UCCS BSN to DNP: the NP clinicals and the DNP project
UCCS's BSN to DNP takes a registered nurse with a bachelor's degree straight to a doctorate through one nurse practitioner track (FNP, AGNP or PMHNP) and a quality-improvement project, with no MSN awarded along the way. That means two separate searches: a preceptor for every NP clinical course, found in the state where you live, and an institutional mentor at the organization that hosts your project.
Plan your BSN to DNP clinicals
Tell us your track and start term, and your placement advisor maps the preceptors you need.
How the 70 or 71 credits are built
The 2026-27 catalog splits the degree into three blocks. A 36-credit DNP core carries the scholarship, policy, leadership and project courses. A 9-credit advanced practice core covers pharmacology, health assessment and pathophysiology. Your NP track then adds 25 or 26 credits of specialty courses, and those carry nearly all of the precepted patient care.
| Block | Courses | Credits | Hours tied to it |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNP core | NURS 6120, NURS 7010, NURS 7030, NURS 7070, NURS 7080, NURS 7090, NURS 7120, NURS 7200, NURS 8050 to NURS 8054 | 36 | DNP experience hours in NURS 7030, NURS 7200 and the five project courses |
| Advanced practice core | NURS 6280, NURS 6730, NURS 6740 | 9 | 45 precepted hours in NURS 6730 |
| FNP track | NURS 6900, NURS 6915, NURS 6925, NURS 6960, NURS 6982 when required, NURS 6980 | 25-26 | 630 or 770 precepted hours, set by start term |
| AGNP track | NURS 6950 replaces NURS 6900; the rest match the FNP | 25-26 | 630 or 770, set by start term |
| PMHNP track | NURS 6800, NURS 6801, NURS 6802, NURS 6803, NURS 6985 | 25-26 | 630 or 770, set by start term |
The catalog lists 70-71 credits and the program page lists 70; the individual degree plan you get at admission is the figure to follow. The catalog is plain on one point: "An MSN degree is not conferred." You leave with the DNP and may then sit for national NP certification in your population.
Two kinds of hours, and which total is yours
This doctorate carries two hour requirements that are earned in different places. Precepted NP clinical hours are direct patient care beside an NP, physician or PA (a psychiatric prescriber on the PMHNP track) in your home state. DNP experience hours are project and leadership hours inside an organization and, in the DNP handbook's framing, usually sit outside direct patient care.
The NP total depends on when you began. Under the 08/2026 practicum handbooks, a student who started before Fall 2026 needs 630 hours and a Fall 2026 or later starter needs 770, with 45 more in NURS 6730 in both cases. The DNP Project Handbook, dated 9/11/23, still describes the BSN to DNP as 1,170 hours: 630 clinical plus 540 experience. That sentence was written before the increase, so a newer cohort should not build a plan on it.
Confirm your own figure on your degree plan or with the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator. The 630 versus 770 guide explains the cohort split, and the DNP experience hours page shows how the 540 divide across courses.
The 1,170-hour total in the 2023 DNP handbook reflects the 630-hour era. Fall 2026 and later starters owe more NP clinical hours than that line suggests.
The NP clinical sequence inside the doctorate
Your NP clinicals use the same courses, preceptor rules and caps as the MSN track of the same name, under the same practicum handbooks. UCCS publishes no semester-by-semester map for this program, so your degree plan sets the order. The catalog prerequisites still fix the overall shape.
- Advanced Health Assessment first
NURS 6730is the first course with precepted time: 45 hours in a primary care setting, counted outside the 630 or 770. - The full core before any rotationSpecialty rotations require the whole advanced practice core. PMHNP students also take
NURS 6800, which has no hours, before the population courses. - Track rotationsFNP covers pediatrics plus acute and chronic primary care. AGNP swaps pediatrics for geriatrics. PMHNP moves through adult, geriatric and child-adolescent psychiatry.
- Synthesis at the end
NURS 6980for FNP and AGNP orNURS 6985for PMHNP: the largest single block of hours in the track.
Every rotation needs its own preceptor, a Clinical Site Sheet and a signed agreement before a single hour counts. The clinical placement process walks that path once; on this degree it repeats each semester you hold a clinical course.
The DNP project and your institutional mentor
The closing requirement is a quality-improvement project, delivered as a paper, a poster and a presentation, then defended. It runs through NURS 8050 to NURS 8054, and the first of those requires four DNP core courses to be complete: NURS 7010, NURS 7080, NURS 7120 and NURS 7070.
