Kent State MSN PMHNP: a fully online degree with four in-person practicums
Kent State's Psychiatric Mental Health NP concentration is 46 credits and fully online, open to students in 14 approved states. Its four practicums, each 2 credits, come to about 600 hours and move from psychotherapy to prescribing to family and group work to the full NP role, each with a preceptor who fits that stage.
Build your four-practicum PMHNP plan
Tell us your state and county. We search for the therapist, prescriber and PMH APRN preceptors each Kent State course calls for.
The PMHNP degree, start to finish
The PMHNP totals 46 credits, one short of the FNP, made up of a 34-credit concentration on top of the MSN core. Kent State delivers it fully online, and the PMHNP page says you are never required on campus. Fall and spring starts are listed, with priority application deadlines of March 1 for fall and October 1 for spring.
Online does not mean remote clinical work. Each of the four practicums is face to face, with a preceptor near home, in the state that issued your unrestricted RN license. Coursework is mostly asynchronous and built around weekly deadlines, though some courses meet live, so your practicum days need to fit around both your classes and your job.
Kent State keeps each student's course sequence in GPS, its Graduate Planning System, rather than printing a PMHNP roadmap. Full-time MSN study runs four to five semesters, part-time three to four years.
When the first PMHNP practicum arrives
NURS 61592 Practicum I: Individual Therapy is the gateway course. It requires NURS 60012 and NURS 60051, two 4-credit courses, before you can enroll, plus full clinical compliance and special approval, and it runs alongside NURS 60151. That makes the second term of PMHNP coursework the earliest your clinical hours can begin.
The planning window is short. You attend a mandatory orientation somewhere between four and six months ahead of Practicum I, and the coordinator's help with that first placement comes in the semester just before it, which for many PMHNP students is their very first term. In practice, the search for a psychotherapy preceptor starts at or soon after admission.
Use that first term to finish the Clinical Compliance Policy items as well. Registration for NURS 61592 depends on them, and the first-practicum orientation guide sets out what to do in each month before it.
For many PMHNP students, the semester before the first practicum is the first semester of the program. Start the preceptor search at admission.
Four practicums and about 600 hours
Every PMHNP practicum is a 2-credit course with ten weekly contact hours, and Kent State builds group supervision into all four. Our PMHNP practicum guide walks through every course; this is the degree-level view.
| Practicum | Hours | Runs with | Preceptor Kent State names |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 61592 I: Individual Therapy | 150 minimum | NURS 60151 | Licensed mental health provider experienced in psychotherapy |
NURS 62592 II: Medication Management and Individual Therapy | 150 minimum | NURS 60441 (pre- or co-requisite) | Prescriber: PMH APRN or psychiatrist |
NURS 63592 III: Family and Group Therapy | 150 minimum | NURS 60251 | Not named publicly; ask practicum faculty |
NURS 64592 IV: Nurse Practitioner Role | Not stated; about 150 by contact hours | NURS 60353 | PMH APRN for at least half the hours |
The catalog states 450 hours across the first three courses. The fourth lists weekly contact hours but no total, and our estimate of 150 from those contact hours brings the degree to about 600; your NURS 64592 syllabus has the real figure. Kent State's rotation page adds that faculty supervision hours count toward each practicum's total.
Preceptors across the whole PMHNP plan
Across the four courses your clinical experience must span the lifespan, so plan placements that together reach children or adolescents as well as adults. The preceptor changes as the courses progress: a psychotherapy-experienced mental health provider first, then a prescriber, then someone your faculty confirm for family and group work, and finally a PMH APRN who carries at least half of the role practicum.
Every placement must sit outside your own workplace. This is the only concentration with that published ban, and the workplace practicum page compares it with the rules elsewhere. Each APRN preceptor should also have a year or longer in psychiatric mental health practice.
Kent State's PMHNP page names community mental health, private practice, primary care, emergency settings, correctional facilities and hospital consultation-liaison teams as places this work happens. None of those hours count unless the College of Nursing has a current affiliation agreement with that agency.
