Overview

The master’s degree program in nursing prepares outstanding and compassionate nurse practitioners to care for individuals, families, communities and populations in a variety of settings. The program provides graduate preparation in three nurse practitioner specialties: Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Graduates of the master’s degree program are eligible to sit for the certification examinations in their specialty offered by national certification organizations (e.g., AANP and ANCC).

The Master of Science program is designed to accommodate full-time (≥ 9 credits) and part-time (≤ 8 credits) graduate study. Formal admissions and matriculation begin in the Fall semester each year.

All graduate nursing classes meet at the Nursing Education Center (NEC), 350 Eddy St., Providence.

Qualified students in the master’s degree program are also able to continue seamlessly and enroll in the Post-M.S. to D.N.P. program to earn their Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.

Master’s Degree Program Outcomes

• Knowledge for Nursing Practice: Integrate nursing knowledge and evidence- based practice recommendations into advanced nursing practice.
• Person-Centered Care: Utilize evidence-based advanced practice nursing strategies to provide person-centered care across the spheres of care.
• Population Health: Identify and address influences such as health promotion, prevention, and social determinants of health at the individual, family, community, provider, and system levels that may act as barriers or facilitators of healthcare access and quality across spheres of care.
• Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline: Collaborate and engage in nursing and interprofessional research and scholarly inquiry while advocating for diversity and inclusion using ethical best practices and standards.
• Quality and Safety: Apply principles of quality improvement and safety science to examine system-level processes and outcomes of advanced nursing practice with individuals, families, and populations across spheres of care.
• Interprofessional Partnerships: Collaborate across professions and healthcare systems to identify and ameliorate multi- system-level factors that act as barriers to healthcare access, quality and safety, and health outcomes.
• Systems-Based Practice: Analyze factors at the individual, provider, and healthcare system levels that act as constraints and facilitators of access to high- quality health care.
• Informatics and Healthcare Technologies: Effectively use EHRs and other technologies to communicate with patients, families, and interprofessional colleagues to facilitate high quality health care and improve outcomes.
• Professionalism: Demonstrate the highest level of accountability, equity, and inclusion reflective of advanced nursing ethics, values, and standards.
• Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development: Utilize principles of self-reflection and resilience to foster personal self-care, health, and well-being, as well as professional growth and adaptability and leadership within complex healthcare environments.

Master’s Degree Program Nurse Practitioner Specialty Concentrations

The master’s degree curriculum includes a minimum of 42 – 47 graduate credits, depending on the nurse practitioner specialty, and requires completion of 750 or more supervised clinical practicum hours in the nurse practitioner student role. The required courses and clinical experiences vary by specialty. Nurse practitioner specialties include:

• Adult-gerontology primary care NP (AGPCNP)
• Family NP (FNP)
• Psychiatric Mental Health NP (PMHNP)

An overview of each of the specialty concentrations is shown below. Details about the curricula and plans of study for each of the nurse practitioner specialties are shown under the “Curriculum” tab.

Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Specialty

The adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner specialty track prepares nurse practitioners to provide outstanding and compassionate primary health care to individuals, families, communities and populations, including adolescents, adults and older adults. Graduates qualify to take the ANCC or AANP Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP) certification examination.

For more information about the AGPCNP specialty, please contact Dr. Becky Carley at carley@uri.edu

Family Nurse Practitioner Specialty

The family nurse practitioner specialty track prepares nurse practitioners to provide outstanding and compassionate primary health care to individuals, families, communities and populations across the lifespan. Graduates are eligible to take the ANCC or AANP Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) certification examination.

For more information about the FNP specialty, please contact Dr. Denise Coppa at dcoppa@uri.edu

Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Specialty

The psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner specialty prepares nurse practitioners to provide outstanding and compassionate psychiatric and mental health care to individuals, families, communities and populations across the lifespan.  Graduates are eligible to take the ANCC Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) certification examination.

For more information about the PMHNP specialty, please contact Dr. Mary Leveillee at mleveillee@uri.edu.

Tuition 

Additional information on tuition and a full breakdown of fees can be located on the Enrollment Services Tuition and Fees webpage.

Financial Aid

College of Nursing Scholarships

The University of Rhode Island awards numerous scholarships each academic year through the fundraising efforts of the URI Foundation and the generosity of private donors. Most scholarships are chosen by the college and/or Enrollment Services.

URI Graduate Assistantships and Fellowships

Full-time graduate students may be eligible for teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and /or university scholarships and fellowships. Assistantships include tuition and a stipend in exchange for either 10 or 20 hours per week of work. Most assistantships are teaching assistantships. Research assistantships may be available through faculty research grants. Although PhD students are given priority in the awarding of teaching and research assistantships, full-time MS and DNP students are also eligible and often receive assistantships. University fellowships are competitive and awarded by the Graduate School based upon nominations to the URI Graduate School from the CON Associate Dean for Graduate Programs.

