Carson-Newman University offers 4 Family Nurse Practitioner Tracks:
- MSN
- BSN to DNP
- MSN to DNP
- Post-Master’s Certificate
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN | $31.2K | 32 mos | 48 |
| BSN-DNP | $48.1K | 32 mos | 74 |
| MSN-DNP | $24.1K | 18 mos | 37 |
| Certificate | $23.4K | ≤24 mos | 36 |
Carson-Newman’s defining advantage is a placement specialist who secures clinical sites and preceptors for you, attached to one of the lowest private-school price points in FNP education ($650/credit across every track). Coursework is fully online, but plan for one to two 3-day residencies plus a 2-day certification review on the Jefferson City campus — and note that the two DNP tracks are still pursuing initial CCNE accreditation.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | MSN-FNP, BSN to DNP-FNP, MSN to DNP, Post-Master’s FNP Certificate |
| Format | Mostly Online — online coursework; 1–2 campus residencies plus a 2-day certification review |
| Clinical Hours | 780 (MSN and certificate); BSN-DNP total not clearly stated |
| Clinical Placement | Placement specialist secures sites and preceptors; referrals accepted |
| Population | Family / across the lifespan |
| Distinctive Coursework | 6-credit women’s health course with 180 clinical hours; DNP tech and policy sequence |
| Concentrations | None stated |
| RN License Requirements | Active RN license; certificate requires unencumbered RN, APRN if applicable |
| Pacing | Part-time only, designed for working nurses |
| Start Dates | Next start listed as Fall 2026 — apparently one intake per year |
| Tuition | $650/credit all tracks, plus tech fee ($55–$65/credit ) and semester fees |
| Accreditation | CCNE (MSN, certificate); DNP tracks pursuing initial CCNE ; SACSCOC institutional |
MSN-FNP
The estimated tuition for the MSN-FNP at Carson-Newman University is approximately $31,200 (48 credits at $650/credit). The program can generally be completed in about 32 months at part-time pacing, built around 15-week courses.
MSN-FNP Curriculum
The curriculum’s most distinctive feature is its weight: 780 clinical hours across the specialty sequence, well above the 500-hour certification floor and above the 600–700 hours most FNP programs assign.
The women’s health and adult care courses are 6-credit blocks that pair heavy didactic content with large clinical allotments (180 and 120 hours respectively), so clinical training is integrated into the specialty courses rather than tacked on at the end. There are no concentrations — this is a single, focused FNP pathway.
- NURS 501 Advanced Pathophysiology (3 credits)
- NURS 503 Advanced Pharmacology (3 credits)
- NURS 507 Advanced Health Assessment (3 credits, 60 clinical hours)
- NURS 531 Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Women (6 credits, 180 clinical hours)
- NURS 537 Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Adults (6 credits, 120 clinical hours)
MSN-FNP Clinical Requirements
- 780 total clinical hours — verified against per-course allotments where published (60 + 180 + 120 in the three courses above; remaining hours sit in courses not shown in the snapshot)
- Placement model: a dedicated placement specialist identifies preceptors and sites from Carson-Newman’s provider network, vets them against program and state requirements, and handles the paperwork; student referrals are accepted
- One required 3-day on-campus residency in Jefferson City, TN, including hands-on skills practice and a graded advanced assessment physical exam
- 2-day live board certification review on campus during commencement week
780 hours is genuinely high — roughly 30–55% more supervised practice than typical programs. That means more time before graduation, but it also means graduates enter practice with more patient encounters behind them, and the staff-secured placement model removes the single biggest logistical burden of any FNP program: finding your own preceptors.
MSN-FNP Admissions
Admissions are standard for the field, with no GRE, no application fee, and no stated RN experience minimum.
- Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited and NLN- or CCNE-accredited program
- 3.0 minimum GPA
- Three letters of recommendation (academic, employer, character)
- Active RN license
- Letter of personal goals and aspirations
BSN to DNP-FNP
The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP-FNP at Carson-Newman University is approximately $48,100 (74 credits at $650/credit). The program can generally be completed in about 32 months at part-time pacing — the same timeline as the standalone MSN.
BSN to DNP-FNP Curriculum
This track layers the DNP core onto the FNP foundation, and the design choice worth noticing is speed: 74 credits in the same 32 months the 48-credit MSN takes, which means denser semesters. The doctoral courses lean toward systems work — project planning, policy and advocacy, and healthcare technology — rather than adding more clinical specialty content. For a BSN nurse who knows they want the doctorate, this track costs about $16,900 more than the MSN but saves the roughly 18 additional months and $24,000 a later MSN-to-DNP would require.
