancy through adulthood.
That continuity is the reason many nurses choose this track. You are not treating a series of unrelated patients. You are learning to see how a household's health works as a whole, and to stay with people long enough to watch it change.
The FNP track requires at least 660 clinical hours, with rotations spanning pediatrics, women's health, and adult primary care. National accreditation standards set the floor at 500. The extra hours exist because breadth of scope demands breadth of exposure, and an FNP who has never worked a pediatric rotation is not ready for the job the credential describes.
Everything in this section is specific to the Family Nurse Practitioner track. Costs, admission requirements, and clinical placement work the same way across all three MSN tracks.
The MSN-FNP curriculum prepares you to provide and direct comprehensive care for families, adults, and children within a primary care setting. Courses integrate advanced nursing theory with evidence-based clinical practice, building essential skills in diagnostic reasoning, advanced pharmacology, and population health management.
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| NUR 5120 | Leadership, Role Development, and Advocacy for Advanced Nursing Practice |
| NUR 5150 | Advanced Pharmacology Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 5200 | Advanced Pathophysiology Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 5220 | Advanced Health Assessment and Differential Diagnoses Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 5250 | Evidence Translation and Quality Improvement for Advanced Nursing Practice |
| NUR 5300 | Advanced Diagnostic Methods and Procedures |
| NUR 5400 | Health Promotion, Clinical Prevention, and Population Health for Advanced Nursing Practice |
| NUR 5450 | Informatics and Health Care Technologies |
| NUR 6430 | Care of the Older Adult and Frail Elderly |
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| NUR 6110 | Advanced Practice Nurse I |
| NUR 6160 | Advanced Practice Nurse II |
| NUR 6520 | Transition to Advanced Nursing Practice Role: Family Nurse Practitioner |
| NUR 6640 | Primary Health Care of the Childbearing Family |
| NUR 6645 | Pediatric Family Health |
| NUR 6660 | Advanced Practice Nurse III |
Total: 47 hours
Hands-on clinical practice is the cornerstone of your FNP training, where classroom learning becomes patient care. You will complete a minimum of 660 clinical hours across simulated and real-world settings, with rotations spanning pediatrics, women's health, and adult primary care. FSC's Clinical Placement Coordinator arranges your sites and preceptors, so you are not searching for a placement while carrying a full course load.
You will wear a white lab coat over business casual during advanced health assessment and follow your clinical site's dress requirements throughout your rotations.
The MSN is a structured, full-time program, and you move through it as part of a dedicated cohort. FNP students meet on campus one day per week throughout the program.
Because the coursework is rigorous, especially during clinical semesters, we strongly recommend reducing your work hours while enrolled.
Graduates are prepared to sit for the national certification examination as a Family Nurse Practitioner through the American Nurses Credentialing Center or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board.
Beginning in your second semester, you will take a series of predictor exams that gauge your readiness to move into clinical courses and forecast your likelihood of passing the certification exam.
Tuition, admission requirements, and clinical placement work the same way whichever track you choose. Here is what to expect.
No. Prior psychiatric or mental health experience is not required to apply. Our PMHNP track is designed to prepare you with the knowledge and clinical skills you need, starting from your foundation as a registered nurse.
Yes. The master's degree program in nursing and the post-graduate APRN certificate programs at Florida Southern College are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 655 K Street NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202.887.6791.
Both prepare you to care for patients across the entire lifespan, but the similarity ends there. The Family track prepares you to be a primary care provider handling wellness visits, chronic disease management, acute illness, and prevention. The Psychiatric-Mental Health track specializes in behavioral health, training you in psychiatric assessment, psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy. Choose Psychiatric-Mental Health if you want to practice mental health care specifically, rather than treat mental health as one part of general primary care.
The PMHNP track requires a minimum of 540 population-focused clinical hours, completed across your practicum experiences.
The PMHNP track runs six semesters and 44 credit hours, the same length as the Family track and one semester longer than Adult-Gerontology. Clinical hours are 540, matching Adult-Gerontology.
FSC stands out for offering a highly supportive, student-centered environment featuring tight-knit cohorts and personal faculty mentorship from advanced practice nurses.
To reduce graduate school stress, FSC provides a dedicated Clinical Placement Coordinator who fully handles your clinical site and preceptor placements.
Additionally, as one of FSC's newest graduate nursing offerings, the PMHNP track prepares you for a field facing critical workforce shortages, helping you expand access to mental health care across your community.
Graduates practice in inpatient psychiatric facilities, crisis intervention centers, community mental health clinics, private psychiatric practices, substance use and recovery programs, and telepsychiatry.
Join us online to learn more about our MSN tracks as well as Post-Master's certificate opportunities....
Admissions
Join us online to learn more about our MSN tracks as well as Post-Master's certificate opportunities....
Admissions
Join us online to learn more about our MSN tracks as well as Post-Master's certificate opportunities....
Admissions
At Florida Southern, you are our focus. Our graduate admissions team supports you through the application process and helps you decide whether the FNP track fits your goals.
Assistant Professor of Nursing, MSN Program Director, Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program Coordinator
Interested in other specialized advanced practice nursing paths? Learn more about FSC's other master's and doctoral opportunities:
Request more information about the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner track, join a virtual information session, or start your free graduate application.
