Best DNP Programs

Kentucky

Best DNP Programs In Kentucky 2026

8 institutions in Kentucky hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Published in-state graduate tuition among them starts at $9,414 a year, at Murray State University.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Kentucky is a small field. Only 7 schools here carry enough published figures to be scored, so a position says how one compares to its in-state neighbors and nothing about how it compares nationally.

  2. 2

    In-state rates sit in a narrow band. The 7 Kentucky institutions that publish an annual in-state rate run from $9,414 to $14,222, the highest only about 1.5 times the lowest, so cost separates them less here than it does nationally.

  3. 3

    Mostly public, and that is a residency question. 6 of the 7 institutions with federal figures are public, and a public in-state rate is a residents-only price, the private rates beside them apply to everyone.

  4. 4

    Some are delivered at a distance. 3 of the 7 carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers coursework and never the supervised practice hours.

Metro Guides Inside This State

Narrower than this page and organized around a commute rather than a border. Each one counts a census metropolitan area, so it can cross a state line where this page cannot.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 7 institutions on this page and to nothing else.

  1. 50%

    Published in-state graduate tuition

    Institution-level. Average annual tuition for full-time graduate students, 2023-24, from IPEDS. Not a DNP per-credit rate, not including program differentials, and not net of aid.

  2. 35%

    Established program

    Program-level. DNP conferrals in this CIP and award level in the reporting year, saturating at 25. Above that a program scores full marks and gains nothing further for size.

  3. 15%

    Institution-wide undergraduate completion

    Institution-level and undergraduate. The IPEDS 150%-of-normal-time rate for first-time, full-time bachelor's students.

Nothing is imputed. A program that does not publish a figure is scored on the ones it does publish, with the remaining weights renormalized; below 2 published figures it is listed without a position rather than ranked on a single number. Accreditation is a condition of appearing at all, not a factor that earns points. What the rubric cannot see.

The Best 7 DNP Programs In Kentucky, Ranked

Ordered on published in-state tuition, annual DNP conferrals and institution-wide undergraduate completion, weighted for a state page so cost leads. Scores are relative to the 7 institutions on this page and not to the country, the same program carries a different number on the national list. How this is built.

Every ranked institution in Kentucky, with what the federal record publishes for it and how its score was composed.

Ranked 1 of 7

Murray State University

Murray, KY

92.9 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

Murray State publishes its curricula course by course, with the credit weight and the clinical hours attached to each one, which is a level of detail most schools keep behind an advising appointment. The post-master’s route shows what that buys you: the doctoral project runs across three sequential courses carrying 180 clinical hours apiece, so 540 hours accumulate through the project itself rather than in separate placements. Bachelor’s entry splits into nurse anesthesia and family practice, and the family sequence front-loads assessment and diagnostics before primary care clinical courses at 180 hours each. If you want to know what a semester will actually demand before you commit, this is a school that has already written it down.

Tuition
$9,414
In-state
Tuition
$9,414
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
29
Completion
61%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 52.4

Visit Murray State University →

Ranked 2 of 7

Northern Kentucky University

Highland Heights, KY

78.2 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Northern Kentucky puts a hard experience gate at the door rather than partway through: one year minimum of full-time critical care experience as a registered nurse, within the past two years, with employer verification on a form. Recency is the part that catches people out, because intensive care work from five years ago does not count however much of it there was. From a BSN the degree is 106 credit hours over nine semesters, three years exactly. The post-master’s nurse anesthesia route is 37 semester credits over six semesters instead. Between 106 credits and 37, the master’s you already hold is worth roughly two years here.

Tuition
$10,206
In-state
Tuition
$15,660
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
99
Completion
52%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 83.5
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 9.5

Visit Northern Kentucky University →

Ranked 3 of 7

University of Kentucky

Lexington, KY

63.1 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Kentucky runs six specialties inside one BSN-to-DNP option and publishes a plan of study for each rather than one timetable for the degree. Full time is three years. If that will not fit around a roster there are five-year part-time plans and a modified four-year plan built specifically for nurses already working in direct care. Executive leadership sits apart from the clinical specialties with its own full- and part-time sequences. Your specialty decides your certification board as much as your coursework: family primary care goes to ANCC or AANP, both pediatric routes to the PNCB, and executive leadership to the ANCC nurse executive advanced exam or the AONE certified-in-executive-nursing-practice exam.

