FIU's online post-MSN DNP: finding your organizational mentor
Florida International University (FIU) teaches its post-MSN Doctor of Nursing Practice online, and the graduate handbook hands the clinical search to you: you choose an organizational mentor, the rotation goes to the DNP Program Director and Clinical Education for sign-off, and the site's agreement is signed with FIU itself. Your 540 residency hours depend on that mentor. We find mentors who fit your project and your schedule.
Find your DNP mentor
Tell us your specialty, project area and city.
What FIU asks of post-MSN DNP students
You find the mentor; FIU approves and contracts. According to the graduate handbook, post-MSN DNP students name an organizational mentor, either where they already practice or elsewhere in their community, and nothing proceeds without sign-off from the DNP Program Director and Clinical Education. The agreement is between FIU and the organization, and the handbook's DNP pages allow 6-8 weeks when a fresh contract is needed.
This search differs from an NP practicum search. FIU Online describes a clinical residency in your specialty alongside a capstone project, so the mentor you want is an expert inside an organization that can host that work across three project semesters, and who can also support a health policy practicum earlier in the plan.
Getting the mentor right early shapes everything after it. The profile FIU prefers, and the approval route, are set out on choosing a DNP organizational mentor.
The online program at a glance
FIU Online lists the post-MSN DNP among its online graduate programs, and the essentials fit in a short table.
| Item | What FIU publishes |
|---|---|
| Delivery | Online through FIU Online |
| Credits | 36 |
| Campus time | Up to three on-campus class sessions per semester (FIU Online); completely online per the MSN FAQ |
| Pace | Six-semester Fall cohort plan; part time on request and approval |
| Admission | An MSN or related master's with at least a 3.25 GPA |
| Clinical hours | 540 across NGR 7892L, NGR 7940C, NGR 7941C and NGR 7942C |
| Who finds the mentor | The student; FIU approves and holds the contract |
The two campus-time statements do not match. FIU's MSN FAQ describes the traditional DNP as entirely online, though faculty may call students in for testing, whereas FIU Online mentions as many as three campus class sessions each semester. Hold a few travel days open every term until your faculty settle the schedule.
Six semesters, four clinical courses
FIU Online's Fall cohort plan places the clinical work in the second half of the program, with one early practicum.
| Semester | Courses | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NGR 7891, NGR 7853, NGR 7733 | None listed |
| 2 | NGR 7121, NGR 7769, NGR 7892L Health Policy Practicum | 40 |
| 3 | NGR 7871, NGR 7854 | None listed |
| 4 | NGR 7940C DNP Project I | 170 |
| 5 | NGR 7941C DNP Project II | 165 |
| 6 | NGR 7942C DNP Project III | 165 |
The three project courses carry 500 of the 540 hours and run in consecutive terms, so a mentor who can commit to all three semesters spares you a change of setting mid-project. FIU arranges each clinical course's setting a term ahead, so the mentor search belongs in your first year, with the contract confirmed by the end of semester 3. Course detail is on DNP residency and projects.
540 hours, and when the residency grows
The handbook puts the DNP residency floor at 540 supervised hours, exactly what the Fall plan's four clinical courses add up to. It also cautions that anyone completing the program with under 1,000 post-baccalaureate practice hours may owe extra residency time.
Post-MSN students arrive with clinical hours from their master's program, and FIU captures that count at admission on its post-baccalaureate hours verification form. If your master's was in a related field rather than an NP track, or your documented hours fall short, ask the DNP Program Director how many extra residency hours apply before you finalize a mentor, and choose one who can host the added time.
You may see 1,310 or 1,170 on FIU's DNP pages. Those totals belong to the post-BSN to DNP, where they include the NP practicums and disagree with each other over the MSN phase; the post-BSN to DNP page explains that conflict. Your figure is the 540-hour residency plus any extra hours FIU sets if you are short of 1,000.
Who can serve as your organizational mentor
In FIU's handbook, the model mentor holds a doctorate and knows your field in depth. The site can be your own workplace or another organization in the community, which gives you real room to build the project where it will matter most.
