Southeastern Louisiana University FNP Programs

Southeastern Louisiana University offers 3 Family Nurse Practitioner Tracks:

MSN
BSN to DNP
Post-Master’s Certificate

Program Tracks Overview

Program	Est. Tuition	Est. Duration	Credit Hours
MSN	$20K–$21.4K	2 years	42–45
Post-BSN DNP	$33.3K	3 years	70
Certificate	$8.6K	1 year	18

Southeastern’s defining advantage is that it runs three separate FNP entry points on one shared clinical spine. Whether you enter with a BSN, an MSN, or a doctoral plan, you complete the same three Family Health practicums totaling 750 clinical hours, and the BSN-to-DNP track lets you exit with an MSN partway through if the doctorate stops making sense.

Quick Facts

Feature	Details
Program Types	MSN, BSN-to-DNP, and Post-Master’s Certificate — all FNP
Format	Online (MSN, certificate). DNP is Mostly Online — two on-campus events
Clinical Hours	750 in all three tracks; DNP adds 540 residency hours (1,290 total)
Clinical Placement	Contracts arranged jointly by student, faculty, and preceptor. No guarantee
Clinical Location	All clinical hours must be completed in Louisiana
Population	Primary care across the lifespan, staged over three Family Health courses
Distinctive Coursework	Required thesis or focused scholarly project (MSN); NP business and health policy course
RN License Requirements	Valid, unencumbered Louisiana RN license required for all tracks
RN Experience Gate	One year of relevant RN practice required before any clinical course
Progression Policy	“B” required in every course. A “D” or “F” means dismissal
Transfer Limit	No more than one-third of degree hours may be transferred in
Tuition	$475/credit online graduate flat rate, up to 9 credits per semester
Accreditation	CCNE (DNP directly; MSN via ICMSN consortium); SACSCOC institutional

MSN — Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration

The estimated tuition for the MSN Family Nurse Practitioner concentration at Southeastern Louisiana University is approximately $19,950–$21,375 (42–45 credits at $475/credit).

The program can generally be completed in about five semesters full-time, though the school states most students enroll part-time and the university allows up to six years from first enrollment.

MSN Curriculum

Foundation courses. The first two semesters pair the graduate core — theory, evidence generation — with advanced pathophysiology, pharmacotherapeutics, and health assessment with diagnostic reasoning. One structural detail is worth noting: Applied Statistics for the Health Sciences is a graded course inside the degree, not an admissions prerequisite you clear before you arrive. You still need an undergraduate statistics course to be admitted, so this is a second, deeper pass rather than a substitute.

FNP specialty sequence. Three five-credit Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health courses (I, II, III) carry the entire clinical load, 250 hours each. They run in consecutive semesters, so clinical intensity ramps up in the back half of the program rather than being spread thin from the start. Population-Based Primary Care sits alongside them, and Business, Leadership and Health Policy for Nurse Practitioners covers practice management — billing, scope, and policy — which many FNP curricula fold into a general leadership course or skip.

Scholarly requirement. Every MSN student completes a Focused Scholarly Project (3 credits) or a Thesis (6 credits). This is uncommon in FNP master’s programs, most of which have moved to a capstone portfolio. It adds real academic work on top of a heavy practicum load, and the thesis route adds three credits of tuition. The upside is a cleaner transition into doctoral study, either at Southeastern or elsewhere.

Consortium access. The degree is awarded through the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing, a four-university cooperative with McNeese State, Nicholls State, and UL Lafayette. Students pick a “home designation” university for records and graduation, and courses taken at any member school count toward the degree. In practice this means a wider faculty pool and more course-section availability than a single regional campus could staff. At least one-third of your credits must still come from Southeastern instruction.

NURS 6180 — Pathophysiology for Advanced Practice (3)
NURS 6070 — Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning for Advanced Practice (3)
NURS 6170 — Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice (3)
NURS 6050 — Applied Statistics for the Health Sciences (3)
NURS 6090 — Population Based Primary Care (3)
NURS 6820 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health I (5)
NURS 6830 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health II (5)
NURS 6840 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health III (5)
NURS 6810 — Business, Leadership, and Health Policy for Nurse Practitioners (3)
NURS 6950 — Focused Scholarly Project (3) or NURS 6990 — Thesis (6)

More curriculum details are available here.

MSN Clinical Requirements

750 total clinical hours per the graduate catalog degree plan.
NOTE Conflicting totals. The program’s marketing page states 600 clinical/clock hours. The catalog states 750. The catalog figure is corroborated by the post-master’s certificate, which lists 750 practicum hours from the same three courses.
Course math: Family Health I, II, and III at 5 credits each = 15 clinical credits. 750 ÷ 3 courses = 250 hours per course, roughly 16–17 hours per week across a standard 15-week term.
Placement model: clinical contracts are developed jointly between the student, faculty, and an advanced practice nurse or physician preceptor at established sites. No placement guarantee is published.
All clinical hours must be completed in Louisiana.
You must document one year of RN practice in an area appropriate to the specialty before starting any clinical course.
Current CPR certification and site-specific agency requirements apply throughout practicum.

At 750 hours, this sits above the 500-hour national certification floor and above the 600–700 band where most FNP programs land. That is a meaningful advantage on a résumé and in your first year of practice, but it is not free: it concentrates into three consecutive semesters, and 250 hours per course is closer to a part-time job than a course requirement. Budget for reduced work hours in those terms. The placement language matters just as much — “developed mutually” means you are expected to bring preceptor leads, with faculty helping formalize them. Combined with the Louisiana-only rule, that makes local professional connections a practical admission asset, not just a nice-to-have.

MSN Admissions

Two requirements screen out applicants who would otherwise qualify elsewhere: a Louisiana RN license, and a year of relevant RN experience before practicum. The GPA bar itself is modest.

BSN from an accredited undergraduate nursing program.
Minimum 2.7 cumulative undergraduate GPA on a 4.0 scale, including repeated coursework.
Elementary statistics course completed with a “C” or better.
Valid, unencumbered Louisiana RN license.
Two recommendations — one from nursing faculty, a supervisor, or a nursing leader; one attesting to your competence at the advanced practice level.
Current resume or CV.
A statement of purpose, maximum three pages, double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman.
Background check, drug and alcohol screening, and health requirements after enrollment, all at your expense.
Graduating BSN seniors may be admitted in contingent status.
NOTE: Deadlines are posted on the graduate nursing website rather than in the catalog, so verify the current cycle directly.

BSN to DNP — Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration

The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP Family Nurse Practitioner concentration at Southeastern Louisiana University is approximately $33,250 (70 credits at $475/credit). The program runs nine semesters, or about three calendar years including summers, on the published full-time plan.

DNP Curriculum

Structure. The doctorate is delivered as an academic partnership between Southeastern and UL Lafayette, separate from the master’s consortium. It embeds the full MSN FNP core — the same three Family Health practicums and the same 3 Ps — and layers doctoral coursework around it rather than stacking it afterward.

The MSN exit point. The catalog marks Semester 6 as a point where students may graduate with the MSN. This is the single most practically useful feature of the track. You reach FNP certification eligibility and a completed master’s degree roughly two-thirds of the way through, which means a life change, a job offer, or simple burnout does not force you to walk away with nothing. Confirm the exit mechanics in writing before enrolling, since the catalog states the option in a footnote rather than spelling out the process.

Doctoral layer. The DNP-specific coursework is heavier on analytics and systems than many practice doctorates: Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Preventative Care for Populations (4 credits), Clinical Scholarship and Analytic Methods, Organizational and Systems Leadership (4 credits), Ethics and Health Care Policy (4 credits), Health Care Informatics, and Project Planning. Residency I through III carry the DNP synthesis project work.

NURS 8010 — Biostatistics (3)
NURS 8300 — Advanced Practice Scholarly and Theoretical Foundations (3)
NURS 8040 — Clinical Scholarship and Analytic Methods for Evidence Based Practice (3)
NURS 8310 — Epidemiology and Preventative Care for Populations (4)
NURS 8030 — Project Planning (3)
NURS 8080 — Ethics and Health Care Policy (4)
NURS 8070 — Organizational and Systems Leadership (4)
NURS 8060 — Health Care Informatics (3)
NURS 8210 / 8220 / 8230 — Residency I, II, III (2 + 4 + 4)

More curriculum details are available here.