Admission

All new and transfer graduate applicants can apply online directly through the URI Graduate School.

Admission Requirements

Admission decisions will be based on a comprehensive review of applicant qualifications. The following criteria will be used as guidelines for admission decisions: 

• Completed application with all materials
• Baccalaureate degree in nursing from a program accredited by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing or the National League for Nursing.
• Minimum G.P.A. of 3.0 required (G.P.A. > 3.3 preferred).
• Eligibility for RN licensure in Rhode Island.
• Goals statement that reflects graduate level writing ability and clear goals for pursuing advanced study in nursing that align with the specialty applied to.
• Clinical nursing experience preferred prior to enrollment.
• A basic statistics course.

Application Components

The following are required to complete the online Graduate School application:

• Transcripts from all post-secondary institutions PLEASE NOTE: If you attended URI as an undergraduate or graduate you will still need to upload your transcripts. Unofficial copies can be uploaded into the online application and upon admission official copies will be required prior to course registration. If any courses were transferred as credit toward your baccalaureate degree, please upload those transcripts as well.  
• Three letters of recommendation (academic and professional) attesting to the applicant’s ability for graduate study, one of which must be from a master’s-prepared nurse.
• Curriculum vita or resume
• 1- to 2-page goal statement that includes your reasons for pursuing advanced study in nursing and planned progression through the program (i.e., part-time or full-time study).
• The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required for all international applicants for whom English is not the primary language of their country of origin.

Important notes for applicants:

1. Nursing license history will be verified for all nurse practitioner graduate students. Any applicant with current or past license restrictions or recorded incidents should briefly explain the circumstances as part of their goal statement.
2. Consistent with RIDOH regulation 215-RICR-20-15-8 (August, 2021), our clinical partners throughout RI will not accept unvaccinated students who have religious exemptions. At this time, the URI CON Nurse Practitioner program is not able to offer any out-of-state clinical placements that will accept a religious exemption for COVID-19 vaccination.  Given that, unless you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or you qualify for a medical exemption under the RIDOH Medical Exemption guidelines, the CON will be unable to place you in a clinical experience with one of our preceptor sites for in the clinical practice courses (e.g., NUR 514, 532, 534, 546, 547, 562, 564, 590).  Please see the full policy and statement regarding medical exemptions here.
3. Our clinical agency partners require criminal background checks prior to placing any NP student at their sites. If you have a positive criminal background check, it is very unlikely that the CON would be able to place you in a clinical experience. In that case, it is very unlikely that you would be able to complete the program.

Curriculum

The master’s degree program requires completion of a minimum of 42–47 graduate credits, depending on the nurse practitioner specialty concentration (AGPCNP, FNP, or PMHNP), and the completion of more than 750 clinical practicum hours. The actual number of clinical hours required depends upon the specialty concentration and the student’s ability to demonstrate competence in the role. All clinical practica are completed under the direct supervision of a nurse practitioner or physician with oversight from a graduate faculty member.

The master’s program curriculum is organized around four distinct groups of courses:

• Core nursing theory courses include theoretical foundations of advanced practice nursing, translating research to practice, social determinants of health and the graduate seminar.
• Foundational science courses for advanced practice include the 3 Ps (advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology and physical assessment/health assessment).
• Interdisciplinary courses include epidemiology and health policy.
• The fourth group of courses includes advanced practice didactic and practicum courses specific to the student’s nurse practitioner specialty concentration.

Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Specialty

The adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner specialty track prepares nurse practitioners to provide outstanding and compassionate primary health care to individuals, families, communities and populations, including adolescents, adults and older adults. Graduates qualify to take the ANCC or AANP Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP) certification examination.

For more information about the AGPCNP specialty, please contact Dr. Becky Carley (carley@uri.edu)

Family Nurse Practitioner Specialty

The family nurse practitioner specialty track prepares nurse practitioners to provide outstanding and compassionate primary health care to individuals, families, communities and populations across the lifespan. Graduates are eligible to take the ANCC or AANP Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) certification examination.

For more information about the FNP specialty, please contact Dr. Denise Coppa at dcoppa@uri.edu 

Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Specialty

The psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner specialty prepares nurse practitioners to provide outstanding and compassionate psychiatric and mental health care to individuals, families, communities and populations across the lifespan.  Graduates are eligible to take the ANCC Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) certification examination.

For more information about the PMHNP specialty, please contact Dr. Mary Leveillee at mleveillee@uri.edu.