UTRGV's online Doctor of Nursing Practice and its project site
UTRGV's Doctor of Nursing Practice is a 45-credit program taught entirely online, admitting once a year in the fall, with a single curriculum whether you are headed for leadership or advanced practice. Its clinical work centers on the DNP Project, carried out at a UTRGV-approved site under a signed affiliation agreement with a physician or DNP-prepared APRN as your preceptor. This guide covers the program, its admission rules and how we line up that site early.
Plan your DNP project site
Tell us your project idea, where you live and when your project courses start.
The DNP at a glance
The School of Nursing opened its DNP in Fall 2022. The first cohort of 14 students was welcomed at the Medical Education Building on the Edinburg campus and then began coursework online. Today the catalog calls the DNP a fully online program, and its table of programs by campus lists it under online delivery alone.
| Item | What UTRGV publishes |
|---|---|
| Credits | 45: a 36-credit core plus 9 credits of DNP Project courses |
| Delivery | 100% online |
| Start term | Fall only; applications due July 15, extended to July 31 |
| Length | No current figure; the 2022 release said it can be completed within 2.5 years |
| License | An RN license in Texas or a compact state |
| Practice hours | No program total; 100 logged hours in NURS 8211 |
| Plan of study | Not published; ask your advisor for the order of terms |
Two gaps in that table shape your planning. With no published plan of study, you learn which term holds each project course from your advisor, and with no published hour total, your advisors are the ones to ask how many practice hours your own plan needs.
One curriculum for leadership and APRN roles
UTRGV does not divide the DNP into an administration track and an advanced practice track. The catalog says the program prepares graduates to be eligible for leadership and administration or for work as an APRN, and every student follows the same 45-credit list.
The core is twelve courses worth 36 credits: NURS 8301 through NURS 8309 and NURS 8320 through NURS 8322. Two catalog descriptions hint at the settings the program has in mind. NURS 8302 treats informatics across a range of primary care settings, and NURS 8307 is an interprofessional course with special emphasis on vulnerable populations.
A single plan means a single project sequence. A nurse executive and a practicing family nurse practitioner take the same three project courses, and the capstone syllabus frames its objectives around the DNP-prepared APRN. A leadership project still needs an organization where the change can happen and a preceptor who fits UTRGV's wording, which the preceptor requirements page compares across programs.
Admission: the catalog and the 2022 announcement differ
Follow the 2026-27 catalog, but know that it does not match what UTRGV said when the program opened.
What the 2026-27 catalog asks for
- A master's from a regionally accredited U.S. institution, or a recognized international equivalent, in a similar or related field
- An undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0
- Verified completion of a basic statistics course
- "RN license in Texas or Compact state."
- For post-master's applicants, a nursing master's in an advanced practice area: NP, CNS, CNM or CRNA
UTRGV's August 2022 launch release described a program open to nurses holding a BSN with an RN or APRN license. The catalog now requires a master's, so entry straight from a BSN is not part of the current rules. Still unclear is how a master's in a related field that is not an APRN specialty sits beside the advanced practice rule for post-master's students, and whether such students log hours differently. If your master's is outside an APRN specialty, ask the DNP program director before you apply.
Because the license rule reaches beyond Texas, it leaves room for nurses who hold a multistate license from another compact state. The RN license rules page explains what that license does and does not cover.
The DNP Project in three courses
The 9 project credits run through three courses that take you from an idea to an evaluated result. Faculty guide every stage: a committee oversees the first course, you meet your project advisors at least four times in the second, and a faculty advisor shapes the capstone.
| Course | Credits | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
NURS 8210 DNP Project I: Development | 2 | Design a clinical scholarship project within your interest and expertise |
NURS 8211 DNP Project II: Proposal | 2 | Carry out the project and collect data at your approved site, with 100 hours of graded logs |
NURS 8512 DNP Project III: Evaluation | 5 | The capstone clinical experience, with a preceptor, site forms and three evaluations |
The course-by-course detail, including the capstone's early deadline for site and preceptor forms, sits on DNP project hours. This page stays with the decisions you make before those courses begin.
The approved site, its agreement and your preceptor
Three pieces have to be in place before the project can run: an organization UTRGV has approved, an affiliation agreement between that organization and UTRGV, and a preceptor who agrees to guide you. UTRGV's capstone paperwork asks for a physician or a DNP-prepared APRN, or the two together, and pairs a preceptor data sheet with a preceptor agreement and student commitment form.
UTRGV's public sources do not say who finds the site or the preceptor. They do show the student submitting the agreement forms and preceptor paperwork. An organization new to UTRGV comes on board through the School's Clinical Request Form, one form with a box to tick for DNP students, and UTRGV's PMHNP guidelines estimate 30 to 90 days for an agreement to be processed. Details are on the Clinical Request Form page.