Tuition
$12,967
In-state
Tuition
$34,096
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
36
Completion
71%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 26.1
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit University of Kentucky →

Ranked 4 of 7

Eastern Kentucky University

Richmond, KY

55.5 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

Eastern Kentucky builds its post-master’s doctorate around short terms: two seven-week blocks in fall and spring and two six-week blocks over summer, so you carry two classes at a time and still count as full-time. Two courses at once is a very different load from four, and it is the structural reason this fits around a roster. The doctoral project can be done inside your own organization or community rather than at a site the school assigns, and you are given a mentor for it. Everything runs online. Textbooks come through a program charging a flat rate per credit hour, a smaller saving than tuition but a predictable one. School-wide average graduate tuition here, which excludes DNP add-on charges, sits in the lowest third of the 306 accredited institutions that publish a rate, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

Tuition
$10,296
In-state
Tuition
$14,040
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
9
Completion
50%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 81.7
  • Established program 42
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Eastern Kentucky University →

Ranked 5 of 7

Western Kentucky University

Bowling Green, KY

44.5 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

Western Kentucky’s BSN-to-DNP family nurse practitioner concentration is 76 credit hours, with both full-time and part-time options, and the wider program requirement runs from 36 to 76 hours depending on which end you enter at. The prerequisite that catches people out is not the grade point average, though that is a 3.0. It is anatomy and physiology, where the university wants a minimum of six credit hours graded B or above. A pass is not enough. If your A and P is old or was scraped through first time, that is the thing to check before anything else, because it is the one requirement you cannot fix inside an application cycle.

Tuition
$12,140
In-state
Tuition
$18,340
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
11
Completion
56%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 43.3
  • Established program 53.1
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 28.6

Visit Western Kentucky University →

Ranked 6 of 7

University of Louisville

Louisville, KY

42.9 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

Louisville is exact about the critical care experience its nurse anesthesia route wants, and the detail matters more than the minimum does. One year of full-time critical care, recent, with employment verification, and preference goes to applicants whose work routinely involved hemodynamic monitoring, mechanical ventilation and vasoactive drug administration. A year on a general medical floor will not read the same way as a year in an intensive care unit, and the catalog says so in as many words. The wider doctorate can be entered from a bachelor’s or a master’s across several specialties, and admission is reviewed holistically rather than on grade point average alone, though 3.0 is the recommended floor.

Tuition
$14,222
In-state
Tuition
$28,906
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
31
Completion
61%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 52.4

Visit University of Louisville →

Ranked 7 of 7

Bellarmine University

Louisville, KY

14.5 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Bellarmine asks for a 3.5 in any graduate coursework you have already done, against 3.0 for undergraduate work, a higher bar than most and the first thing to check if you have a master’s behind you. The nurse anesthesia track wants a year of recent full-time critical care employment, within the past two years, evidenced on a verification form rather than asserted. Then an interview with graduate faculty. The catalog is unusually blunt about what follows: enrollment in that track is limited, and meeting every minimum does not assure admission. Post-master’s applicants choose between advanced nursing practice and executive leadership, and delivery is online or hybrid depending on the route.

Tuition
$13,785
In-state
Tuition
$13,785
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
4
Completion
64%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 9.1
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 66.7

Visit Bellarmine University →

Also Accredited In Kentucky

This program holds current CCNE accreditation. It files its DNP conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal tuition and conferral figures used above are not available for it and it is not scored.

  • Spalding University CCNE-accredited DNP

    Spalding splits its doctorate into 30 credit hours of core coursework plus six hours of specialty emphasis, delivered fully online in eight-week sessions. The admissions structure is the unusual part: rolling rather than annual, with classes starting every eight weeks, so you are never more than a couple of months from a start date. For a nurse who decides in March, that is the difference between beginning in May and waiting until the following August. Entry is post-master's, wanting a nursing master's or its equivalent. Spalding also works with employer tuition reimbursement, which is worth raising with your hospital before you calculate what the degree costs you.

Choosing A DNP Program In Kentucky

What studying in Kentucky changes. The questions that apply wherever you study are on the national ranking page.

Settle your residency before you compare anything else

Across the 5 public institutions in Kentucky publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 1.5 times the in-state one. At University of Kentucky the gap is $21,129 a year on its own. Residency is decided by the state under its own rules and a distance program does not confer it, so for an out-of-state applicant this one question is worth more than the difference between most of the programs on this page.

