Middle Tennessee State University offers 2 Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner tracks:
- MSN
- Post-Master’s Certificate
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition (In-State) | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN | $29.3K–$30.3K | 2–2.5 yrs | 42 |
| Post-Master’s Cert. | $14.4K | 1–1.5 yrs | 20 |
MTSU’s defining advantage is clinical volume without campus travel: 630 direct patient care hours, more than any other master’s-level PMHNP program in Tennessee, with all coursework delivered online. The catch is a hard gate — the School of Nursing admits Tennessee residents only.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | MSN (PMHNP concentration); Post-Master’s PMHNP Certificate |
| Format | Mostly Online. All coursework online; occasional campus activity possible ⚠️ |
| Clinical Hours | 630 direct patient care hours — both tracks |
| Clinical Placement | Student-arranged with approved preceptors; assistance available on request |
| Population | Psychiatric mental health across the lifespan |
| Distinctive Coursework | Intensive clinical capstone with a comprehensive evidence-based review paper |
| Enrollment Restriction | Tennessee residents only; out-of-state applicants not accepted |
| RN License Requirement | Unencumbered Tennessee RN license required at time of application |
| Start Terms | Fall and Spring (two application windows per year) |
| Summer Scheduling | No didactic courses in summer; clinical courses run only if minimum enrollment is met |
| Transfer Credit | Up to 12 graduate credits may be accepted, evaluated after admission |
| Tuition | $623/credit in-state (hours 1–10); $123/credit for hours 11+ in a term |
| Accreditation | CCNE (master’s and post-graduate APRN certificate); Tennessee Board of Nursing |
Master of Science in Nursing – PMHNP
The estimated tuition for the MSN–PMHNP at Middle Tennessee State University is approximately $30,324 for in-state students (42 credits at $623/credit tuition plus the $99/credit program services fee). The program can generally be completed in about 2 to 2.5 years, following either a four-semester or a five-semester plan of study.
MSN Curriculum
The 42-credit curriculum is built on a conventional APRN foundation, but the psychiatric specialty portion is deliberately lean: four courses carry the entire PMHNP concentration.
Rather than spreading psychiatric content across separate courses in neurobiology, psychotherapy modalities, and mental health systems — the approach at ETSU and Vanderbilt — MTSU teaches diagnosis and management as one continuous three-course sequence with clinical hours embedded in each. Depth comes from time in practice rather than from breadth of coursework.
Foundation and APRN Core
- NURS 6010 – Theory and Evidence-Based Practice
- NURS 6011 – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Across the Life Span
- NURS 6013 – Ethics, Healthcare Policy, and Economics
- NURS 6014 – NP Role and Leadership in Health Care
Advanced Practice Core (the “3 P’s”)
- NURS 6110 – Advanced Health Assessment
- NURS 6111 – Advanced Pathophysiology
- NURS 6112 – Advanced Pharmacology
PMHNP Specialty Sequence
- NURS 6310 – Psychopharmacology
- NURS 6311 – Psychiatric Mental Health Diagnosis and Management I and Clinical (180 hours)
- NURS 6312 – Psychiatric Mental Health Diagnosis and Management II and Clinical (180 hours)
- NURS 6313 – Psychiatric Mental Health Diagnosis and Management Intensive Clinical (270 hours)
What stands out. NURS 6313 is not a standard practicum. Alongside its 270 clinical hours, students identify a complex clinical or system-level problem and write a comprehensive evidence-based review paper tied to their own caseload. It functions as a scholarly capstone folded into the heaviest clinical term, which is efficient but concentrates the workload — expect the final semester to be the hardest one.
More curriculum details are available here.
MSN Clinical Requirements
- 630 direct patient care clinical hours required
- Distributed across three courses: 180 (NURS 6311) + 180 (NURS 6312) + 270 (NURS 6313) = 630 ✓
- Rotations completed with approved preceptors, in the student’s home area when possible
- Students arrange their own placements; the School of Nursing assists with preceptor selection on request
630 hours sits well above the 500-hour national floor and above every other master’s-level PMHNP program in Tennessee — Austin Peay and ETSU require 540, Vanderbilt 560. Only UT Knoxville’s DNP asks for more, at 840+. That extra volume is real preparation, but it is also real time: roughly 90 more supervised hours to schedule around a job.
The trade-off is on the placement side. MTSU does not guarantee placements the way Vanderbilt’s dedicated clinical placement team does; you are responsible for securing preceptors, with the school helping when asked. In a state where psychiatric preceptors are competitive, that support model matters more than the hour count. Start preceptor conversations before your first specialty course, not during it.
MSN Admissions
The single decisive requirement is residency: MTSU states it is not currently accepting out-of-state applicants to the MSN program, citing the administrative and financial burden of multi-state authorization, and advises non-residents to look elsewhere. Everything else is conventional.
- Tennessee residency
- Current, unencumbered Tennessee RN license at the time of application
- BSN from an accredited program with a 3.0 GPA; conditional admission possible at 2.9–2.99 if all other criteria are met
- An undergraduate statistics course (3–4 credits)
- Official transcripts from every institution attended
- Current resume or CV, plus a copy of the RN license
- TOEFL scores where applicable
Post-Master’s Certificate – PMHNP
The estimated tuition for the PMHNP Graduate Certificate at Middle Tennessee State University is approximately $14,440 for in-state students (20 credits at $623/credit tuition plus the $99/credit program services fee).
The program can generally be completed in about 1 to 1.5 years on the single published plan of study.
Certificate Curriculum
The 20-credit certificate is the MSN’s specialty sequence lifted out whole. It assumes you already hold the APRN core from your master’s, so nothing is repeated — which is why it is both the cheapest and the most clinically demanding certificate in Tennessee.
