Minnesota and Drexel: the DNP route and Minnesota's clinical rules

Drexel sets its exclusion lists program by program, and the choice is Drexel's. For Minnesota residents the NP tracks, NP certificates, RN-to-BSN, and Nursing Education and Leadership MSNs are closed. The online post-master's DNP stays open, since its list names eight states and Minnesota isn't one of them. Program questions go to sara@drexel.edu.

The DNP is fully online and two years long; its next intake is Fall 2027, in the semester format. By graduation your post-baccalaureate precepted hours must total 1,000 or more, counting what you bring from your master's, and the in-program practicum depends on that starting figure. Drexel's post-master's DNP walks through the pathways.

Each practicum-intensive DNP course needs a Practicum Mentor with a doctorate. The mentor may come from inside your practice setting or outside it, though Drexel strongly recommends looking past your own workplace. Its pages don't say who assigns the mentor, so ask the DNP program how to put a candidate forward.

Minnesota's large employers give you a deep pool: Mayo Clinic, M Health Fairview, Allina Health, HealthPartners and Essentia Health, spread across the Twin Cities, Rochester, Duluth and St. Cloud. Each organization runs its own student and affiliation process.

Minnesota sits outside the Nurse Licensure Compact, with no legislation pending to join, so a Minnesota RN license is good in Minnesota alone. Drexel's compliance page lets NP students rely on a Pennsylvania license or a multistate license from their primary state of residence, with an extra license wherever a clinical state isn't in the compact. A Minnesota license can't be the multistate route, and a multistate license from Wisconsin or North Dakota doesn't reach into Minnesota.

State law gives students more room. Under Minn. Stat. 148.271(6), a nurse holding another state's RN license may practice in Minnesota without a Minnesota license while enrolled in a structured program, a graduate degree for instance, as long as the practice is part of that program. The Board's rule, Minn. R. 6305.0300, accepts programs their home states approve, with one condition: the instructor supervising in Minnesota needs a Minnesota RN license and current registration. The Pennsylvania side of Drexel's license rule is on the Pennsylvania RN license page.

Some sites ask for more than the law does. Mayo Clinic, for its NP clinical education program, requires four things: a Mayo affiliation agreement with the school, a Minnesota nursing license that's unencumbered and currently registered, a background study through Minnesota DHS, and faculty of record holding RN or APRN licensure in the state hosting the experience.

Minnesota's Department of Health runs MERC, short for Medical Education and Research Costs. It helps Minnesota training sites with part of what clinical education costs them and isn't money for individual preceptors, and APRN training qualifies only when school and site are both Minnesota-based. Once licensed, a Minnesota NP reaches AANP's full-practice status after 2,080 or more hours working in collaboration with a physician or APRN.

For the DNP, we map doctorate-prepared clinicians and leaders in your part of Minnesota whose work suits your project, so the mentor you bring Drexel is qualified, willing and ready for review. Thinking of moving to Minnesota mid-program? Call Drexel first. If you're leaving Minnesota for a state Drexel admits, we plan the NP clinical search there around Drexel's standard and your new license picture; moving during Drexel clinicals has the order of steps.