UCCS MSN Psychiatric-Mental Health NP: three rotations and a Synthesis

The PMHNP at a glance

The Psychiatric-Mental Health NP is one of three NP options in UCCS's online Nursing MSN. The college's RN to MSN page lists it at 48 credits, one more than the primary care tracks, because its population courses are larger. There are no required campus visits. The catalog's usual pace is three years for full-time students and four for part-time, and the degree has to be finished within six.

UCCS is direct about placement for this track: its program pages say psychiatric clinical hours are located by each student in the area where they live. UCCS reviews sites, drafts the agreements and supervises the rotations, and its handbooks note that lists of sites already under agreement cannot be shared. Every hour must also fall inside one of the 14 states UCCS admits from, listed in the approved states guide.

One real difference from the FNP and AGNP works in your favor. Where the primary care tracks bar inpatient time, the PMHNP handbook encourages both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric experience, which widens the settings you can consider.

How the track unfolds

The catalog prerequisites give the PMHNP a firmer spine than the primary care tracks. Each student still receives an individual degree plan at admission, and that plan is the final word on which semester holds which course.

1. Core and health assessmentThe MSN core and the advanced practice core come first. NURS 6730 includes 45 hours in primary care, so the first search is for a primary care site; the NURS 6730 guide covers it.
2. Mental health assessment, no hoursNURS 6800 builds assessment and intervention skills across the lifespan. All three population courses list it as a prerequisite.
3. Three population rotationsNURS 6801 covers adults, NURS 6802 older adults and NURS 6803 children and adolescents, at 135 or 165 hours each. Every rotation centers on one age group, so the preceptor's patients need to match it.
4. SynthesisThe catalog lists NURS 6800, the adult course and the geriatric course as prerequisites for NURS 6985, and an unresolved incomplete in either of those two rotations blocks entry. The PMHNP practicum courses guide goes course by course.

What counts toward PMHNP hours

The PMHNP handbooks open settings the primary care tracks close, and they add a patient-mix requirement of their own.

• Inpatient and outpatient psychiatry: both encouraged, with group therapy, individual therapy, TMS and ECT experience all welcome.
• Telehealth: counts when you are physically in the office beside the provider; joining remotely requires the Option Coordinator's sign-off.
• State line: even on a video visit, the provider has to be based in a state on UCCS's approved list.
• Age mix: by graduation your Medatrax log must show 60 or more patients in each group: children and adolescents, adults, and older adults.
• Banking: none in the 630 handbook; up to 55 hours in the 770 handbook.
• Extra hours (770 handbook): up to 10 from simulation and up to 10 from a psychopharmacology or therapy conference.

Logs record ICD-10 and E/M codes along with encounter type, therapy and telehealth details, and preceptors with more than 24 hours complete an evaluation in Medatrax. The PMHNP what-counts guide covers each rule in full.