University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences PMHNP Programs

Program Tracks Overview

Program	Est. Tuition (Resident)	Est. Duration	Credit Hours
MNSc	$26.9K	2 years (6 semesters)	48
Post-BSN DNP	$40.0K	3 years (8 semesters)	72
Postgraduate Certificate	$13.7K	16 months (4 semesters)	24

Totals include the $260 per-semester College of Nursing graduate program fee and $20 per-semester student liability insurance. They exclude UAMS institutional fees, which vary with whether a program is designated 100% online.

UAMS’s defining advantage is the geography of its resident rate. The $525 in-state per-credit charge also applies to residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, which is worth $26,136 on the 72-credit DNP and $17,424 on the 48-credit MNSc.

Quick Facts

Feature	Details
Program Types	MNSc, post-BSN DNP, and postgraduate certificate, all in the PMHNP specialty
Format	Mostly Online. Core courses and some specialty courses are distance-delivered, each with one onsite orientation day
Clinical Hours	770 PMHNP practicum hours in the MNSc and DNP. The DNP adds a 350-hour doctoral residency
Clinical Placement	Negotiated with the specialty coordinator, who works to place students near home using an approved local preceptor
Population	Lifespan: pediatric, adult, older adult, and families
Distinctive Coursework	A dedicated Diagnosis and Psychopharmacology course sits outside the three-part theory sequence
Site Rotation Rule	Students may not precept where they work and must change facilities each semester
Experience Gate	2,000 verified RN hours before Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning
RN License Requirements	Arkansas or compact for the post-BSN DNP. Arkansas specifically for the certificate
Tuition	$525/credit resident, $888 non-resident. Six border states pay the resident rate
Accreditation	CCNE for the MNSc, DNP, and post-graduate APRN certificate. HLC institutionally

MNSc, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the MNSc Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner track at UAMS is approximately $26,880 for residents (48 credits at $525/credit plus per-semester fees) and $44,304 for non-residents. The program can generally be completed in about two years of full-time study, though UAMS reports an average completion time of three to three and a half years.

MNSc Curriculum

UAMS publishes a credit range of 45 to 48 across all its MNSc nurse practitioner specialties. The PMHNP course list is the heavy end of that range: the sixteen listed courses sum to exactly 48 credits, because psychiatric mental health is the only specialty carrying four separate theory courses instead of three.

Foundation and specialty split. Eight core courses account for 24 credits and are shared with every other NP track. The remaining 24 credits are psychiatric: four theory courses, three practicums, and a one-credit Outcomes Portfolio. That is an unusually clean 50/50 division, and it means half your coursework is population-specific rather than generic advanced practice content.

The psychopharmacology course stands apart. Most programs fold prescribing content into a theory sequence. UAMS gives Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Diagnosis and Psychopharmacology its own course, scheduled in fall before the theory sequence starts, so diagnostic reasoning and medication management are taught as a foundation rather than as a later module.

The sequence is term-locked. Theory I and Practicum I run in spring, Theory II and Practicum II in summer, Theory III and Practicum III in fall. Miss a term and you wait a full year to rejoin, which is the practical reason the program fills its seats on an annual cycle.

NURS 51513: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Diagnosis and Psychopharmacology (3)
NURS 51553: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory I (3)
NURS 52574: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory II (3)
NURS 53573: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory III (3)
NURS 53053: Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning (3)
NURS 51043: Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Advanced Practice Registered Nursing (3)
NURS 71163: Roles and Professional Practice for APRNs (3)
NURS 59951: Outcomes Portfolio (1)

More curriculum details are available here.

MNSc Clinical Requirements

770 total clock hours, published by UAMS and confirmed by the course-level math: 280 hours in Practicum I, 140 in Practicum II, and 350 in Practicum III.
Placement is negotiated with the PMHNP specialty coordinator, who works to keep students in their own geographic area using an approved local preceptor.
Students may not complete a preceptorship on the unit or in the clinic where they work.
Students must rotate to a different clinical site at a different facility each semester, unless the community has limited resources and clinical faculty approve an exception.
2,000 verified RN work hours must be documented before enrolling in Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning, which gates the entire clinical sequence.