Large Texas systems can add lead time of their own. Texas Children's Hospital, according to its student page, wants an affiliation inquiry at least six months before a licensed student's desired start, and it names DNP students among those the rule covers.
A willing manager is not yet an approved site. In our reading of the syllabi, implementation in NURS 8211 needs the agreement signed and the preceptor's forms filed, so a late site search squeezes your logged hours and your project at the same time.
Practice hours: one figure, no total
The only DNP hour figure UTRGV has made public is the 100 hours of clinical logs graded in NURS 8211. No program total appears in the catalog, on the program page or in the syllabi, and no published rule covers counting hours from an earlier master's. Those 100 hours belong to one course: NURS 8512 follows with its own capstone clinical experience, for which UTRGV names no figure.
When the program launched, UTRGV said students would complete whatever clinical hours accreditation standards call for, without naming a number. If you are fitting the project around work and family, ask your DNP Project Faculty Advisors early how many hours your plan needs and whether earlier APRN hours count. For a side-by-side view of hours in every UTRGV program, open the clinical hours hub.
What we do for UTRGV DNP students
Our placement desk treats a DNP site search as project planning, not a scramble for hours. We start from your question, the population you want to reach and the state your license covers, then look for an organization that can host the change and a physician or DNP-prepared APRN inside it who will precept you.
- A site and preceptor identified early, ideally before
NURS 8210ends, so a new agreement has time to clear - Everything the Clinical Request Form asks about the organization and the preceptor, collected before a new agreement is requested
- Preceptor data sheet and agreement information gathered before implementation begins
- A preceptor whose credentials match the physician or DNP-APRN wording on UTRGV's forms
- A fast replacement search if your organization or preceptor changes course
UTRGV approves your project and your site; our part is making sure what reaches your advisors is complete, well matched and early. Send your project idea through the placement request form, or read how it works first.
Questions UTRGV students ask
Is UTRGV's DNP a BSN to DNP program?
Not under the current catalog. The 2026-27 entry requires a master's, and post-master's applicants need an advanced practice nursing master's. UTRGV's 2022 launch release did describe entry with a BSN, which is why older articles still say so, but no separate BSN to DNP program appears in UTRGV's graduate catalogs from 2021-22 through 2026-27.
Do I have to come to the Edinburg campus during UTRGV's DNP?
UTRGV publishes no required campus visits. The catalog calls the DNP fully online and lists it under online delivery only, even though the first cohort was welcomed in person in Edinburg in 2022. Your in-person work happens at your approved project site, and UTRGV publishes no rule on which state that site must be in, so ask your advisors if it sits outside Texas.
How long does the UTRGV DNP take?
No current UTRGV page gives a length. The 2022 launch release said the program can be completed within two and a half years, and admission happens once a year for fall. Because no plan of study is published, the term each project course falls in comes from your advisor, so ask for your personal plan in your first semester.
Can a master's-prepared nurse practitioner precept my UTRGV DNP project?
Not as UTRGV's capstone form is written. The preceptor data sheet names a physician or a DNP-prepared APRN, so an NP with a master's falls outside that wording, however experienced. If the best person at your site holds a master's, talk to your DNP Project Faculty Advisors before asking that person to sign anything, and look for a physician or DNP-prepared colleague there.
Can I keep working while I complete UTRGV's DNP?
UTRGV publishes no workload rule, and the coursework is online. At launch the School said it aimed to be as flexible and accessible as possible while students meet accreditation hour standards. The project courses ask for real time at your site, including 100 logged hours in NURS 8211, so plan your work schedule around that term above all.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UTRGV's own catalog, course syllabi, School of Nursing pages and Texas Board of Nursing rules. Your course faculty and the School of Nursing have the final word.
- UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2026-27: Nursing Practice (DNP), online program
- UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2026-27: NURS 8512 DNP Project III (the Spring 2026 syllabus is cited by name in the text)
- UTRGV Graduate College: application deadlines
- UTRGV Newsroom, August 31, 2022: the DNP launch and first cohort
- Texas Children's Hospital: nursing student placements (its student page)
From the approved list or a brand-new site, we find the preceptor who fits.
Tell us your UTRGV program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We line up a willing preceptor who fits the course and UTRGV's rules, and hand you the details the Clinical Request Form, the affiliation agreement and the preceptor agreement ask for, well before the semester.
- Family practice preceptors for
NURS 6612andNURS 6613, and two NP sites forNURS 6347 - Board-certified psychiatric preceptors for
NURS 6476andNURS 6620, in your home state - Across the Valley and Texas, from McAllen and Brownsville to San Antonio, Houston and beyond
- A replacement lined up fast if a preceptor drops
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.