The handbook sets these limits:
- hours at your job site count only when they go beyond your regular duties and fall outside your scheduled work hours
- the person who normally supervises you at work is not eligible as mentor of record
- both the DNP Program Director and Clinical Education have to approve the rotation
- the site must hold, or sign, a contract with FIU before hours begin
Running the project inside your own organization is allowed, but the hours have to be clearly additional to your job, and the mentor has to sit outside your reporting line. Working where you work covers those boundaries for every FIU program.
From mentor to approved residency
The handbook's DNP section gives the order of operations. Following it closely keeps your first project semester from starting late.
- Identify the mentorPreferably someone with a doctorate and real depth in your project's subject, at an organization that can host the work across Projects I to III.
- Verify the site contractRun the site through Clinical Education's Organizational Mentor Approval Process and compare it with FIU's current Clinical Site Contracts list; allow 6-8 weeks if it needs a new agreement.
- Read and follow the contractComply with its terms, and with the site's own rules and onboarding.
- Record your DNP teamList everyone on your team, mentor included, on FIU's DNP Project and DNP Team Approval Form.
- Clear before you startFinish FIU's clinical clearance before residency hours begin; the clinical clearance page lists the items.
Why post-MSN DNP students choose us
An organizational mentor search runs on relationships and on fit with your project question. We learn your topic and setting first, then approach doctorally prepared leaders and subject experts in organizations near you who can support a practice-change project over three semesters.
We confirm the mentor sits outside your reporting line, find out at the outset whether the organization has an existing FIU agreement, and prepare what FIU's approval process and the Team Approval Form need. If a mentor changes roles or leaves mid-project, we find a replacement so your residency keeps moving.
Every mentor and site still needs the approval of the DNP Program Director and FIU's Clinical Education Department. Our work makes sure the file they review is complete, accurate and faithful to FIU's rules on the first pass. Share your project area in the form below.
Questions FIU students ask
Is FIU's post-MSN DNP fully online?
Mostly. FIU Online lists 36 credits of online coursework and warns of as many as three campus class sessions a semester; the MSN FAQ, by contrast, calls the program entirely online apart from possible testing visits. The residency itself happens in person at your mentor's organization, so plan for that time too.
What GPA does FIU's post-MSN DNP require?
FIU's catalog asks for an MSN or a related master's degree with a minimum 3.25 GPA. Admission also documents your post-baccalaureate clinical practice hours on FIU's verification form, and that count decides whether your residency needs hours beyond the 540 minimum, so gather your master's clinical records early.
How long do I have to finish FIU's post-MSN DNP?
The 2025-2026 handbook conflicts with itself. Its Dismissal Guideline gives post-MSN DNP students 4 years, while its Degree Completion Timeline, citing policy 380.080, allows doctoral students 9. A part-time format exists on request, so settle your limit with the DNP Program Director before you slow down. Time limits explains the policies.
Does FIU's licensure disclosure cover the post-MSN DNP?
Not by name. The disclosure lists three nursing programs, the BSN, the MSN and the Nurse Anesthesia DNP, as meeting Florida's licensing requirements, and the post-MSN DNP is absent from that list. If you practice outside Florida, raise your plans with your state's board of nursing and with FIU before you enroll.
What is the Health Policy Practicum in the post-MSN DNP?
NGR 7892L is a 40-hour practicum in the second semester of the Fall cohort plan, the first of your four clinical courses and the only one before the project sequence. Settle early with your course faculty where those hours will happen and whether that setting needs its own FIU contract.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against FIU's own graduate handbook, preceptor manual, plans of study, catalog and licensure pages. Your plan of study, your course faculty, your clinical faculty and FIU's Office of Clinical Education have the final word.
FIU asks you to identify your clinical site. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your FIU track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, check early whether the site already holds an FIU contract, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NGR 6201L, pediatric primary care forNGR 6301L, an organizational mentor forNGR 7940C - Preceptor, facility, license and schedule details ready for the Preceptor Request Form, weeks ahead of the contract clock
- Across Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe, or beyond them where FIU approves your site
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