At 770 hours, the MNSc clears the 500 faculty-supervised hours required to sit for national PMHNP certification and clears the 750 direct patient care hours the 2022 NTF Standards set for every NP track. The load is front-weighted and back-weighted rather than even: roughly 19 hours a week in the spring practicum, about 12 a week over summer, then about 23 a week in the final fall term. The rotation rule is the part worth planning around. Two of your three placements must be at facilities you are not currently working in, so a nurse hoping to do all clinical hours inside a single employer will not be able to.

MNSc Admissions

There is one application deadline a year, and the specialty must be named on the application itself, since UAMS does not allow students to transfer between MNSc specialties later.

March 1 deadline for fall admission.
BSN and RN licensure. Students in their final BSN semester may apply, contingent on passing the NCLEX before registering.
2,000 hours of RN work experience verified before clinical courses or Advanced Health Assessment, not before admission.
Up to 12 graduate credits may transfer in, subject to review by the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Accreditation.
Out-of-state students may enroll in online courses with approval and pay the non-resident rate, unless they live in one of the six border states charged the resident rate.
Changing specialties requires a new application, reviewed against the whole applicant pool. UAMS states there are no exceptions.

Full requirements are on the MNSc admission requirements page.

Post-BSN to DNP, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner DNP at UAMS is approximately $40,040 for residents (72 credits at $525/credit plus per-semester fees) and $66,176 for non-residents. The program can generally be completed in three years across eight semesters, with a four-year, eleven-semester plan also published.

Post-BSN DNP Curriculum

UAMS lists the DNP at 72 to 73 credits depending on specialty. PMHNP lands at 72, because it is one of the tracks that does not take the three-credit elective. The extra psychiatric theory course occupies that slot instead.

Four identical semesters, then divergence. Every NP specialty at UAMS shares the same first four semesters, 33 credits of research methods, pathophysiology, pharmacology, analytics, epidemiology, informatics, economics, and health assessment. Specialty content does not begin until spring of year two. That structure suits a nurse who is still weighing populations at application time, but it also means two full years pass before you touch psychiatric practice.

Doctoral content is integrated, not bolted on. Quality Outcomes Management, Leadership in Health Policy and Advocacy, and Integration of DNP Competencies run alongside the final specialty practicum rather than after it. The 350-hour Advanced Nursing Clinical Practice course in the last semester carries the DNP project work.

NURS 51513: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Diagnosis and Psychopharmacology (3)
NURS 51553 / 52574 / 53573: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Theory I, II, III (9 total)
NURS 75503 / 75533 / 75546: DNP Psychiatric-Mental Health Practicum I, II, III (11 total)
NURS 53053: Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning (3)
NURS 71143: Health Care Analytics for Nursing Practice (3)
NURS 72133: Quality Outcomes Management (3)
NURS 72142: Integration of DNP Competencies (2)
NURS 74004: Advanced Nursing Clinical Practice (5)

More curriculum details are available here.

Post-BSN DNP Clinical Requirements

UAMS publishes 1,120 total practicum clock hours. That figure bundles two different things.
770 of those hours are PMHNP specialty practicum: 280 in Practicum I, 140 in Practicum II, and 350 in Practicum III. This is the same specialty volume the MNSc carries.
The remaining 350 hours are NURS 74004, Advanced Nursing Clinical Practice, the doctoral residency tied to the DNP project rather than to psychiatric practice.
The same placement model applies: negotiated with the specialty coordinator, no preceptorship where you work, and a different facility each semester.
UAMS states students are in clinic up to 24 hours per week once specialty courses begin, on top of a minimum 36-hour weekly total workload.