DNP Clinical Requirements

750 clinical hours from the three Family Health practicums, identical to the MSN.
540 additional residency hours across Residency I (2 credits), II (4 credits), and III (4 credits).
Course math: 750 + 540 = 1,290 total supervised practice hours.
Residency practicum hours and Advanced Directed Studies must be completed at your home institution — they cannot be taken at the partner university.
Two on-campus requirements: activities immediately before the program starts, and synthesis project presentations at the end.
All clinical hours must be completed in Louisiana.

1,290 hours comfortably clears the 1,000-hour post-baccalaureate practice minimum that AACN sets for the DNP, with about 290 hours of headroom. The split matters more than the total: the 750 FNP hours build clinical competence and certification eligibility, while the 540 residency hours are project-oriented and tied to your synthesis work. Do not read the residency hours as extra patient-contact time. The two campus events are real but finite — an orientation and a presentation across three years is a light travel burden by doctoral standards, though it does rule the program out if you cannot reach Hammond at all.

DNP Admissions

DNP admissions add a telephone interview and a more demanding written statement on top of the MSN requirements. Entry is available in fall, spring, and summer.

BSN from an accredited undergraduate nursing program.
Minimum 2.7 cumulative undergraduate GPA on a 4.0 scale.
Elementary statistics with a “C” or better; a graduate statistics course is required before Biostatistics.
Valid, unencumbered Louisiana RN license.
Two recommendations, one from nursing faculty or a supervisor and one addressing advanced practice competence.
A three-page statement covering doctoral goals, your intended synthesis project area, and how the DNP fits your career plan.
Telephone interview with the DNP program coordinator.
Onsite DNP program orientation attendance.
Background check, drug and alcohol screening, and health requirements at your expense.

Post-Master’s Certificate — Family Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the Post-Master’s Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate at Southeastern Louisiana University is approximately $8,550 (18 credits at $475/credit). The program is designed for completion in three semesters.

Certificate Curriculum

The certificate is stripped to four courses: the three Family Health practicums and the NP business and health policy course. There is no core theory, statistics, or research sequence, on the assumption that your existing master’s covered it. That is what makes 18 credits possible.

The catch sits in the admissions review. Southeastern evaluates your transcript for advanced health assessment, advanced pharmacotherapeutics, and advanced pathophysiology, specifically checking whether each covered full lifespan content. If your master’s prepared you for a narrower population — adult-gerontology, for instance — those courses become requisites you must complete before the certificate begins. Applicants coming from a non-lifespan specialty should treat 18 credits and three semesters as a best case and ask for a transcript evaluation before budgeting.

NURS 6820 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health I (5)
NURS 6830 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health II (5)
NURS 6840 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health III (5)
NURS 6810 — Business, Leadership, and Health Policy for Nurse Practitioners (3)

More curriculum details are available here.

Certificate Clinical Requirements

750 documented practicum hours, the same total the MSN and DNP require.
Course math: 250 hours in each of the three Family Health courses, across three consecutive semesters.
Didactic content is delivered online; clinical work is completed with an approved advanced practice preceptor under graduate faculty supervision.
One year of relevant RN practice experience required before any clinical course.
All clinical hours must be completed in Louisiana.

This is the number to weigh most carefully. Most post-master’s FNP certificates run 500 to 600 hours because they credit prior graduate clinical work; Southeastern requires the full 750, unreduced. You get a certificate holder’s clinical volume identical to a fresh MSN graduate’s, which is defensible preparation and a stronger position for a specialty change. But compressing 750 hours into three semesters means roughly 250 hours per term with no lighter didactic semester to recover in. The word “accelerated” in the school’s own description refers to the calendar, not the workload.

Certificate Admissions

The certificate raises the GPA bar to a graduate standard and admits twice a year.