- NURS 501 Advanced Pathophysiology (3 credits)
- NURS 507 Advanced Health Assessment (3 credits)
- NURS 700 Principles of Project Planning and Evaluation Methods (3 credits)
- NURS 730 Policy, Ethics, and Advocacy in Healthcare (3 credits)
- NURS 740 Healthcare Transformation Through Technology (3 credits)
BSN to DNP-FNP Clinical Requirements
- Total clinical hours: not clearly stated ⚠️ — the program’s placement section describes staff-secured placement “for 600 clinical hours,” which conflicts with the 780 hours required in the MSN and certificate tracks and would be unusually low for a BSN-to-DNP (doctoral programs typically require 1,000 post-BSN practice hours); verify the total with admissions before enrolling
- Placement model: same full-service system as the MSN — a placement specialist secures qualified sites and preceptors and manages logistics and paperwork
- Campus visits: the program facts list two 3-day on-campus residencies, though another section of the same page says one ⚠️ — budget for two
- 2-day live board certification review on campus during commencement week
The placement support alone is a meaningful differentiator at the doctoral level, where students juggle clinical rotations and a DNP project simultaneously. But the clinical-hour ambiguity is the one number to pin down in writing, since it affects both your timeline and, in some states, your licensure paperwork.
BSN to DNP-FNP Admissions
Requirements mirror the MSN with one addition: a resume.
- Bachelor’s degree from a regionally and nationally accredited program
- 3.0 minimum GPA
- Three letters of recommendation (academic, employer, character)
- Active RN license
- Letter of personal goals and aspirations
- Resume
MSN to DNP
The estimated tuition for the MSN to DNP at Carson-Newman University is approximately $24,050 (37 credits at $650/credit). The program can generally be completed in about 18 months at part-time pacing.
MSN to DNP Curriculum
Read this track carefully before assuming it makes you an FNP: the published curriculum is entirely DNP core — biostatistics, project planning, systems leadership, policy, and technology — with no FNP specialty clinical courses listed, and the program page does not mention clinical placement support. It functions as a doctoral completion path for MSN-prepared nurses. An MSN nurse who is not yet an FNP and wants that credential should be looking at the Post-Master’s Certificate below, or confirm with admissions whether this track can be combined with FNP preparation.
- NURS 685 Applied Biostatistics & Epidemiology (3 credits)
- NURS 700 Principles of Project Planning and Evaluation Methods (3 credits)
- NURS 720 Leading Change with Complex Health Systems (3 credits)
- NURS 730 Policy, Ethics, and Advocacy in Healthcare (3 credits)
- NURS 740 Healthcare Transformation Through Technology (3 credits)
MSN to DNP Clinical Requirements
- Clinical/practice hours: not clearly stated
- One required 3-day on-campus residency
- 2-day live certification review on campus during commencement week
DNP programs nationally require practice hours toward the 1,000-hour doctoral total, typically crediting hours from a prior MSN. Carson-Newman doesn’t publish this track’s requirement, so ask admissions how many hours you’d owe and how your MSN hours count.
MSN to DNP Admissions
- Master’s degree from a regionally accredited and NLN- or CCNE-accredited program
- 3.0 minimum GPA
- Three letters of recommendation (academic, employer, character)
- Active RN license
- Letter of personal goals and aspirations
- Resume
Post-Master’s FNP Certificate
The estimated tuition for the Post-Master’s FNP Certificate at Carson-Newman University is approximately $23,400 (36 credits at $650/credit), with the total varying based on transfer credits. The program can generally be completed in about 24 months or less, structured as nine 15-week courses.
Post-Master’s FNP Certificate Curriculum
This is not a slimmed-down add-on certificate: at 36 credits and the full 780 clinical hours, it carries the complete FNP specialty sequence of the MSN — only the MSN’s non-clinical graduate core is removed. Many post-master’s certificates run 15–25 credits by crediting prior APRN coursework; Carson-Newman’s is nearly a full specialty program, which means more cost and time than the lightest certificates but identical clinical preparation to its degree-seeking students. Free transcript evaluations (usually within 48 hours) determine whether transfer credits shorten it.
