The Mission of the Family Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant (FNP/PA) Program is to educate healthcare professionals to deliver care as a member of a healthcare team and to improve the availability of culturally relevant primary healthcare in underserved populations throughout California.  Graduates possess the ability to evaluate the health status of an individual, diagnose and treat acute illness, manage chronic diseases, deliver preventive care, and counsel individuals on psychosocial problems in collaboration with a supervising physician.

The FNP/PA Program is a program in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, at UC Davis. The California Board of Registered Nursing approves the FNP Program. The PA Program is accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) and is approved by the Physician Assistant Committee (PAC) of the Medical Board of California. There is currently no accrediting body for nurse practitioner programs.

In 1991 the FNP Program affiliated with California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) to provide a Master of Science degree in Nursing (MSN) option for FNP students who possess a bachelor's degree. The Commision on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accredits the master's program through CSUS.

FNP and PA students attend classes together at the Sacramento Campus. They obtain their clinical training in their home communities and travel to Sacramento for didactic sessions. FNP-MSN students concurrently attend some CSUS classes in addition to program classes. Distance education delivery through video and lecture is available to reduce travel to the CSU Sacramento campus.

The FNP/PA Program is clinically based and designed for individuals who have been working in the healthcare field.  It combines didactic learning and clinical experience. The student is enrolled as a special status student in the UC Davis School of Medicine for eight quarters. A certificate of completion is awarded to the student upon successful completion of the program. Both FNP and PA graduates may elect to receive a PA certificate and only FNP graduates receive an FNP certificate. The FNP/PA Program does not offer a degree and is not considered a transfer program.  

The FNP/PA Program is a 24 month full-time program, with no mechanism for part-time enrollment. The program begins each calendar year with summer quarter. During the first summer, classes are a combination of web-based courses and on-site classes taught at the Sacramento campus. Thereafter, didactic sessions continue in Sacramento four to five consecutive days each month during the first year.  The clinical training begins in the fall quarter with emphasis on physical assessment, charting, and interviewing skills. With completion of the fall quarter, students will then begin their community preceptorship (clinic work) in the winter quarter, and this continues throughout the program.

Year II begins in the summer quarter.  In addition to ongoing clinic work, all didactic classes continue to meet in Sacramento two to three times per quarter. Attendance in classes has decreased while  clinical time has increased to near full-time. Clinical experience is required in acute hospital in-patient, surgery; long-term care and emergency-trauma medicine. Reading, written assignments and didactic and clinical evaluations are extensive throughout the entire program, requiring 30-40 hours of study per week.

FNP graduates are eligible for PA certification only if they complete the additional clinical hours and rotations required for completion of the Physician Assistant track.  Distance delivery through video and lecture is provided to reduce travel to Sacramento. Contact Duane DeAmicis at (916) 734-1491 if interested in the FNP option.

The opportunity to enroll in the FNP MSN Track curriculum is available to licensed registered nurses who possess a bachelor’s of science in nursing (BSN) degree or equivalent.* Eligible applicants must apply specifically to the FNP Master's Track of the UC Davis FNP/PA Program.  In addition, a separate application must be submitted to CSUS before their application deadline (currently November 30, 2010). Students completing the Master’s Track of this program may elect to receive one or two certificates of completion from the UC Davis School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine (one for the FNP Program and one for the PA Program) and a Master of Science degree in Nursing from CSUS.  Upon completion of the FNP certification and MSN degree requirements, graduates are eligible to sit for national certification with AANP and ANCC.

*Please contact CSUS for equivalency requirements if your bachelor's degree is not in nursing.  

The opportunity to enroll in the FNP three-year option is available to licensed registered nurses who possess a bachelor’s of science in nursing (BSN) degree or equivalent.

• During the first year, students take MSN courses in the evening through CSUS.
• During the second year students take their first year of FNP courses at UC Davis.
• During the third year, students take evening courses through CSUS, as well as completing their second year of UC Davis FNP courses.

This flexible schedule allows the student more time to complete graduate level research and a master’s thesis. If you have questions about this option, please contact Duane DeAmicis at (916) 734-1491 or e-mail inquiry to: fnppa@ucdavis.edu

This curriculum consists of 112.5 quarter units over eight quarters with courses in:

• Advanced Principles of Primary Health Care
• Behavioral Science
• Ethics
• Family Practice
• Family Theory
• Fundamentals of Primary Health Care (medicine)
• Geriatric Medicine
• Health Assessment
• Health Care of the Western Farmworker
• Pharmacology
• Professional Development
• Clinical Preceptorships
• Clinical Geriatrics
• In-patient Rotation
• Surgery Rotation

The curriculum includes most of the PA curriculum in addition to the following courses taken through CSUS:

• (3) NURS 209      Advanced Role Development in Nursing
• (3) NURS 210      Research as the Foundation for Advanced Nursing
• (3) NURS 212      Concepts and Theory Development in Nursing
• (3) NURS 214B    Educational Program Development in Nursing
• (3) NURS 215      Community and Health Services and Policy
• Thesis Project      or Comprehensive Exam

Currently, courses at CSUS are taught in the evening through distance-learning modalities. This combined FNP-MSN curriculum consists of 120 quarter units over eight quarters (28.5 quarter units from CSUS and 91.5 quarter units at UC Davis).