The Graduate Program in Primary Health Care Nursing offers students the opportunity to be active participants in a fully accredited educational program with an established history of excellence. Simmons' graduate nursing program provides students with specialized education in primary health care nursing and the foundation necessary for leadership, research and doctoral study. The Program prepares adult nurse practitioners, parent-child nurse practitioners and family nurse practitioners. The educational program combines classroom and clinical experiences which are responsive to student needs and interests as well as to program goals. In the classroom, the faculty-student ratio is low, with individual support, guidance and mentoring the norm.
Students participate actively in the process of teaching and learning.
Their varied experiences and knowledge are integrated into the educational process through the faculty's use of interactive teaching, seminars, tutorials and the case- study method. Outside the classroom, students gain clinical experience in major health care settings within the metropolitan Boston community. Placements are designed to meet program objectives, as well as individual student needs and interests. Students are precepted by practicing nurse practitioners, and monitored closely by nursing faculty who are themselves certified nurse practitioners and active in clinical practice. Commitment is critical to the program - commitment on the part of the faculty and the students.