Assess, diagnose, and treat mental health across the lifespan. Step into one of the most needed roles in health care.
Master of Science: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Prepare to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health conditions across the lifespan with a CCNE-accredited Master of Science in Nursing, specializing in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Florida Southern College.
Care for patients from childhood through older adulthood, conducting comprehensive psychiatric assessments, prescribing and monitoring psychotropic medications, and delivering evidence-based psychotherapy to individuals, families, and groups. The work asks you to hold two disciplines at once: the pharmacology of the brain and the practice of sitting with someone. It also asks you to navigate the ethical, legal, and cultural questions that follow psychiatric care in ways that don't follow other specialties. FSC prepares you through close cohorts, mentorship from practicing nurses, and a curriculum built almost entirely around psychiatric-mental health practice.
PMHNPs master two treatment modes: prescribing psychotropic medications and delivering psychotherapy to individuals, families, and groups. This dual focus sets the role apart from most advanced practice tracks. FSC's curriculum builds both skills through sequential psychotherapy courses and advanced psychopharmacology and diagnostics. Few healthcare roles require both approaches, or let you choose which one each patient needs.
Psychiatric assessment rarely offers clear answers. With no straightforward tests and patients often unable to fully describe their experience, you piece together information from history, presentation, and what is left unsaid, staying open to revising your conclusions.
Unlike primary care, psychiatric diagnosis is less direct. That complexity is why ethical, legal, and cultural issues are central to the curriculum. Determining what a patient needs, and what they have consented to, is part of every assessment.
PMHNPs practice in settings most nurses never see from the bedside: inpatient psychiatric facilities, crisis intervention centers, community mental health clinics, private psychiatric practices, substance use and recovery programs, and increasingly, telepsychiatry.
They are needed in all of them. The shortage of mental health clinicians is more acute than the general shortage of providers, and it is most severe in exactly the places with the fewest options. If you want the version of this degree with the widest gap between demand and supply, this is it.
Everything in this section is specific to the Psychiatric-Mental Health track. Costs, admission requirements, and clinical placement work the same way across all three MSN tracks.
The MSN-PMHNP curriculum prepares you to assess, diagnose, and treat mental health conditions for patients across the lifespan, and to navigate the ethical, legal, and cultural considerations specific to psychiatric-mental health care. Courses integrate advanced nursing theory with specialized psychiatric coursework and extensive clinical practicum experience, building skills in advanced psychopharmacology, mental health assessment, and psychotherapy.
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| NUR 5120 | Leadership, Role Development, and Advocacy for Advanced Nursing Practice |
| NUR 5150 | Advanced Pharmacology Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 5200 | Advanced Pathophysiology Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 5220 | Advanced Health Assessment and Differential Diagnoses Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 5250 | Evidence Translation and Quality Improvement for Advanced Nursing Practice |
| NUR 5400 | Health Promotion, Clinical Prevention, and Population Health for Advanced Nursing Practice |
| NUR 5450 | Informatics and Health Care Technologies |
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| NUR 6530 | Transition to Advanced Nursing Practice Role: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner |
| NUR 6600 | Advanced Psychopharmacology Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 6610 | Advanced Mental Health Assessment and Diagnostics Across the Lifespan |
| NUR 6670 | Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Across the Lifespan I: Individual and Family Psychotherapy |
| NUR 6680 | Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Across the Lifespan II: Individual and Group Psychotherapy |
| NUR 6690 | Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Across the Lifespan III: Role Synthesis |
Total: 44 Hours
Hands-on clinical practice is the cornerstone of your PMHNP training, where classroom learning becomes patient care. You will complete a minimum of 540 population-focused clinical hours across simulated and real-world settings. FSC's Clinical Placement Coordinator arranges your sites and preceptors, so you are not searching for a placement while carrying a full course load.
You will wear a white lab coat over business casual during advanced health assessment and follow your clinical site's dress requirements throughout your rotations.
The MSN is a structured, full-time program, and you move through it as part of a dedicated cohort. PMHNP students meet on campus one day per week for the first two semesters, then shift to one day per month for the remainder of the program. That schedule is specific to this track. Family and Adult-Gerontology students meet weekly throughout.
Because the coursework is rigorous, especially during clinical semesters, we strongly recommend reducing your work hours while enrolled.
Graduates are prepared to sit for the national certification examination as a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner through the American Nurses Credentialing Center or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board.
Beginning in your second semester, you will take a series of predictor exams that gauge your readiness to move into clinical courses and forecast your likelihood of passing the certification exam.
Tuition, admission requirements, and clinical placement work the same way whichever track you choose. Here is what to expect.
No. Prior psychiatric or mental health experience is not required to apply. Our PMHNP track is designed to prepare you with the knowledge and clinical skills you need, starting from your foundation as a registered nurse.
Yes. The master's degree program in nursing and the post-graduate APRN certificate programs at Florida Southern College are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 655 K Street NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202.887.6791.
Both prepare you to care for patients across the entire lifespan, but the similarity ends there. The Family track prepares you to be a primary care provider handling wellness visits, chronic disease management, acute illness, and prevention. The Psychiatric-Mental Health track specializes in behavioral health, training you in psychiatric assessment, psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy. Choose Psychiatric-Mental Health if you want to practice mental health care specifically, rather than treat mental health as one part of general primary care.
The PMHNP track requires a minimum of 540 population-focused clinical hours, completed across your practicum experiences.
The PMHNP track runs six semesters and 44 credit hours, the same length as the Family track and one semester longer than Adult-Gerontology. Clinical hours are 540, matching Adult-Gerontology.
FSC stands out for offering a highly supportive, student-centered environment featuring tight-knit cohorts and personal faculty mentorship from advanced practice nurses.
To reduce graduate school stress, FSC provides a dedicated Clinical Placement Coordinator who fully handles your clinical site and preceptor placements.
Additionally, as one of FSC's newest graduate nursing offerings, the PMHNP track prepares you for a field facing critical workforce shortages, helping you expand access to mental health care across your community.
Graduates practice in inpatient psychiatric facilities, crisis intervention centers, community mental health clinics, private psychiatric practices, substance use and recovery programs, and telepsychiatry.
Join us online to learn more about our MSN tracks as well as Post-Master's certificate opportunities....
Admissions
Join us online to learn more about our MSN tracks as well as Post-Master's certificate opportunities....
Admissions
Join us online to learn more about our MSN tracks as well as Post-Master's certificate opportunities....
Admissions
At Florida Southern, you are our focus. Our graduate admissions team supports you through the application process and helps you decide whether the PMHNP track fits your goals.
Interested in other specialized advanced practice nursing paths? Learn more about FSC's other master's and doctoral opportunities:
Request more information about the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner track, join a virtual information session, or start your free graduate application.