The Kentucky board of nursing decides the license, not the diploma

No doctorate confers authority to practice or prescribe. That authority comes from an advanced practice license the state issues and the national certification behind it, which is why a DNP-prepared and a master's-prepared nurse practitioner on the same license prescribe the same things. What varies between states is the licensure requirement itself, so take it from the board rather than from a program page, and take it early: several programs want an active license in the state where your practicum will happen rather than wherever you hold one now, and licensure by endorsement runs to months. What the degree does and does not grant sets out the distinction.

Bellarmine University, Northern Kentucky University and University of Kentucky carry the distance flag

3 of the 7 measured institutions in Kentucky carry it. That flag records only that taught content can be delivered at a distance. It says nothing about campus days, and nothing about the supervised practice hours, which happen in a building with a preceptor present wherever you enroll. Ask for the number of on-campus days and the months they fall in, because that is what you hold against a roster. Online DNP programs ranks the distance-flagged field nationally.

Spalding University is accredited, not lesser

Spalding University files conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal columns this page ranks on do not exist for it. It carries the same CCNE accreditation as everything in the ranking above. A missing figure here is a filing convention rather than a verdict, and reading it as one would put a real option out of your reach for no reason. The notes beside the name come from the school's own pages.

Who Licenses You In Kentucky

Practice environment, as AANP classifies it
Reduced Practice
Licensing body
Kentucky Board of Nursing
Verify a license
Nursys, the national license verification system operated by the boards themselves

AANP places Kentucky in its reduced practice category, which it defines this way: state law reduces the ability to engage in at least one element of practice, typically by requiring a career-long collaborative agreement with another health provider, or by limiting the setting in which an element of practice may happen.

A degree confers no prescriptive authority. It comes from a state advanced practice license and the national certification behind it, so a DNP-prepared and a master’s-prepared nurse practitioner holding the same license prescribe the same things.

So the thing to settle here is not the degree, it is the collaborative agreement. Ask the board what the agreement has to contain and who may sign it, then ask a prospective employer whether they already have one in place, because a license you cannot use until a physician signs is a different proposition from one you can.

Practice environment from AANP's Kentucky fact sheet, read 2026-09-08; AANP last revised the classification 05/2026. It is AANP's reading of state statute rather than a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm it with the board before you rely on it. Board details read from the NCSBN member directory on 2026-09-08. Licensure requirements change by legislative session, so treat anything you read here as a pointer to the board rather than a substitute for it.

What The Work Pays In Kentucky

BLS OEWS, May 2025. BLS classifies by occupation, not by credential: there is no DNP wage series, and every figure here covers everyone in the occupation regardless of which degree they hold.

OccupationMedian, KentuckyEmployedRankNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$122,8704,77049 of 51$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$222,5201,64034 of 44$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$81,04050,30042 of 51$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$71,9201,13045 of 51$80,250

Nurse practitioners in Kentucky have a median of $122,870, which ranks 49 of the 51 jurisdictions the survey publishes a median for, across about 4,770 people in the state. That sits in the lower third of the jurisdictions the survey publishes, which is worth setting against local costs before reading it as a verdict.

A median is the midpoint of what people in the occupation are paid, so half earn less and half earn more; it is not a starting salary and not an offer. Every row is one federal series, ranked against every jurisdiction that series covers. Nothing here is a job-board average. DNP salary sets out the national picture.

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

HRSA designated primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas, read 2026-09-08.

Designated areas
256
Of those, rural
225
Median score
18
Highest score
23

Designated shortage in Kentucky is a rural matter almost entirely: 225 of the 256 designations are rural, about 88% of them. Debt relief and the shape of the work both point away from the population centers. A designation is a statement about how many primary-care providers serve a defined area relative to its population. It describes supply, not hiring.

Priority varies between them: a median score of 18 against a highest of 23. Worth asking what a specific site scores rather than assuming the state figure applies to it.

Both federal loan repayment routes open to advanced practice nurses require working at an approved site inside a designated area, and the area’s score sets funding priority when applications outrun the money: Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program and NHSC Loan Repayment Program. HPSA primary-care scores run 0-25; funding priority for loan repayment follows the score.

Whether a particular employer counts as an approved site is settled by the program, not by the designation, so check the site before you take the job rather than after. HRSA's shortage-area data portal maps the designations. Paying for a DNP covers the routes that do not depend on where you practice.