- NURS 501 Advanced Pathophysiology (3 credits)
- NURS 503 Advanced Pharmacology (3 credits)
- NURS 507 Advanced Health Assessment (3 credits, 60 clinical hours)
- NURS 531 Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Women (6 credits, 180 clinical hours)
- NURS 537 Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Adults (6 credits, 120 clinical hours)
Post-Master’s FNP Certificate Clinical Requirements
- 780 total clinical hours — identical to the MSN track
- Full clinical placement support: a placement specialist secures sites and preceptors and handles paperwork
- One required 3-day on-campus residency with hands-on skills practice and an advanced assessment physical exam
- 2-day live board certification review on campus during commencement week
Requiring certificate students to complete all 780 hours — rather than a reduced block — is the conservative approach. It lengthens the certificate relative to competitors but eliminates any gap between certificate and degree graduates when they sit for boards.
Post-Master’s FNP Certificate Admissions
Note the stricter license language here: the RN license must be unencumbered, and APRN licensure is requested if applicable.
- Master’s degree from a regionally accredited institution and NLN- or CCNE-accredited program
- 3.0 minimum GPA
- Three letters of recommendation (academic, employer, character)
- Active, unencumbered RN license; active APRN license if applicable
- Letter of personal goals and aspirations
Tuition
Total estimated tuition runs from $23,400 (certificate) to $48,100 (BSN to DNP-FNP), all derived from a flat $650 per credit: 48 credits × $650 = $31,200 for the MSN, 74 × $650 = $48,100 for the BSN-DNP, 37 × $650 = $24,050 for the MSN-DNP, and 36 × $650 = $23,400 for the certificate. Fees add materially to those headline numbers:
- Technology fee charged per credit hour — ⚠️ the MSN and certificate program pages state $55/credit while the university’s tuition page states $65/credit for all programs; at 48 credits that’s a $2,640–$3,120 add, and $4,810 on the 74-credit BSN-DNP at the higher rate
- Per-semester program fee: $400 for the MSN, BSN-DNP, and certificate; $200 for the MSN to DNP — across a 32-month part-time program this adds several thousand dollars
- Certificate total varies based on transfer credits
- No application fee for any track
Realistically, budget roughly $2,000–$8,000 above sticker depending on track — the MSN lands in the mid-$30,000s all-in, which still prices it below most private competitors. Official figures are on the Carson-Newman tuition page.
Why Choose This FNP Program?
Best suited for nurses who want someone else to find their preceptors, want more clinical training than the field’s minimum, and want private-school class sizes without private-school tuition.
The placement model is the practical headline. At most FNP programs, students source their own preceptors — a process that can delay graduation by months when a placement falls through. Carson-Newman assigns a placement specialist who secures vetted sites and preceptors from its provider network and manages the paperwork, across all clinical tracks. Combined with 780 clinical hours (versus the 500-hour certification floor and the 600–700 hours typical elsewhere), graduates leave with both more supervised practice and less logistical friction acquiring it. Per the university, online cohorts are kept small, between 16 and 20 students.
The trade-offs are real. Everything runs part-time on an apparent single fall intake, so nurses wanting a full-time sprint or a spring start should look elsewhere. Campus travel to Jefferson City is required — one 3-day residency for most tracks, apparently two for the BSN-DNP, plus a 2-day certification review. Most importantly, the two DNP tracks are still pursuing initial CCNE accreditation, a status that deserves written confirmation before you enroll at the doctoral level. And as a Christian liberal arts university, Carson-Newman integrates faith into its nursing curriculum — a draw for some applicants, a consideration for others.
Accreditation
The master’s degree program in nursing and the post-master’s certificate program at Carson-Newman University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), and the university is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), with Tennessee Board of Nursing approval.
The BSN-DNP and MSN-DNP programs are a different story: per the university’s own accreditation page, they are “pursuing initial accreditation” from CCNE, and the university notes that applying does not guarantee accreditation will be granted (verified from Carson-Newman’s accreditation page, July 2026).
For MSN and certificate students this is a non-issue; prospective DNP students should get the current accreditation status in writing from the university before enrolling, since graduating from a program that never achieves accreditation can complicate licensure and employment. Graduates of the FNP clinical tracks are prepared for the national FNP certification exam, supported by the on-campus 2-day board review; the university does not specify AANP versus ANCC eligibility, though most CCNE-accredited FNP programs qualify graduates for either.
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