Introduction:
The Master of Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (PC-NP) aims to prepare registered nurses with advanced training. Didactic and clinical courses will prepare nurses with specialized knowledge and clinical competencies to practice in primary health care settings. Nurse practitioners will bring a comprehensive perspective and personal touch to healthcare in Saudi Arabia. To do this, students are expected to demonstrate a high level of professional competencies. Competency development is determined at the interface between acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. So, SEU in collaboration with Colorado State University-Global Campus build the master of PC-NP which provides high-quality educational standards and international practices to prepare qualified nurse practitioners in order to represent the nation and compete with international universities.
Program Identification and General Information:
Program title: Master of Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (PC-NP)
Total credit hours needed for completion of the program:: 38 credits (930 clinical hours)
Award granted on completion of the program:: Master’s Degree in Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (PC-NP)
Major tracks/pathways or specializations within the program: One track / four levels
Professional occupations:
- Family Nurse Practitioner
- Community Health Nurse Practitioner
- Gerontological Nurse Practitioner
- General Nurse Practitioner
Program Goals:
- Prepare nurses with advanced practice knowledge and skills which would enable them to practice collaboratively to promote health and prevent diseases.
- Prepare culturally competent nurses who can assess, diagnose, and manage common and various health conditions in primary care and other settings as applicable.
- Develop critical thinking and decision-making skills in advanced practice nursing care approaches, including diagnostic, and therapeutic modalities.
- Incorporate theories of nursing practice as a guide for advanced practice nursing into quality and performance initiatives within multidisciplinary healthcare settings.
- Promote a culture of inquiry that transforms nursing practice through evidence-based research initiatives.
- Adhere to professional standards for ethical decision-making, inter-professional and intra-professional collaboration, and engagement in strategic initiatives in primary care that promote optimal health for individuals and communities
Program Structure:
Year 1
| Year 1 | Course Code | Course Title | Credit Hours | Pre-requisites | Co-requisites |
| Level 1 | NUR 501 | Advanced Pathophysiology | 3 | ||
| NUR 502 | Advanced Health Assessment | 3 | |||
| NUR 503 | Advanced Pharmacology | 3 | |||
| NUR 504 | Concepts & Roles in APN | 3 | |||
| Total | 12 | ||||
| Year 1 | Course Code | Course Title | Credit Hours | Pre-requisites | Co-requisites |
| Level 2 | NUR 500 | Evidence-Based Research and Quality Assurance in Nursing | 3 | ||
| NUR 505 | Program Planning for Health Promotion | 3 | |||
| NUR 506 | Advanced Clinical Nursing | 3 | |||
| NUR 507 | Clinical Decision Making | 5 | |||
| Total | 14 | ||||
Year 2
| Year 2 | Course Code | Course Title | Credit Hours | Pre-requisites | Co-requisites |
| Level 3 | NUR 508 | Applied Biostatistics in Health Care | 3 | ||
| NUR 509 | APN in Primary Care I | 3
|
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| NUR 510 | Clinical Training for APN in Primary Care I (4 days per week, with a total of 28 clinical hours per week) | P/F no credits | NUR 509 | ||
| NUR 513 | Capstone – Clinical Focus | 3 | This course over 2 semesters | ||
| Total | 9 | ||||
| Year 2 | Course Code | Course Title | Credit Hours | Pre-requisites | Co-requisites |
| Level 4 | NUR 511 | APN in Primary Care II | 3
|
NUR 509
NUR 510 |
|
| NUR 512 | Clinical Training for APN in Primary Care II (4 days per week, with a total of 28 clinical hours per week) | P/F no credits | NUR 509
NUR 510 |
NUR 511 | |
| Total | 3 | ||||
| Program Total Credit Hours | 38 | ||||
Course Descriptions
NUR 500 – Evidence-Based Research and Quality Assurance in Nursing:
In this graduate-level course, nursing students will acquire the skills needed to evaluate evidence-based research and outcomes. Topics include using statistics and information systems in evaluation and research, continuous quality improvement, evidence-based research and practice, safety and quality metrics, performance improvement indicators, and team-based problem-solving.
NUR 501 – Advanced Pathophysiology:
In this course, graduate nursing students will focus on pathophysiology and disruptions in normal body functioning for individuals across the lifespan. Students will examine the principles of disease and health disparities resulting from genetic, environmental, and stress-related causes are included. Assessment findings, diagnostic testing, and interventions specific to selected health problems are examined. Students will develop critical thinking skills for pathophysiologic causes and treatments of given disease processes.