The 14 approved states
Fourteen states appear for the PMHNP on Kent State's list of approved states for online learning: Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. If your state is missing, Kent State cannot currently offer you this online program, and the same page cautions that some states' laws rule out clinical practicum courses entirely.
The list can matter again after admission. A student who relocates, or intends to practice in a different state, must notify the Office of Student Services immediately to find out whether the program can continue. SARA membership reaches Kent State's distance education but stops short of nursing boards, which can still weigh in on clinical placements in their states; approved states compares the lists for every program.
Licensure and certification after the PMHNP
The exam Kent State names for this concentration is the ANCC's PMHNP certification, and graduates also qualify for APRN licensure in Ohio. Near the end of the program, your coordinator handles the forms for both. Keep your practicum record clean along the way: Typhon's NP database holds your time and case logs, each due within 15 days of the clinical day, across all four courses.
On licensure elsewhere, Kent State's disclosure table marks three places as does not meet for every MSN NP concentration: California, New York and American Samoa. The remaining 53 jurisdictions are marked as meeting requirements, far more than the 14 states where the PMHNP enrolls, a mismatch Kent State's own pages leave open, and at least one program page still reports that no determination has been reached. Licensure disclosures lays the sources side by side.
Why PMHNP students choose us
A PMHNP plan needs a chain of preceptors with different credentials, none of them at your own job, and the first link has to be in place within months of admission. We map the whole chain from day one: a therapist for Practicum I, a prescriber for Practicum II, a family and group setting your faculty confirm, and a PMH APRN who can carry at least half of Practicum IV.
Each candidate sees patients in person in your approved state, and we verify credentials and experience before your practicum faculty and concentration coordinator ever see the name. We also track the lifespan requirement across all four placements and point out any practice still lacking a College of Nursing agreement while there is time to fix it.
Lose a preceptor mid-course and we go straight back to searching, on call for as long as your placements run. Your state and next practicum, entered in the form below, are all we need to begin.
Questions Kent State students ask
Does Kent State's PMHNP require any campus visits?
Not for coursework. The catalog lists the PMHNP among the fully online concentrations, and the PMHNP page says students are never required on campus, although Kent State's advanced degrees page tags only the WHNP as 100% online among its NP options. The practicums are the exception: they take place in person with a preceptor in your home state.
Can a psychiatrist precept every Kent State PMHNP practicum?
Not on their own. A psychiatrist qualifies as the prescriber for Practicum II, and one with real psychotherapy experience may suit Practicum I if your practicum faculty agree. Practicum IV, though, needs a PMH APRN for at least half its hours, so a psychiatrist can cover no more than the other half of that final course.
How many clinical hours is Kent State's PMHNP?
About 600. The catalog states a minimum of 150 hours for each of the first three practicums, 450 in all. The fourth practicum lists 10 contact hours a week without a total, which works out to roughly 150 over a 15-week term. Your NURS 64592 syllabus and concentration coordinator give the binding number.
What if my state is not on the PMHNP approved list?
Kent State's approved-states page is the controlling list for this online program, and states not on it are ones where Kent State cannot currently offer it. Contact the Office of Student Services before applying to confirm the current list. If you are already enrolled and plan to move to an unlisted state, report it at once to learn whether you can continue.
Can I work full time during Kent State's PMHNP practicums?
Kent State publishes no rule against it, but the load is real: each 2-credit practicum means roughly ten hours at the site weekly for a full semester, set around the preceptor's clinic schedule. Your own job also cannot double as the practicum site. Talk through the weekly load with your concentration coordinator before you register.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against Kent State's own catalog, handbooks and program pages. Your MSN or DNP handbook, your syllabus, your practicum faculty and your concentration coordinator have the final word.
Kent State says the preceptor search is yours. We make it the fastest part of your practicum.
Tell us your Kent State concentration, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare everything your practicum faculty and coordinator review before they approve.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for
NURS 61292, acute care forNURS 61092, psychiatric care forNURS 61592, women's health forNURS 66192 - Credentials, license and site details ready for your practicum faculty and coordinator
- In your own community, in Ohio or wherever you live and hold your RN license
Start your placement plan
Program, city and semester is all we need to begin.