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The PMHNP-BC focuses on individuals across the lifespan (infancy through late adulthood), families, and populations across the lifespan at risk for developing and/or having a diagnosis of psychiatric or mental health disorders. The PMHNP-BC provides primary mental health care to patients seeking mental health services in a wide range of settings.
Students seeking the Doctor of Nursing Practice are choosing a terminal academic degree for clinicians, not a research-focused degree. The DNP program students will learn skills that a Master’s level prepared nurse practitioner will use with individual patients in practice, they will also be taken beyond the provider patient relationship to a systems level thinking skill set. The DNP learns the necessary skills to affect a population of patients. The DNP is more rigorous because it requires competent writing skills, high level thought, and skill set competence which can be utilized in a healthcare systems level.
Quick facts
Official name
Doctor of nursing practice with an emphasis in psychiatric-mental health nurse practitionerCampus
Program type
DoctorateAcademic home
College of NursingDelivery mode
Blended, some campus visits requiredAccreditation
Higher Learning Commission, Commission on Collegiate Nursing EducationCredit hours
70Estimated cost
$62,230.00*This cost is for illustrative purposes only. Your hours and costs will differ, depending on your transfer hours, your course choices and your academic progress. See more about tuition and financial aid.
Career prospects
Primary mental health care provided by the PMHNP-BC involves relationship-based, continuous and comprehensive services, necessary for the promotion of optimal mental health, prevention, and treatment of psychiatric disorders and health maintenance. This includes assessment, diagnosis, and management of mental health and psychiatric disorders across the lifespan (AACN, 2013).
Program structure
The online psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner involves 70 credit hours. Students complete most of their course work online and asynchronously. Select classes use a live, synchronous format. The program additionally requires on-campus intensives.
Full-time students finish this online program in three years. Part-time candidates fulfill all requirements in about four years.
For your culmination, you’ll learn how to put evidence into practice and measure the outcomes through completion of a clinical scholarship project (CSP) in the final year of the program.
The program’s structure includes:
Foundational concepts (33 credit hours): Explore the role and responsibilities of the nurse practitioner in delivering and improving access to care at patient to system levels. Courses advance your knowledge of health care systems, research techniques and intervention methods and delve into social determinants of health. See how biostatistics, health informatics, leadership, program evaluation and management and health care policy all factor into providing care and making decisions.
Clinical expertise (12 credit hours): Refine your evaluation and intervention skills through courses in pathophysiology, pharmacology, health assessments and the diagnostic process.
Integration of practice (14 credit hours): Assist patients and observe real-world applications of nursing theories through 600 practice hours.
Emphasis area (11 credit hours): Prepare to address, monitor and provide evidence-based care to psychiatric health patients.
Delivery of this program is blended: You will complete most course work online, but on-campus visits are required for orientation, five immersive learning experiences and a final dissertation defense. The immersive learning experiences include a health assessment, diagnostic reasoning and practicums to enhance your knowledge base in simulated learning environments.
Delivery
Blended, some campus visits requiredCalendar system
SemesterTypical program length
3-4 yearsTypical course load
2-3 classes per semesterAccreditation
The University of Missouri-St. Louis is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States.
The UMSL DNP program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Faculty spotlight
Brittania Phillips teaches in the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program and works as a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP). She worked in post-operative surgery, as a staff nurse and care team coordinator. Phillips enjoyed patient care and teaching and began assisting with unit-based education. She was a clinical educator and consultant doing competency validation and helped create the graduate nurse residency program and preceptor model. She earned her master’s in nursing leadership and was team leader in orthopedics and surgery. She also was a clinical support nurse and began teaching at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) in the undergraduate program. She earned her DNP and PMHNP certificate from UMSL in 2021 and is working on certification in perinatal mental health.
Her research interests include women’s mental health during reproductive years. She’s been selected to present several presentations and is a member of various nursing organizations.