Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| BSN-DNP | $67,660 | 4 yrs | 68 |
| Certificate | $22,885 | 1.5 yrs | 23 |
Oklahoma City University’s defining advantage is Oklahoma’s cheapest and fastest post-master’s PMHNP certificate: 23 credits over about 1.5 years for nurses who already hold APRN credentials. Know two things up front: mandatory fees raise the real rate from $590 to $995 per credit, and core NP courses meet on campus one day a week.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | BSN-to-DNP; Post-Master’s Certificate |
| Format | Hybrid — core NP courses meet on campus one day per week |
| Clinical Hours | 720 across three practicums (60 clock hours per practicum credit) |
| Clinical Placement | Not clearly stated; settings include inpatient hospital and outpatient clinics |
| Population | Lifespan, with dedicated child/adolescent and older-adult practicum work |
| Distinctive Coursework | Clinical Practice Management and Information Systems (billing, staffing, contracts) |
| Concentrations | None stated |
| RN License Requirements | Oklahoma or multistate RN (DNP); current Oklahoma APRN licensure (certificate) |
| Tuition | $995/credit all-in ($590 tuition + $405 fees); ~$67,660 DNP, ~$22,885 certificate |
| Accreditation | ACEN (nursing); Higher Learning Commission (institutional) |
| Certificate Entry Gate | Summer admission only; requires active APRN license with national certification |
Advanced Practice DNP: PMHNP
The estimated tuition for the Advanced Practice DNP: Psychiatric Mental Health track at Oklahoma City University is approximately $67,660 (68 credits at $995 per credit, including mandatory fees). The program can generally be completed in about 4 years of full-time study, with core NP courses meeting on campus one day per week.
DNP Curriculum
Foundation Courses. The advanced practice core is standard (pathophysiology, pharmacology, informatics, theory) with one exception worth noticing: Advanced Health Assessment is a 5-credit course, heavier than the 3-credit version most programs use. For a psych specialty, that extra physical-assessment depth matters — PMHNPs routinely rule out medical causes of psychiatric symptoms.
PMHNP Specialty Sequence. The psych sequence runs foundations, psychopharmacology, and two didactic management courses alongside three practicums. Practicum II is explicitly dedicated to children/adolescents and older adults, so lifespan coverage is built into clinical training rather than left to whatever placements happen to offer.
DNP and Leadership Coursework. Roughly 21 credits go to doctoral-level policy, population health, and evidence-based practice courses — the main reason this track runs 4 years while the certificate covers the same psych core in 1.5. The standout is Clinical Practice Management and Information Systems, which covers staffing, compliance, contracts, billing, and health IT. Few PMHNP curriculums teach the business of running a practice; if you envision owning or managing a clinic, this is a genuine differentiator. The DNP project spans just two courses (5 credits), a leaner scholarly sequence than most doctoral programs.
Key courses:
- NURS 6215 – Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning (5 credits)
- NURS 6853 – Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health for Advanced Practice (3)
- NURS 6903 – Advanced Psychopharmacology (3)
- NURS 6913 / 6923 – Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing for Advanced Practice I & II (3 each)
- NURS 6914 / 6924 / 6934 – PMH Practicums I–III (4 each)
- NURS 8423 – Clinical Practice Management and Information Systems (3)
- NURS 9103 / 9102 – DNP Project I & II (5 total)
More curriculum details are available here.
DNP Clinical Requirements
- 720 documented clinical hours: three practicums totaling 12 credits, at 60 clock hours per credit
- Practice settings include inpatient hospital care and outpatient clinics
- Practicum II focuses on children/adolescents and older adults; Practicum III integrates lifespan care
- Whether DNP project work (5 credits) adds practice hours beyond the 720 is not clearly stated
- Clinical placement responsibility (school-arranged vs. student-secured) is not clearly stated
720 hours is on the low end for a BSN-to-DNP. The University of Oklahoma’s equivalent track requires 1,152 hours, and doctoral programs commonly target about 1,000 post-BSN practice hours. Fewer hours means less time away from paid work, but also fewer supervised patient encounters before independent practice — and it raises a question worth asking admissions directly: how does the program reach doctoral practice-hour expectations, and do DNP project hours count toward them?
DNP Admissions
No GRE is required, but two gates apply that fully online competitors often skip: a minimum of one year of nursing experience and an admissions interview (by phone or Teams for distance students).
- BSN from an accredited program with cumulative GPA of 3.00 or higher
- Active, unencumbered RN license in Oklahoma or a multistate/compact license
- BSN-level health assessment and statistics courses completed
- Minimum one year of professional nursing experience (or equivalent)
- Three professional references (employer, coworker, or nursing faculty)
- Personal essay of 500–750 words on writing skills and career goals
- Current CV/resume
- Interview with the admissions committee
- English proficiency documentation
Advanced Practice Certificate: PMHNP
The estimated tuition for the Advanced Practice Certificate: Psychiatric Mental Health at Oklahoma City University is approximately $22,885 (23 credits at $995 per credit, including mandatory fees). The program can generally be completed in about 1.5 years of full-time study, with coursework beginning each summer.
