Education

We prepare graduates to be expert clinicians, conduct quality research, and demonstrate effective leadership that emanates from a spirit of inquiry and a commitment to life-long learning. Explore more Family Health Care Nursing Resources.

Specialty Areas

Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (ACPNP)

The ACPNP program trains students to work in hospital-based pediatric acute care areas, PICU, Pediatric Cardiac ICU, Pediatric Emergency Department, and program-based specialties that manage acutely ill patients from the outpatient setting through inpatient, to discharge. Clinical Experience is required for admission, not open to MEPN applicants.

Advanced Practice Neonatal Nursing (NNP or CNS)

The Advanced Practice Neonatal Nurse meets the specialized needs of acutely ill and recuperating neonates/infants and their families in a variety of settings including hospital-based neonatal intensive care, convalescent care, and neonatal follow-up. Students enrolling in the neonatal specialty can choose to become either a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) or Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS). Clinical Experience is required for admission, not open to MEPN applicants.

Certified Nurse-Midwife / Women's Health Nurse Practitioner
Nurse-midwives provide primary care to childbearing women in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings including hospitals, homes, and birth centers.
Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)
The Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) meets the healthcare needs of the individual and family by providing comprehensive primary care through the lifespan.
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP)

The Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) program prepares students to become leaders in the care of infants, children and adolescents. PNP graduates deliver advanced practice clinical care to children across the health and illness continuum and across practice settings in the community-including primary care clinics, urgent care, school-based health centers (SBHC), home health and specialty pediatric clinics. Our graduates also have expertise to work with diverse, vulnerable, underserved populations including the care of children with chronic health conditions and children with special health care needs.

Research

Department of Family Health Care Nursing

Faculty research focuses on health and optimal development of children, women and families across the lifespan; and developing and testing interventions to optimize health and quality of life. Basic clinical and translational studies are conducted to develop knowledge about reciprocal relationships between family processes and health in acute and chronic illness. We have an emphasis on partnership with communities and research participants from diverse backgrounds where health disparities exist.

Research programs focus on:

  • Children with complex chronic conditions as they age and transition through the healthcare system

  • Environmental effects on infant health and development

  • Psychobiological responses to childhood adversity

  • Symptom experience across the lifespan (pain, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, etc.) and self-management interventions enhanced by technology

  • Culturally-adapted family interventions for obesity and diabetes

  • System-level interventions to improve quality of care, patient safety, and patient and family engagement in care across a variety of health care environments.

Research Activities

Availability of Trial of Labor after Cesarean among California Hospitals: Understanding Predictive Factors and Possible Racial and Ethnic Disparities
CBPR with Immigrant Chinese with Diabetes

The epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. is particularly acute in ethnic minority groups.

Comforting Your Baby In Intensive Care

Resources for parents including, a booklet written for parents to help them learn about infant pain and the important role parents can play, in partnership with the health care team, to keep their baby comfortable during intensive care.

Effects of Sleep, Fatigue, and Timing of Post-Dates Inductions among Nulliparas

Today, nearly 1 in 4 births in the United States (US) are induced, a rate more than twice that of 20 years ago. Unsuccessful inductions lead to cesarean deliveries, and there is evidence that the increase in induced births is contributing to the increasing cesarean rate.

Environmental Perspectives on Healthy Households in Rural Peru

This a new research partnership formed in February, 2011 to collaborate with nursing faculty at the Universidad Católica Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (USAT) in Chiclayo, Perú to investigate community-based environmental interventions to improve water sanit

iStart Smart: Promoting Health and Weight Management in the Primary Care Clinic for Overweight and Obese Chinese American Children
Linking Service-Learning Education to Health Equity Research in a Nursing Baccalaureate Program in Honolulu, Hawaii
Neurodevelopment and Anthropometric Growth of Infants Exposed to Household Air Pollution in Rural Guatemala
Provision of Reproductive Health Services by Traditional Birth Attendants and Health Workers in Rural Guatemala
Sleep Disordered Breathing and Efficacy of Nasal CPAP in Women at Risk for Preeclampsia: A Pilot Study

Sleep-disordered breathing is on a continuum from occasional snoring to interrupted breathing (apneas) and is associated with abdominal weight gain and hypertension in adult men and post-menopausal women.

Transition to Adulthood Plans Studies (TAPS and TAPS II)

Sixty one teens and young adults and their parents are participating in the Transition to Adulthood Plans Study (TAPS). All of the youth have both a physical health condition that requires ongoing treatment or monitoring, and they are developmentally disabled.

Service

To reinforce our mission to provide public service, FHCN has several community service projects underway: