The family psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner concentration of the DNP program is an advanced nursing practice degree. This program prepares students to provide holistic, client-centered mental health care to individuals of all ages within traditional, nontraditional and culturally diverse families.

This is a hybrid program, a blend of in-person and online learning. Students are required to travel to campus for orientation once and for immersions two or three times per semester.

Core courses include pharmacology, advanced pathophysiology and advanced health assessment. Specialty courses focus on assessment, screening, diagnosis and evidence-based management of common, chronic and complex mental health conditions across the lifespan. The program highlights valid and reliable tools for screening and identification of mental health disorders as well as early interventions for these problems. Content for each disorder include epidemiology, early signs and symptoms, differential diagnosis, and sociocultural variations in evidence-based management and treatment. Management includes psychopharmacologic and therapeutic skills building that are based in motivational interviewing, mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. The program emphasizes individual, group and family therapy techniques. Practicing faculty with clinical experience teach the specialty coursework and clinical experiences, which enrich learning.

In addition to advanced nursing specialty-focused outcomes, the program engages students to meet doctoral-level competencies in systems-level thinking, complexity science, quality and safety, evidence-based practice, and the development of a doctoral project within a partner organization to improve outcomes at the patient, provider or health care system level. Students are educated as leaders at the highest level of nursing practice to translate research into practice, lead in multidisciplinary teams, and engage in health care policy and advocacy to improve patient outcomes.

Focused clinical experiences are arranged for students residing in Maricopa County, Arizona. Students should expect to travel throughout Maricopa County and to surrounding counties to complete their assigned clinical placement.

Students residing outside of Maricopa County, Arizona are responsible for identifying the required number of clinical sites in their area of residence and for identifying preceptors and sites willing to accommodate clinical rotations, and the college must approve these sites before starting any clinical experience; the program office does not guarantee a clinical placement site for any student outside Maricopa County. If, during the program, faculty determine the student needs additional supervision for clinical progress in the program, the student must complete clinical experiences in the Phoenix area.

The program office offers clinical rotations in health profession shortage areas throughout the state, both in urban underserved and rural areas, that provide students multicultural experiences to enhance professional development.

As a participating National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements member, Arizona State University is authorized to offer distance education to persons located in individual state authorization reciprocity agreement member states in accordance with the council's established policies and standards. California is not a state authorization reciprocity agreement member and the California Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education does not regulate out-of-state public institutions. ASU may offer educational activities in California. There are some exceptions for specific programs at Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.