Certificate Curriculum
The certificate is the DNP’s psychiatric core with everything else stripped out — no policy, research, or DNP project coursework. That makes it one of the leanest PMHNP certificates in the region: 23 credits versus 38 at the University of Oklahoma. You take the identical specialty courses DNP students take, so the clinical preparation is not diluted.
The same seven courses total 24 credits in the DNP course listing, while the certificate states 23 credits (the basis for the $22,885 estimate). Confirm the exact credit count and billing with the program before budgeting.
- Advanced Psychopharmacology
- Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health for Advanced Practice
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing for Advanced Practice I
- PMH Practicum I
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing for Advanced Practice II
- PMH Practicum II
- PMH Practicum III
Certificate Clinical Requirements
- Three practicum courses in psychiatric mental health settings
- Estimated 720 clinical hours (12 practicum credits at 60 clock hours per credit — a derived estimate; the university does not state a total)
- Clinical work covers assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders and comorbid conditions
- Placement policy not clearly stated
720 hours is unusually high for a post-graduate certificate — many run 500–600, and even OU’s larger 38-credit certificate requires 768. Practically, this means the credential is cheap and short on paper but clinically demanding: expect roughly a year of substantial practicum commitments on top of your current APRN work.
Certificate Admissions
This is a retooling program with a real gate: applicants must already hold an active Oklahoma APRN license with national certification — an MSN alone does not qualify — and admission runs once per year, in summer.
- Admission to the university
- Current, active Oklahoma APRN licensure (Adult, Pediatric, Acute Care, or other advanced practice role) with national certification
- MSN with graduate-level Advanced Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Advanced Assessment from an ACEN- or CCNE-accredited program
- Graduate GPA of 3.25 or higher (stricter than the DNP’s 3.00)
- Personal essay of 750 words or less on career goals
- Current CV and two recommendations
- Official transcripts from all institutions attended
- Summer admission cycle only
Tuition
Total estimated tuition is approximately $67,660 for the BSN-to-DNP and $22,885 for the certificate. Those figures come from an all-in rate of $995 per credit: $590 tuition plus $165 in general fees plus $240 in program fees. At 68 credits, the DNP works out to $67,660; at 23 credits, the certificate is $22,885.
- General fees: $165 per credit hour
- Program fees: $240 per credit hour
- Combined fees add $405 per credit — about 41% of the true per-credit cost
- Estimates cover tuition and mandatory per-credit fees only; books, clinical, and travel costs are separate
The practical takeaway: never budget from the advertised $590 rate — fees push the real cost roughly two-thirds higher, and every total on this page already reflects the full $995.
See the official tuition page for more details.
Why Choose This PMHNP Program?
Best suited for practicing Oklahoma APRNs who want the state’s shortest, cheapest route to PMHNP certification — and for BSN nurses who prefer weekly face-to-face classes over fully online study.
The certificate is the clearest reason to pick OCU. For adult, pediatric, or acute care APRNs adding psych — the fastest-growing retooling move in nursing — 23 credits, roughly 1.5 years, and $22,885 beat the University of Oklahoma’s certificate on cost ($28,804), credits (38), and time (2 years). And because the clinical load is a full 720 hours, the shorter format doesn’t shortchange your preparation. The catches: you must already hold APRN licensure with national certification, and there is exactly one entry point per year, in summer — miss it and you wait twelve months.
The DNP is a harder sell on numbers alone. Against OU Health’s BSN-to-DNP, OCU costs $31,000 more ($67,660 vs. $36,603), requires 432 fewer clinical hours (720 vs. 1,152), and takes a year longer (4 vs. 3). What you get in exchange is structure: a weekly on-campus class day with in-person faculty contact, no GRE, and rare practice-management coursework covering billing, staffing, and contracts. Also note the geography — NP students need Oklahoma or compact RN licensure, and OCU has verified its NP curriculum for licensure in only ten states, so this is fundamentally a program for nurses who will train and practice in or near Oklahoma.
The ideal OCU student, then, is either an Oklahoma APRN entering the certificate — where OCU is the state’s best value — or a BSN nurse within driving distance of campus who knows they do their best work in a classroom, not a discussion board, and will pay a premium for that. If price or clinical volume is your deciding factor for the doctorate, OU Health wins.
Accreditation
The baccalaureate, master’s, post-master’s, and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees at the Kramer School of Nursing are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN); the most recent ACEN decision was Continuing Accreditation, as verified from the school’s accreditation page. Oklahoma City University is institutionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Note that the university has verified its nurse practitioner curriculum meets educational requirements for licensure in ten states (Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington); applicants planning to practice elsewhere should confirm eligibility with their state board before enrolling.
Related Oklahoma PMNHP Programs
There are only 2 PMHNP programs in Oklahoma. The other program is OU Health. You can compare them side by side on our Oklahoma state page.