Read 1,120 carefully when comparing programs. As psychiatric supervised practice, UAMS delivers 770 hours, the same as its own master’s track, and the doctorate adds systems and project work rather than additional psychiatric clinical volume. That is not a criticism of the number. It is how nearly every BSN-to-DNP is built, and 770 still clears both the 500-hour certification floor and the 750-hour NTF direct care standard. But a nurse choosing the DNP for more bedside psychiatric exposure than the MNSc provides is choosing it for the wrong reason.

Post-BSN DNP Admissions

Entry is competitive and ranked, and UAMS states that preference goes to Arkansas residents. There is also a meaningful contradiction in UAMS’s own materials about when you can start. ⚠ The 2026-2027 academic catalog states the post-BSN to DNP has fall-only admission and the DNP FAQ gives a single March 1 deadline for fall, while the DNP program page lists both a March 1 deadline for an August cohort and a September 1 deadline for a January cohort. Confirm your intended start term in writing before planning around a spring entry.

BSN from an ACEN- or CCNE-accredited program, with a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or higher in the most recent nursing degree.
No GRE or MAT required.
Unencumbered Arkansas or compact state RN license.
Applicants are ranked by GPA from the last 60 undergraduate hours. An interview and essay may form part of the process.
2,000 verified RN experience hours, documented on a notarized Verification of Employment form, before enrolling in Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning.
Current AHA Healthcare Provider CPR certification. ACLS is not accepted in its place.
Up to 12 graduate credits may transfer in. Applicants already certified as an APRN who enter for a second NP specialty may apply up to 18 credits, and those credits do not count against the six-year completion clock.
F-1 visa students are not eligible for this program.

You Should Know

The program is built as full-time study. UAMS tells applicants to expect a minimum of 36 hours a week on coursework and states plainly that working during the program is difficult.
Grade rules are strict. A “C” in advanced assessment, pharmacology, pathophysiology, or any NP specialty course forces a repeat, and a second grade below “B” on the retake means dismissal. Repeating a specialty course means repeating both its theory and practicum halves.
Specialty transfer is not permitted. Switching from PMHNP to another population means reapplying as a new student, in open competition.

Postgraduate Certificate, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the Post-Graduate Certificate in psychiatric mental health at UAMS is approximately $13,720 for residents (24 credits at $525/credit plus per-semester fees) and $22,432 for non-residents. The program can generally be completed in about 16 months across four semesters, a figure derived from the term-locked specialty sequence rather than published by UAMS.

Postgraduate Certificate Curriculum

The certificate is the PMHNP specialty spine on its own, stripped of core and doctoral coursework: four theory courses and three practicums. Every course is shared with the MNSc and DNP versions, so certificate students sit in the same classrooms as degree-seeking students rather than in a separate cohort.

⚠ UAMS’s certificate plan of study assigns the three practicum courses 3, 3, and 6 credits for a 24-credit total, while the same course numbers carry 4, 2, and 5 credits on the MNSc and DNP plans, which would produce 23. The estimates on this page use the certificate page’s own 24 credits. The gap is one credit, roughly $525 at the resident rate, but confirm the figure before budgeting.

NURS 51513: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Diagnosis and Psychopharmacology
NURS 51553: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory I
NURS 52574: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory II
NURS 53573: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory III
NURS 75503: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Practicum I
NURS 75533: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Practicum II
NURS 75546: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Practicum III

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know

A gap analysis can add coursework and cost. UAMS reviews your prior transcript and requires any missing core or foundational courses on top of the 24 specialty credits. Applicants whose master’s predates current NP core standards should expect this.
The 24-credit figure is the floor, not the ceiling. Because gap coursework is determined individually, the totals on this page describe a candidate who needs no remediation.

