UCI FNP Programs

Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing • Irvine, CA • $1,200 (est.)/credit

University of California, Irvine offers 1 Family Nurse Practitioner track: a BS/MS-to-DNP with an FNP concentration.

Program highlights:

  • The first FNP program offered by any University of California campus
  • Open to both BS- and MS-prepared nurses, leading to a doctorate plus FNP certification in a single path
  • Three-year hybrid format — asynchronous and weekly synchronous online courses plus on-campus intensives
  • 98 units and 1,020 clinical and professional-practice hours, capped by a DNP scholarly project

It’s built for working California RNs pursuing a terminal degree, with interprofessional collaboration across UCI’s schools of medicine, pharmacy, and public health. Students must live in California to complete the clinical requirements.

Program Tracks Overview

Program NameEst. TuitionEst. Duration
DNP FNP~$120K (program fees, 11 quarters)3 years

UC Irvine offers the University of California system’s first FNP program — a hybrid BS- or MS-to-DNP that delivers both a doctorate and family nurse practitioner certification in three years, taught in collaboration with UCI’s medicine, pharmacy, and public health schools.

DNP FNP

The estimated cost for the DNP FNP at the University of California, Irvine is about $120K in program fees across 11 quarters, and the program would take about three years to complete on a full-time basis.

DNP Curriculum

The DNP-FNP totals 98 units over three years (11 quarters) in a hybrid format:

  • asynchronous coursework,
  • weekly synchronous online sessions,
  • on-campus intensives (a Prologue, an Intersession, and an Epilogue)
  • plus clinical skills assessments.

Alongside the DNP core — systems leadership, research methods, health policy, informatics, social determinants of health, and the multi-part DNP Scholarly Project — students move through a full primary-care clinical sequence across the lifespan, including a distinctive on-campus primary care procedures lab.

Optional nurse educator electives qualify graduates to sit for the NLN Certified Nurse Educator exam.

Coursework includes:

  • Nur DNP 212A / 212B — Advanced Pharmacology I & II
  • Nur DNP 213 — Advanced Pathophysiology
  • Nur DNP 214 — Advanced Health and Physical Assessment
  • Nur DNP F215 — Health Promotion/Disease Prevention
  • Nur DNP F216 — Primary Care: Adult/Gerontology Acute Common Conditions
  • Nur DNP F217A / F217B — Primary Care: Adult/Gerontology Chronic Conditions I & II
  • Nur DNP F218 — Primary Care: Sexual & Genitourinary Health
  • Nur DNP F219 — Primary Care: Vulnerable Populations & Psychiatric Mental Health Conditions
  • Nur DNP F220 — Primary Care: Pediatrics
  • Nur DNP F221 — Primary Care Procedures (on-campus lab)
  • Nur DNP F222 — Primary Care: Obstetrics
  • Nur DNP F223 — Frameworks for the APRN Role: Nurse Practitioner
  • Nur DNP F224A / F224B — DNP FNP Practicum (1,020 clinical hours)
  • Nur DNP F225A–I — DNP FNP Clinical Seminars I–IX
  • Nur DNP 205A–F — DNP Scholarly Project I–VI

More course details available in the course catalog.

DNP Clinicals

The program requires 1,020 hours of clinical and professional practice at faculty-vetted preceptor sites, paced alongside a nine-part clinical seminar series and on-campus skills assessments. Students must live in California to complete these requirements.

  • Total hours: 1,020 clinical and professional-practice hours
  • Structure: FNP practicum built across quarters (60–90 hours each), paired with nine clinical seminars (F225 I–IX)
  • Assessments: on-campus OSCEs, a Clinical Performance Exam, and pediatric simulation
  • Sites: faculty-vetted placements serving diverse and underserved populations; some hours may be completed at a suitable workplace site
  • Residency: students must live in California

DNP Admissions

Admission is highly competitive, for a single Fall cohort, and open to BS- or MS-prepared California RNs.

  • BS or MS in nursing from an accredited college or university
  • Cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher
  • Active, unrestricted California RN license before the program start date
  • One year of full-time US RN employment (or 1,800 hours) by the start date
  • Statistics course covering descriptive and inferential statistics, completed within five years for a letter grade of B or higher
  • One letter of recommendation from a doctorally prepared professional (DNP, MD, DO, PhD), written within the last three years
  • Statement of Purpose (1,200 words) and unofficial transcripts, submitted through the UCI Graduate Application
  • A virtual interview may be required

Applications open in October, with a December 1 priority deadline, a February 18 final deadline, and an April 15 extended deadline; the cohort starts in Fall. Note that the hybrid DNP does not support F-1 or J-1 student visas.

Tuition

UCI’s DNP is a self-supporting graduate program billed by a flat quarterly program fee rather than per unit.

For 2025–26 the fee is $10,936 per quarter (about $43,744 per year), plus a small student services fee.

Across the 11-quarter DNP-FNP, program fees total roughly $120,000; the most recent locked full-program total, for the Fall 2023 cohort, was $112,632.

Fees are the same regardless of California residency but rise annually, and as a self-supporting program UCI does not accept certain UC fee waivers (for example, CalVet or the UC employee discount). Nurses employed within the UC system can receive a renewable $10,000 UC Nurse Fellowship.

See the official fee page for more details: UCI Self-Supporting Graduate Program Fees.

Accreditation

The Doctor of Nursing Practice program at UC Irvine’s Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), and the School of Nursing is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing.

UC Irvine is regionally accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). DNP-FNP graduates are eligible to sit for national FNP certification through the ANCC or the AANP.

Other FNP Programs in California