Studying From Outside Kentucky

3 of the 8 accredited doctorates in Kentucky carry the federal distance-education flag, which leaves most of the local field expecting you in the room and makes an out-of-state program a real comparison rather than a fallback. Either way it turns on one thing this site cannot answer for you.

Authority to enroll a distance student is set per institution and per state, and the federal flag this page counts records delivery rather than permission, so only the school can answer it. Ask two things before tuition enters the conversation: whether the program can enroll a resident of Kentucky this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

What The Figures On This Page Are

Tuition is the institution's published annual graduate rate. It is not a DNP per-credit price, it is not a total program cost, and it is not what anyone pays after aid. A DNP taken part-time over four years does not cost four times the annual figure, because most programs bill by the credit.

DNP awards are conferrals in the reporting year at that institution. The figure says a program is running and how much of it is running; it does not say the program is better than a smaller one, and the rubric stops rewarding volume above 25 conferrals for that reason.

Undergraduate completion is exactly that, the federal 150%-of-normal-time rate for first-time, full-time bachelor's students at the institution. It is the weakest input in the model and carries the smallest weight. No federal series reports DNP completion, so nothing on this site claims one.

Of the 7 institutions with federal figures here, 6 are at public institutions. In-state tuition at a public school is available only to residents; the out-of-state rate is frequently two to four times higher and is the figure an out-of-state applicant should be reading.

3 institutions here are flagged by the federal survey as offered at a distance. That flag records how the coursework is delivered. It does not mean the clinical hours are remote, and it does not mean a student never travels to campus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers specific to Kentucky. The degree-wide questions are answered on the guides.

How many DNP programs are there in Kentucky?

8 hold CCNE accreditation for the doctorate, and 1 of them file conferrals under a specialty classification, so they are listed by name rather than scored. A field this size is small enough to shortlist properly and large enough that the shortlist matters.

How much does a DNP cost in Kentucky?

Published in-state rates sit between $9,414 and $14,222, which is a tight band. Price will not narrow your list in Kentucky; the track, the placement arrangement and the schedule will.

Is a DNP cheaper in Kentucky if you live there?

Yes, by $21,129 a year at the widest of the 5 public institutions publishing both rates. Enrolling in a distance program does not confer residency; the state sets it under its own rules.

Can a nurse practitioner practice independently in Kentucky?

Not fully. Kentucky is reduced practice in AANP's classification, meaning statute limits at least one element of practice and requires a career-long collaborative agreement with another provider. What that agreement must contain is set by the board, and it is worth reading before you plan a career here rather than after.

What do nurse practitioners earn in Kentucky?

A median of $122,870, $9,430 below the national $132,300. Worth setting against what the degree costs here before treating the gap as a verdict on the state.

Does federal loan repayment apply in Kentucky?

It can, and here it mostly means rural practice: 225 of the 256 designated primary-care shortage areas are rural. Eligibility follows an approved site rather than a state, so the question belongs to the employer.

Can you study for a DNP online in Kentucky?

3 of the 7 measured institutions carry the flag. It covers taught content and nothing else, so the number to ask each school for is on-campus days and the months they fall in.

Sources

Two datasets produce every figure on this page, and the institutions those figures describe are listed under them. Nothing here is compiled from a school's own marketing material.

  1. 1 CCNE Accredited Program Directory It decides which institutions appear on this page at all: the 8 in Kentucky below are the ones it lists as holding current accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, annual conferrals, institutional completion and the distance-education flag.

Every federal figure on this site is read from the administering agency’s own page, never from a secondary aggregator, and the reading date is recorded beside it.

The Institutions Behind These Figures

Every institution the two datasets name in Kentucky, alphabetically. A link is the web address that institution reports to the federal directory, the school’s own site, not a page about the doctorate.

  1. 1

    Bellarmine University

    Louisville, KY · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures

  2. 2

    Eastern Kentucky University

    Richmond, KY · Public · carries federal figures

  3. 3

    Murray State University

    Murray, KY · Public · carries federal figures

  4. 4

    Northern Kentucky University

    Highland Heights, KY · Public · carries federal figures

  5. 5

    Spalding University

    On the CCNE roster; no federal record under a nursing doctoral classification, so no directory address and no figures

  6. 6

    University of Kentucky

    Lexington, KY · Public · carries federal figures

  7. 7

    University of Louisville

    Louisville, KY · Public · carries federal figures

  8. 8

    Western Kentucky University

    Bowling Green, KY · Public · carries federal figures

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