Postgraduate Certificate Clinical Requirements

UAMS does not publish a clock-hour total for the certificate.
The three practicum courses are the same course numbers used in the MNSc and DNP, where they carry 280, 140, and 350 clock hours. That implies 770 hours, but UAMS does not state it on the certificate page.
The certificate lists 12 practicum credits against 11 in the degree tracks, so the clinical load is at least equivalent.
The same placement rules apply, including the ban on precepting where you work.

Get the hour total in writing from the specialty coordinator before you apply. Your state board sets its own minimum for adding a population focus, and some boards want the specific hour count on institutional letterhead rather than an inference from course numbers. If 770 holds, the certificate delivers the same psychiatric supervised practice as the MNSc for half the credits, which is the whole argument for taking this route if you already hold an APRN credential.

Postgraduate Certificate Admissions

This track has the tightest entry conditions of the three, and one of them is not a requirement you can satisfy by preparation.

Admission is on a space-available basis. Meeting every requirement does not secure a seat.
An official transcript showing a master’s or DNP in nursing from a CCNE- or NLNAC-accredited institution.
A current, unencumbered Arkansas RN license. The certificate page names Arkansas specifically, unlike the post-BSN DNP, which accepts a compact license.
An individual interview and essay may form part of the process.
Applicants use the MNSc application and flag certificate admission in the Supplemental Question section.
Non-degree-seeking applicants may take courses space-available, with no guarantee the credits later apply to a degree.

Tuition

UAMS charges $525 per credit hour for residents and $888 per credit hour for non-residents, and applies the same rate to graduate and DNP coursework. All totals below are estimates derived from those published rates and UAMS’s own fee schedule, not quotes from the university.

Cost Component	MNSc	Post-BSN DNP	Certificate
Credit hours	48	72	24
Semesters	6	8	4
Tuition at $525 (resident)	$25,200	$37,800	$12,600
Tuition at $888 (non-resident)	$42,624	$63,936	$21,312
Graduate program fee, $260/semester	$1,560	$2,080	$1,040
Liability insurance, $20/semester	$120	$160	$80
Resident total	$26,880	$40,040	$13,720
Non-resident total	$44,304	$66,176	$22,432

The billing basis is straightforward per-credit multiplication, with no full-time cap and no tiered rate, so the number of credits drives tuition and the number of semesters drives fees. Two things change the answer. First, residency status is determined by state, not enrollment type: UAMS charges the in-state rate for all College of Nursing programs except nurse anesthesia to residents of Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Second, the four-year DNP plan costs the same tuition as the three-year plan but adds three more semesters of fees, roughly $840.

Confirmed costs:

$525 per credit hour, resident and DNP resident rate, FY2026-2027.
$888 per credit hour, non-resident and DNP non-resident rate, FY2026-2027.
$260 College of Nursing graduate program fee, charged each semester. It covers standardized patients, Typhon clinical tracking, the Osmosis clinical sciences library, and the Enflux academic support system.
$20 student liability insurance per semester, billed at registration.
$150 non-refundable enrollment deposit on acceptance, credited to first-semester tuition if you register within a year.
$50 application fee and a $75 graduation fee.

Be aware that:

UAMS institutional fees are excluded from these totals. The published fall and spring schedule includes a $500 university services fee, $130 technology fee, $145 student health fee, $78 transportation fee, and $25 activity fee. Students in UAMS-designated 100% online programs pay half or nothing on most of these, and UAMS does not state whether the PMHNP tracks carry that designation. Ask before you budget, because the difference across a three-year DNP runs into thousands.
Border-state pricing is stated at state level on the current fee schedule. An older College of Nursing FAQ describes the same benefit as applying to bordering counties. The FY2026-2027 fee schedule is the newer and more authoritative source, but confirm your status with the specialty coordinator or recruiter.
Tuition is not locked at matriculation. UAMS publishes rates by fiscal year and does not describe a cohort lock for graduate nursing programs. The only cohort-locked rate on the schedule belongs to the nurse anesthesia program.
A background check and drug screen are billed annually. All College of Nursing students repeat this as part of registration each year, so it recurs rather than being a one-time entry cost.

