Kent State MSN WHNP: four women's health practicums in a fully online degree
Kent State's Women's Health NP concentration runs 42 credits online, with enrollment open in 17 approved states. Its four 2-credit practicums cover gynecology, women's primary care, pregnancy and a specialty you pick, and Kent State's WHNP page puts the clinical total at 600 hours, completed in your home state.
Find your women's health preceptors
Tell us your state and next WHNP course. We search practices with the gynecologic and obstetric volume Kent State asks for.
The WHNP degree in brief
A 30-credit concentration plus the 12 core credits every Kent State MSN student shares brings the WHNP to 42. Kent State lists fall and spring starts, and the catalog places the WHNP among the fully online concentrations; the college's advanced degrees page singles it out as 100% online. None of the coursework asks you to come to the Kent Campus.
What stays in person is the clinical work. All four practicums are on site with a preceptor in your home state, where your RN license must be active and unrestricted, and Kent State enrolls online WHNP students only from its approved states. Each practicum is paired with a WHNP lecture, so every clinical term also carries a lecture load.
Kent State's catalog publishes no MSN roadmap. Once admitted, you get a sequence in GPS, the Graduate Planning System, and that plan is what tells you which term each practicum falls in.
When WHNP practicum begins
The first practicum, NURS 66192 WHNP I, runs with the NURS 66100 lecture, and NURS 66100 requires NURS 60015 Advanced Health Assessment and NURS 60045 Pathophysiology for the APRN first. Clinical hours therefore start no earlier than the term after those foundation courses.
The WHNP certificate roadmap is the one published schedule, and it needs careful reading. It prints each year's spring before its fall, which does not match the prerequisites; read in prerequisite order, NURS 66192 follows a fall of foundation courses. Confirm your own order in GPS rather than relying on that page.
Count back from your first practicum term. A required orientation lands four to six months earlier, the concentration coordinator lends a hand with the first gynecologic placement in the semester before, and every Clinical Compliance Policy item has to be complete before registration.
The printed WHNP certificate roadmap lists spring before fall. Go by prerequisites and your GPS plan, not the page order.
Four practicums, 600 hours
Every WHNP practicum is worth 2 credits, with ten contact hours scheduled each week. The WHNP practicum guide covers each course's preceptor and setting in detail.
| Practicum | Focus | Hours in the catalog | Lecture |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 66192 WHNP I | Gynecologic care | 150 | NURS 66100 |
NURS 66292 WHNP II | Women's primary care | Not stated | NURS 66200 |
NURS 66392 WHNP III | The reproductive years and pregnancy | 150 | NURS 66300 |
NURS 66492 WHNP IV | A women's health specialty you choose | 150 | NURS 66400 |
Kent State's WHNP certificate page gives 600 clinical practicum hours. The catalog states 150 hours for three of the four courses and only weekly contact hours for NURS 66292, which would come to about 150 more over a 15-week term. Both routes arrive at 600, but the NURS 66292 syllabus is where the binding figure lives.
Preceptors and practice settings
Kent State's WHNP rotation page looks for a certified nurse midwife, a WHNP, an FNP or a general OB/GYN in a practice with good gynecologic or obstetric volume. The women's primary care course widens that to an FNP, an adult NP or a family practice physician. APRN preceptors need twelve months or more of women's health practice in their role.
That rotation page still lists five older course numbers, while the 2026-2027 catalog has four practicums, NURS 66192 to NURS 66492. Use it for the preceptor types and use the catalog and your syllabus for the course structure.
Settings Kent State names include ambulatory care, specialty clinics, medical centers, physician offices and family planning clinics. The last practicum is the one you shape: the specialty is your choice, so decide early and give that search the most lead time. For the hours to count, the college must hold a current affiliation agreement with each practice.
The 17 approved states
Kent State lists 17 states for the online WHNP: the 14 it approves for the PMHNP and the AGCNS, plus Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas. That makes the WHNP the widest of Kent State's online APRN lists: a nurse in Minnesota, South Carolina or Texas can enroll in the WHNP but in neither of the other two.
Enrollment approval and later licensure are separate questions, and the next section covers the second. Under SARA, Kent State may deliver distance education across member states, yet boards of nursing sit outside that agreement and can set their own terms for clinical placements.
The approved-states page carries a warning that certain state laws can block practicum courses, and it asks admitted students who move, or plan to practice elsewhere, to contact the Office of Student Services without delay. Approved states sets the WHNP list beside every other Kent State program.
Licensure, certification and staying current
WHNP graduates qualify for national APRN certification and for APRN licensure in Ohio, by Kent State's account. Which certifying body's exam that means is not named on any Kent State WHNP page, so ask your concentration coordinator, who also completes the certification and licensure forms near graduation.
Kent State's disclosure table rules out three jurisdictions for NP licensure from its MSN: California, New York and American Samoa. None of them is a WHNP enrollment state. Licensure disclosures explains how the table reads and where it conflicts with program pages.
Along the way, every clinical day goes into Typhon's NP database within 15 days, a record you can still open five years after graduating. Stop out for long and the clock matters: a WHNP practicum aged three years or more is retaken with its lecture, as practicum time limits explains.
Why WHNP students choose us
Women's health placements come with specific asks: good gynecologic or obstetric volume, a pregnancy-focused course, and a specialty rotation you choose yourself. We plan all four practicums together, so the obstetric placement and your chosen specialty are in hand before the terms that need them.
We search for midwives, WHNPs, FNPs and OB/GYNs who practice in person in your approved state, check each credential and the length of their women's health practice, and send you a tidy approval packet for faculty and coordinator review. Where an agreement with the college is missing, we raise it at the outset.
And if a women's health preceptor withdraws during the term, we remain on call to line up another. Share your state and next WHNP course using the form below.
Questions Kent State students ask
Is the WHNP at Kent State taught entirely online?
It is. Every WHNP course is delivered online according to the catalog, and Kent State's advanced degrees page tags the concentration 100% online. You never need to be on campus for coursework. The four practicums still happen in person, with preceptors close to home in the state that licenses you as an RN.
Can a certified nurse midwife precept Kent State WHNP students?
Yes. Kent State's WHNP rotation page names a certified nurse midwife as a suitable preceptor, alongside a WHNP, an FNP and a general OB/GYN, in a setting with good gynecologic or obstetric volume. Your practicum faculty and concentration coordinator still approve each preceptor, so share the midwife's license and certification with them first.
Can I enroll in Kent State's WHNP from Texas or Minnesota?
Both states are on Kent State's approved list for the online WHNP, along with South Carolina, which the PMHNP and AGCNS lists leave out. Your practicums would take place in that state, under an active, unrestricted RN license valid there. Check the approved-states page again before you apply, and report any later move to the Office of Student Services.
Does Kent State's WHNP include obstetrics?
Yes. NURS 66392 WHNP III focuses on the reproductive years and pregnancy, and the rotation page asks for preceptors in settings with good gynecologic or obstetric volume. How the hours divide between prenatal care and other visits is set in the course syllabus, so read it before you choose a practice.
How long does the Kent State WHNP take?
The catalog gives four to five semesters for full-time MSN study, three to four years part-time, and a six-year limit from admission. Read in prerequisite order, the WHNP certificate roadmap runs its four practicums in consecutive terms, summer included, so expect clinical work in most terms once practicum starts. Your GPS plan sets your exact order.
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
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