Concentration Course (3 credits)
- NURS 6310 – Psychopharmacology
PMHNP Specialty Courses (12 credits)
- NURS 6311 – Psychiatric Mental Health Diagnosis and Management I and Clinical
- NURS 6312 – Psychiatric Mental Health Diagnosis and Management II and Clinical
Specialty Intensive (5 credits)
- NURS 6313 – Psychiatric Mental Health Diagnosis and Management Intensive Clinical
The gap analysis is the variable. Before you start the specialty courses, the School of Nursing admissions committee and program coordinator review your transcript against the required APRN core. If your master’s is missing a core component, additional prerequisite coursework is added. Treat 20 credits and $14,440 as a floor, not a fixed price, and ask for a written transcript evaluation before you commit.
Certificate Clinical Requirements
- Minimum 630 direct patient care clinical hours — the same total as the MSN
- Same three-course distribution: 180 + 180 + 270 = 630 ✓
- MTSU notes additional hours may be required depending on population and treatment modality ⚠️
- Standard set against the NTF Criteria for Evaluation of Nurse Practitioner Programs
This is the number that separates MTSU’s certificate from its rivals. Tennessee Tech’s certificate requires 560 hours, UT Knoxville’s 600+, Vanderbilt’s 500+. MTSU asks for 630 and charges the least. For a working NP adding a second population focus, the arithmetic is favorable but the calendar is not — 630 supervised hours compressed into 12 to 18 months is a heavy load on top of a clinical job, and the “minimum” wording means it can go higher.
Certificate Admissions
Requirements mirror the MSN, with the master’s degree and the transcript review layered on top.
- Tennessee residency and an unencumbered Tennessee RN license
- Earned MSN from an accredited institution
- BSN with a 3.0 GPA; conditional admission possible at 2.9–2.99
- An undergraduate statistics course (3–4 credits)
- Transcript review against APRN core requirements; additional prerequisites may be assigned
- Transcripts, resume or CV, RN license copy, and TOEFL where applicable
- Deadlines: February 1 for fall entry, October 1 for spring entry
Tuition
Estimated total in-state tuition and mandatory fees: approximately $30,324 for the MSN and $14,440 for the Post-Master’s Certificate.
Tuition is $623 per credit for the first 10 credits in a term, and the program services fee is $99 per credit over the same range. Combined, that is $722 per credit at typical part-time loads:
- MSN: 42 credits × $722 = $30,324 (five-semester plan, loads of 8–9 credits)
- MSN, four-semester plan: roughly $29,324, because credits above 10 in a term drop to $123 each
- Certificate: 20 credits × $722 = $14,440
Cost caveats worth knowing:
- The program services fee is often left out of published estimates. Across the MSN it adds roughly $4,158 — not a rounding error.
- Some courses carry additional materials or specialized course fees beyond the per-credit rate.
- Clinical costs are yours: malpractice insurance, a student skills kit, background checks, immunizations, and travel to preceptor sites.
- Out-of-state rates ($1,722/credit for hours 1–10) are effectively academic while the MSN remains closed to non-residents.
See the official MTSU tuition page for current rates.
All-in, a Tennessee nurse should plan on roughly $31,000–$33,000 for the MSN once fees, books, and clinical expenses are counted. That still lands in the lower half of Tennessee’s public options and well under half of Vanderbilt’s MSN.
Why Choose This PMHNP Program?
Best suited for nurses already licensed and living in Tennessee who want maximum supervised clinical time at a public-university price, and who are comfortable driving their own preceptor search.
The case for MTSU rests on two numbers that pull in the same direction. At 630 hours, it requires more direct patient care than any other master’s-level PMHNP program in the state, and at roughly $30,000 for the MSN and $14,440 for the certificate, it charges near the bottom of the market. That combination is unusual. Programs that load up clinical hours normally charge for the privilege, and the cheap programs normally ask for the 500-hour minimum. Graduates also enter the exam with a school reporting roughly 90% first-attempt pass rates across its advanced practice programs, though that figure covers FNP and PMHNP graduates together rather than PMHNP alone.
The trade-offs are specific, and both are worth weighing before you apply. First, eligibility: MTSU has closed the MSN to out-of-state applicants and says the situation is unlikely to change, so this program is simply off the table unless you are a Tennessee resident with a Tennessee license. Second, support: you find your own preceptors. If you are in Nashville or Murfreesboro with psychiatric contacts, that is manageable. If you are in a rural county with few psychiatric providers, compare against Vanderbilt, whose placement team is the strongest in the state, or Tennessee Tech, which advertises local placement assistance — and price the difference honestly against MTSU’s savings.
Curriculum breadth is the third consideration. MTSU covers the specialty in four courses. If you want dedicated coursework in neurobiology or psychotherapy theory, ETSU and Vanderbilt build those in as standalone courses; MTSU folds that content into its diagnosis-and-management sequence and expects you to deepen it in clinical hours. Neither approach is wrong, but they suit different learners. The verdict is a straightforward eligibility test: if you are a Tennessee nurse who learns by doing, MTSU is one of the best values in the state. If you are not a Tennessee resident, stop here and look at another school.
Accreditation
Verified from MTSU’s own program pages: the baccalaureate degree program in nursing, the master’s degree program in nursing, and the post-graduate APRN certificate program at Middle Tennessee State University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). That scope matters — it explicitly covers the Post-Master’s PMHNP Certificate as well as the MSN, which is not always the case when a school lists accreditation only for its degree programs.
All nursing programs are additionally approved by the Tennessee Board of Nursing, and MTSU is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. MTSU states that graduates of both the PMHNP and PMHNP certificate programs are prepared to sit for national PMHNP certification.
Compare More PMHNP Programs
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- University of Tennessee - Knoxville
- Vanderbilt University - Nashville