MSN from a nationally accredited graduate nursing program.
Minimum 3.0 cumulative graduate GPA on a 4.0 scale.
Valid, unencumbered Louisiana RN license.
Two recommendations attesting to capacity for master’s-level coursework.
Current resume or CV and a three-page statement of purpose.
Transcript analysis of the three advanced practice science courses for lifespan coverage; syllabi may be requested.
Admission in spring and fall semesters only.
Background check, drug and alcohol screening, and health requirements at your expense.

Tuition

Southeastern publishes a flat online graduate rate of $475 per credit hour for up to nine credits in a semester, with additional hours in the same semester billed at $100 each. At the base rate, estimated total tuition is $19,950–$21,375 for the MSN, $33,250 for the BSN-to-DNP, and $8,550 for the post-master’s certificate.

All totals are derived estimates (credits × $475), not published program totals.
The $475 rate is the university’s flat online graduate rate. The university states it applies to “qualifying programs” and directs students to check by program; graduate nursing is reported at $475 per credit for both residents and non-residents. Confirm eligibility with the bursar before relying on it.
The flat rate is a per-semester ceiling, so heavy semesters cost less than straight multiplication suggests. Following the published full-time MSN plan, the 42-credit path works out to roughly $19,200; the DNP plan works out to roughly $31,375.
A Professional Degree fee is assessed every semester of coursework. The amount is not published in the source material.
Proctored testing fees apply to online courses; amounts not stated.
Southeastern assesses differential tuition on programs the Louisiana Board of Regents designates high-cost, up to $90 per semester for full-time graduate students, with total additional tuition and fees capped at $440 per semester. Whether this applies to the online flat-rate nursing programs is not clearly stated.
NOTE: The university’s standard graduate tuition table — which adds mandatory fees and non-resident charges of roughly $6,239 per semester at nine credits — is the campus rate schedule. It does not govern the online flat-rate programs. Do not use it to estimate these costs.
Choosing the MSN thesis over the scholarly project adds three credits, about $1,425.
No cohort pricing lock is published; rates can change year to year.

Official tuition details are available here. Until the Professional Degree fee and proctoring charges are quoted for your track, treat these figures as a tuition floor rather than an all-in cost.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

Best suited for Louisiana-licensed nurses who want a low-cost public FNP credential and are still deciding how far to take it — master’s, doctorate, or a specialty change on top of an existing MSN.

Southeastern is unusual in offering all three doors at once, and the shared clinical spine is what makes that useful rather than merely tidy. The same three Family Health practicums and the same 750 hours sit inside the MSN, the BSN-to-DNP, and the certificate. Your clinical preparation does not change based on which credential you are chasing, which removes a variable most applicants have to guess at. The DNP’s mid-program MSN exit extends the same logic: you can commit to the doctorate without betting three years on nothing changing in your life.

The cost picture is straightforward at the tuition line and murky below it. At $475 per credit with no residency surcharge on the online rate, an FNP master’s lands around $20,000 and the certificate under $9,000, which is inexpensive by national standards. But the per-semester Professional Degree fee and proctoring charges are unpublished, so the true all-in figure is not knowable from public pages. Ask for a full fee quote before comparing against a school that publishes one.

Three constraints deserve weight. The Louisiana RN license requirement and the Louisiana-only clinical rule together make this an in-state program in practice, regardless of the online format. The one-year RN experience gate before any practicum blocks new graduates from moving straight through. And the progression policy is strict — a “B” is required in every course, a single “D” or “F” means dismissal, and more than two “C” grades ends progression. That is tighter than most graduate nursing programs, and it deserves a clear-eyed look if you are returning to school while working full-time.

Accreditation

The baccalaureate degree program in nursing and the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Southeastern Louisiana University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), verified from the university’s own accreditation page. The master’s degree program in nursing is accredited by CCNE through the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing, a consortium of McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Southeastern is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The post-master’s certificate is described as fully approved by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing; the university’s accreditation statement names the baccalaureate, DNP, and consortium master’s programs but does not separately name post-graduate APRN certificate programs, so confirm the certificate’s CCNE status in writing if it matters to your employer or licensing board.

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