Official rates are on the UAMS College of Nursing tuition and fees page.

The all-in cost you actually control is residency status and transfer credit, not pace. Because UAMS bills per credit with no full-time cap, finishing the DNP in four years instead of three saves nothing on tuition and adds about $840 in fees. What moves the number is whether you qualify for the resident rate, and whether you arrive with graduate credit worth transferring. An APRN entering for a second specialty can apply 18 credits, which removes $9,450 at the resident rate and $15,984 at the non-resident rate.

Why Choose This PMHNP Program?

Best suited for nurses who live in Arkansas or one of its neighbors, want a public academic health center rather than a distance provider, and would rather have faculty negotiate their psychiatric placement than cold-call clinics themselves.

The resident rate crosses six state lines. UAMS charges $525 a credit to residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas on the same terms as Arkansas residents, for every College of Nursing program except nurse anesthesia. A Memphis or Shreveport nurse pays $37,800 in DNP tuition rather than $63,936. That is not a scholarship that has to be won or renewed, and it is not tied to enrollment status. It follows your address, and it applies identically to the master’s, the doctorate, and the certificate.

Three ways in, one specialty spine. The same four theory courses and three practicums appear in all three credentials, taught by the same PMHNP specialty coordinator. A BSN-prepared nurse who wants the fastest route takes the 48-credit MNSc. One who wants the terminal degree takes the 72-credit DNP. An APRN adding psychiatric certification takes the 24-credit certificate. Because the psychiatric content is identical, the choice is genuinely about credential and calendar rather than about clinical preparation, which is not true at schools where the master’s and doctoral psychiatric sequences differ.

Faculty negotiate the placement, and the rotation rule is enforced. UAMS states that the specialty coordinator negotiates each practicum and works to keep students in their own geographic area with an approved local preceptor. The flip side is a requirement most programs do not impose: you cannot precept where you work, and you must change facilities each semester. That costs convenience and buys breadth. Three placements across three settings is a stronger foundation for psychiatric practice than 770 hours inside one familiar unit, and it is the reason the placement policy is worth reading as a curriculum decision rather than an administrative one.

Where another program may fit you better. The post-BSN DNP is designed as full-time study, with UAMS telling applicants to expect 36 hours a week minimum and up to 24 hours a week in clinic once specialty courses begin. A nurse who needs full-time income straight through three years should look elsewhere, and so should anyone who needs a guaranteed spring start, since UAMS’s own catalog describes the post-BSN DNP as fall-only while its program page advertises two cohorts. Admission preference goes to Arkansas residents, the certificate is space-available regardless of qualifications, and the program is Mostly Online rather than fully online, with onsite orientation days and no published list of which specialty courses require presence. But if you are a psychiatric nurse in Arkansas or a bordering state, want an academic medical center with its own Psychiatric Research Institute behind the training, and value having a faculty coordinator arrange your placements near home, no other route in the region is structured this way.

Accreditation

The baccalaureate, master’s in nursing science, Doctor of Nursing Practice, and post-graduate APRN certificate programs at the UAMS College of Nursing are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). All three PMHNP tracks on this page fall inside that scope, which matters most for the certificate, since post-graduate APRN certificates are named separately in CCNE’s scope language and are sometimes excluded elsewhere.

In January 2026, UAMS reported that CCNE granted continued accreditation to each of those four programs for the maximum ten-year term following a site visit and a three-year self-evaluation. That supersedes the older 2025 end dates still shown on some UAMS accreditation pages.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is institutionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Institutional accreditation is what makes UAMS credits transferable and its students eligible for federal financial aid, and state boards check it independently of the nursing accreditor.

UAMS states that completing the PMHNP program qualifies graduates to sit for the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner certification examination through the American Nurses Credentialing Center, after which they may apply for advanced practice licensure and prescriptive authority through any state board of nursing.

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