NUR 502 – Advanced Health Assessment:
In this course, nursing students will build upon health assessment skills developed by the nurse’s basic educational program and previous nursing experience. Students will develop both advanced theoretical and clinical bases for assessment. Students will apply advanced comprehensive physical, psychosocial, and cultural assessment across the lifespan to gather specific data relevant to common health problems. Students are provided with practice assessing patients and presenting findings.
NUR 503 – Advanced Pharmacology:
In this course, nursing students will focus on pharmacology and therapeutics used in the treatment of selected health conditions. The student will explore, analyze, apply, and evaluate commonly used drugs for the treatment of chronic diseases and self-limiting acute conditions and apply critical appraisal skills in determining the best evidence for prescriptive intervention. Emphasis is placed on the decision-making process utilized to safely and effectively prescribe and monitor pharmacotherapeutics appropriate to the client’s situation.
NUR 504 – Concepts & Roles in APN:
This course equips students with a knowledge base on the scope of practice, legal, and legislation aspects governing the implementation of APN roles. It provides an overview of nursing’s philosophical, ethical, and theoretical frameworks as a guide for advanced practice nursing. Furthermore, the course explores the professional aspects and regulations associated with advanced practice nursing including professional role definition, issues and transition to the advanced nursing role. Furthermore, the application of research evidence into practice will be considered in this course.
NUR 505 – Program Planning for Health Promotion:
In this course, students will focus on the role of the nurse leader in program planning for health promotion and disease prevention for populations. Topics will include determinants of health, epidemiology, biostatistics, and advancing equity in access, services, and outcomes for vulnerable populations.
NUR 506 – Advanced Clinical Nursing:
This course would help the students to understand disease processes and rationalize symptoms associated with different types of illnesses. The course will prepare the students for the clinical component of the program by helping them to apply their knowledge and solve clinical problems. The emphasis of this course will be on normal organ development, structure, and functions as well as therapeutic modalities specific to different diseases. Each section of the course will highlight a body system with a focus on normal and abnormal findings.
NUR 507 – Clinical Decision-Making:
This course helps the students to link their assessment findings with other information which would enable the students to make informed clinical decisions. This course highlights the required advanced nursing interventions and decision-making for all patients across their lifespan. The focus would be on patients experiencing transitions in health status due to chronic/acute conditions. This course demonstrates the students’ clinical judgment in analyzing patients’ clinical manifestations.
NUR 508 – Applied Biostatistics in Health Care:
This course provides an introduction to important topics in biostatistical concepts and reasoning. It also represents an introduction to basic concepts covering study designs and sample size computation. Students will be introduced to how to apply basic theoretical concepts of biostatistics in health science, epidemiology, and public health. Knowledge about measurement scales, types of variables, and data along with various statistical methods for summarizing and presenting different types of data will be provided. The concept of probability with its applications in epidemiology and public health will be introduced. The course concludes with a moderate-level presentation of important probability distributions applied commonly in epidemiology and public health. The whole program will be delivered in an application-oriented way by giving more weightage for problem-solving in nursing.
NUR 509 – APN in Primary Care I:
This course equips students with knowledge and skills that are important for screening, understanding, and managing common health issues in primary care and different community health settings across the lifespan. The course should equip students with problem-solving, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment strategies necessary in health promotion and disease prevention.
NUR 510 – Clinical Training for APN in Primary Care I:
In this course, students will be able to apply learned knowledge and skills from APN in Primary Care I course in different primary care clinical settings.
NUR 511 – APN in Primary Care II:
Building upon Primary Health Care I course, this course equips students with advanced knowledge and skills that are important for screening, understanding, and managing complex health issues in primary care settings across lifespan. The focus of this course will include specific common and complex health issues for adult, older adult, woman, child, adolescent, and infant patients. The course should build upon previously learned cognitive and psychomotor skills in Primary Health Care I to improve students’ critical thinking, problem-solving, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment strategies necessary in health promotion and disease prevention.
NUR 512 – Clinical Training for APN in Primary Care II:
In this course, students will be able to apply learned knowledge and skills from APN in Primary Care II course in different primary care clinical settings.
NUR 513 – Capstone:
Students will develop and conduct a quality improvement project relevant to the focus of their clinical settings. The course will help students to integrate evidence-based practice knowledge and biostatistics skills into the clinical settings to promote health, prevent disease, or manage a health condition. The goal is to provide students with hands-on research experience through completing a research project starting with hypothesis development (if applicable), literature searching, experimental design, data collection, and analysis and interpretation. Then they will write up the research and its findings according to an established format.