Here the handbook hands the initiative to you. Contacting a project mentor inside your own clinical setting is your job, and so is getting that organization's signed Letter of Cooperation. Because the mentor has to be employed at the implementation site, the organization you pick shapes the question you can study, the data you can reach and the pace of approvals.
Both defenses are spring events: the proposal closes NURS 8051, and the final defense closes NURS 8054. Each project course needs a B or better, and a failed one is retaken the next year, which can push graduation back by a full cycle. The Post-Master's DNP guide sets out the project steps in more detail.
States, delivery and progression
The BSN to DNP page carries no state list of its own. It asks only that your RN license be unrestricted and issued by one of the approved states UCCS lists online, and your NP hours follow the graduate rule: they happen where you live, in a state UCCS accepts, and hours outside your home state require sign-off from the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator. The approved states page lays out the lists.
Delivery is a second point where UCCS's sources disagree. The program page header reads "On Campus, Online", while the 2026-27 catalog says every graduate course is offered online, and neither describes a required campus event. Ask admissions directly if travel would affect your decision.
Progression is strict. Every graduate nursing course demands at least a B (84%), two grades of B- or lower end your enrollment, and failing the clinical portion fails the whole course, with the hours repeated. The grades and progression guide covers repeats and incompletes.
Why BSN to DNP students choose us
A BSN to DNP student runs two searches at once, often while working as an RN, and UCCS wants your plan for clinical sites in the admission essay, before you are even accepted. We are built for that workload. For each NP rotation, we search for a preceptor who meets UCCS's rules in your state and specialty, confirm licensure, certification and the exact hours they can offer, and assemble what the Clinical Site Sheet and Affiliation Agreement require, including the person at the site with authority to sign.
We plan the whole track rather than one course at a time: a pediatric or geriatric site, women's health and urgent care hours where the handbook allows them, and a synthesis site that can carry 360 or 440 hours within the same-preceptor cap. For the project, we look for an organization and an institutional mentor whose setting suits your quality-improvement question.
Should a preceptor withdraw, the search for a replacement starts the same day. UCCS approves every site and signs every agreement; our job is that each packet reaches the college complete and within its rules. See how it works, or share your track and start term using the form below.
Questions UCCS students ask
Do UCCS BSN to DNP students earn an MSN on the way?
No. The 2026-27 catalog states that the BSN to DNP does not confer an MSN. You complete the NP track courses and precepted hours inside the doctorate, then become eligible to sit for national NP certification in your population once the degree is finished. If a master's credential along the way matters to you, compare the MSN route with admissions before you commit.
Is BSN to DNP clinical placement different from the MSN's?
Not for the NP courses. BSN to DNP students take the same clinical courses as MSN students on the same track, under the same 08/2026 practicum handbooks, with the same preceptor qualifications, site sheet process and hour caps. What the doctorate adds is the 540 DNP experience hours and a project organization with an institutional mentor, which the MSN has no equivalent for.
Who arranges the DNP project site at UCCS?
The student does. Under the DNP Project Handbook, you approach a mentor at your own clinical setting and obtain the organization's written Letter of Cooperation. Because the mentor needs to be on staff at the project site, choose an organization with a problem you can measure and a leader willing to stay involved through all five project courses.
How long does the UCCS BSN to DNP take?
UCCS allows seven years to finish a DNP. It prints no standard semester map for the BSN to DNP, so your individual degree plan sets the pace. Two fixed points shape the end: the project proposal is defended late in a spring semester and the final defense comes in a later spring, which gives the project courses a yearly rhythm.
When should a BSN to DNP student start looking for preceptors?
The practicum handbooks ask students to begin three to six months ahead of the practicum course at a minimum, and to send the Clinical Site Sheet before the prior semester whenever they can. Legal review of a new Affiliation Agreement may run 6 to 8 weeks, sometimes more, so the search for your NURS 6730 preceptor is best started soon after admission.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UCCS's catalog, practicum handbooks and college pages. Your degree plan, the handbook for your cohort and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
UCCS asks you to find your clinical hours where you live. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UCCS track, your next clinical course and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the details your Clinical Site Sheet needs, early enough for the agreement to be signed before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 6900, acute and chronic care forNURS 6915andNURS 6925, psychiatric prescribers forNURS 6801toNURS 6803 - Credentials, license, certification and the site's signer ready for the Clinical Site Sheet
- In Colorado Springs, along the Front Range, or in any of UCCS's approved states
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next clinical semester is all we need to begin.