Family Nurse Practitioner MSN Degree

A Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse (RN) with advanced education who is able to assess, diagnose (nursing and medical), manage (including prescribe), and evaluate care for persons who are ill, injured, and/or have chronic diseases.

Health promotion and disease prevention are integral in the FNP's practice. The FNP practices independently and autonomously within the nurse practitioner's scope of practice, and collaboratively with physicians and other health care providers.

The WTAMU FNP program prepares students for advanced practice registered nursing (APRN) providing primary healthcare in diverse areas (e.g. underserved areas, clinics, occupational settings, independent practice.) This results in improved access to primary healthcare. Successful graduates are eligible to sit for the Advanced Practice Family Nurse Practitioner Exam. This program is available in a hybrid format with clinical experiences in Texas only.

Upon successful completion of the M.S.N. programs, graduates will be prepared to:

• Integrate scientific findings from nursing, biopsychosocial fields, genetics, public health, quality improvement, and organization sciences for the continual improvement of nursing care across diverse settings.
• Recognize that organization and systems leadership are critical to the promotion of high quality and safe patient care..
• Be articulate in the methods, tools, performance measures and standards related to quality.
• Apply research outcomes within practice settings, work as a change agent, and disseminate results.
• Use patient-care technologies to deliver and enhance care and use communication technologies to integrate and coordinate care.
• Intervene at the systems level through policy development and advocacy strategies.
• Communicate, collaborate and consult with other health professionals.
• Integrate organizational skills for client-centered, culturally appropriate concepts in the planning, delivery, management and evaluation in prevention strategies for identified populations.
• Integrate knowledge into practice.

Program Eligibility Checklist:

• Applicants must hold an unencumbered RN nursing license in the U.S.
• The applicant must have a cumulative GPA for the last 60 hours of college credit of at least a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Failure in any nursing coursework will be taken into consideration. A Nursing GPA will also be calculated and taken into consideration. If you do not have the minimum GPA, please contact the Nursing Department for additional options for consideration.

Application Checklist:

1. Apply to Graduate School
   1. provide one official copy of all transcripts to the Graduate School (WTAMU graduates are excluded).
2. Apply to Graduate Nursing Program Application (pdf)
   1. Include a resume.
   2. Provide the School of Nursing with contact information for two (non-academic) clinical supervisory references.
   3. Submit a written a goal statement that will be evaluated based on:
      • Clear focus related to a goal statement
      • Supportive detail regarding the goal statement
      • Organization of goal statement (clear introduction, body and conclusion)
      • Clarity, grammar, and punctuation
      • Goal statement is typed with a word count of between 500-750 words.

Application Deadlines:

• The application deadline for the FNP specialization is March 1 for a fall admission start and September 1 for spring admission start.

FNP Average Wages:

• $97,000 - Texas Panhandle
• $110,000 - State of Texas 

Visit the Department of Labor Statistics Health Care Industry page for more information.

• Visit the WT Scholarships page for more details.
• Visit the WT Cost Calculator to estimate costs for this program.