CUW's MSN PMHNP: three practicums, 500 hours, a mental health preceptor for each

A new track with a small cohort

The PMHNP MSN first appears in the 2026-27 catalog, arriving in the same year as the PMHNP DNP and the two FNP dual degrees. CUW's program page describes a two-year, six-semester plan and a cohort of roughly 10 to 15 students, with online coursework and a required 3-day on-campus workshop during the Advanced Health Assessment course.

The catalog files the track on the same MSN page as the primary care NP programs, under a course list titled "MSN Psychiatric Mental Health Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Course List". That label is a catalog quirk. The clinical work is psychiatric from start to finish, and the catalog says the PMHNP role covers patients of every age.

Admission follows the MSN pattern: a BSN, an RN license that stays unencumbered throughout, and the catalog's July 1 and November 1 application deadlines. CUW's pages name no PMHNP-specific start term, so confirm with admissions which intake you are joining before you plan your first practicum.

Settings that fit a psychiatric practicum

CUW's list of where its PMHNP graduates practice runs from inpatient psychiatry and outpatient behavioral health to community mental health centers, integrated primary care and telehealth. The program page says clinical hours take place in approved settings. The primary-care-only rule that governs FNP and AGPCNP placements appears in no PMHNP source.

Because the catalog describes PMHNP scope across all ages, a plan that includes some child and adolescent patients alongside adults is worth raising with your faculty early. An outpatient behavioral health practice or a community mental health center that sees families can cover a lot of that range in one place.

Telehealth is named as a practice setting, but CUW has not said whether practicum hours may be virtual, or how many. Ask before you build a plan around a preceptor who works mostly by video, and keep an in-person option open. How PMHNP settings compare with the primary care rules is covered on primary care sites.

Timing across six semesters

In the catalog plan, Advanced Health Assessment (NURS 6038) falls in semester two, and the 3-day on-campus workshop comes with it. The practicums then follow one after another, each unlocking the next, so a late start on Practicum I pushes the whole sequence.

CUW's current pages post no proposal deadline. In CUW's archived process, proposals were due four weeks before the clinical start, and a contract with an unfamiliar site took eight to twelve weeks under the 2014-15 handbook, with no patient contact until the signatures were in place. Mental health organizations that have never hosted a CUW student will need that contract, so start the Practicum I search soon after you are admitted and ask the Graduate Clinical Coordinator for this year's dates.

Why PMHNP students choose us

Our desk searches mental health settings rather than generic clinics: outpatient behavioral health, community mental health, integrated primary care and inpatient psychiatry near home. For each preceptor we confirm license and board certification, collect a CV and site details, and flag early whether the organization will need a new clinical contract with CUW.

Because the hours rise from 125 to 200 before settling at 175, we check that each preceptor can give the weekly time the course needs, and we plan all three practicums together so the next one is ready as the last one closes. Each placement reaches you in the order CUW's process runs: preceptor confirmed, credentials gathered, contract status known, details ready for your faculty. Use the form below and choose the MSN PMHNP.