Best DNP Programs

Omaha metro

Best DNP Programs In Omaha 2026

Three accredited institutions carrying eight DNP tracks between them, the deepest specialty choice per institution of any metro on this site.
A downtown skyline across a wide brown river under a clear sky, with a red brick warehouse row and a fountain along the near bank
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Every one of the 3 is inside the city itself. This guide counts the Omaha, NE-IA metropolitan area, which reaches further than the city, but no accredited institution in it sits outside Omaha. So the metro definition costs you nothing here and the commute is the city's, not the region's.

  2. 2

    1 public, 2 private, and the cheap end is public. University of Nebraska Medical Center publishes $11,416 in-state, against $17,633 at the next option up. Residency is the lever here, and that figure is one school's published year rather than a typical cost: it leaves out fees, insurance and what reaching a clinical placement costs.

  3. 3

    Output is concentrated in one school. University of Nebraska Medical Center conferred 44 of the 86 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with Creighton University next at 24. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    2 of 3 reach you at a distance. That many carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers taught content and never the supervised practice hours. Ask for the number of on-campus days and the months they fall in.

Three Institutions, Eight Tracks: Specialty Does More Work Here Than Price

Creighton University alone runs six DNP tracks, covering family, psychiatric-mental health, maternal and child health, nursing administration and the general practice doctorate. Across the three institutions this metro carries eight tracks, which is 2.7 per institution and the highest ratio of the eighteen metro guides here.

That changes the first question. In most metros on this site the opening cut is price, because the field is several general-practice doctorates at different rates. Here two of the three institutions run a single general track and the third runs six, so for a reader who wants a named specialty the field is effectively one school, and for a reader who does not it is three.

The prices are ordinary by comparison. The University of Nebraska Medical Center publishes $11,416 in-state and conferred 44 doctorates, Creighton publishes $46,800 and conferred 24, and Nebraska Methodist College publishes $17,633 and conferred 18. The public option is the cheapest and the largest, which is the common shape; the track depth is what is not.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 3 institutions on this page and to nothing else.

  1. 50%

    Published in-state graduate tuition

    Institution-level. Published annual graduate tuition, not a DNP per-credit rate 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.

Accredited Schools In The Omaha Metro, Ranked

Ordered on the same three published figures the state guides use: in-state tuition, annual conferrals and completion rate. One row per institution, not per federal filing.

# Program In-state tuition DNP awards UG completion Score of 100
1 of 3 University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha, NE · Public $11,416 44 Not published 100
2 of 3 Creighton University Omaha, NE · Private nonprofit · offered online $46,800 24 83% 45.6
3 of 3 Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health Omaha, NE · Private nonprofit · offered online $17,633 18 60% 41.2

What This Guide Counts As The Omaha Metro

This guide follows the Omaha metropolitan statistical area, which crosses the Missouri River into Iowa. All three institutions are in Omaha itself; the Iowa side of the metro carries no institution in the accredited dataset, so the state line the metro name refers to does not affect this list.

Municipalities Included

  • Omaha, NE

Deliberately Not Included

  • Council Bluffs, IA Inside this metro and across the river, but no institution in the accredited dataset reports it as its city.
  • Lincoln, NE Its own metropolitan area, about an hour south-west.
  • Sioux City, IA A separate metro at the other end of the state line, with two accredited institutions of its own.

The Best 3 DNP Programs In Omaha, Ranked

Every scored institution above, with what it publishes and what it does not.

Ranked 1 of 3

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Omaha, NE

100 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)

Nebraska publishes its admission floor instead of leaving you to infer it: a 3.0 GPA for full admission across all three entry routes, with applicants between 2.5 and 2.9 eligible for provisional consideration. That is worth knowing before an application fee. Entry is by BSN-to-DNP for nurses with an accredited bachelor’s, MSN-to-DNP for those with an accredited master’s, or a post-graduate track for holders of a master’s or doctorate, and the accrediting bodies accepted for the prior degree are named rather than assumed. Graduates move into advanced clinical roles as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and nurse midwives, or into nursing leadership. The school treats those as parallel destinations rather than one being the fallback.

In-State Tuition
$11,416
Out-Of-State
$34,405
DNP Awards
44

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 100

Visit University of Nebraska Medical Center →

Ranked 2 of 3

Creighton University

Omaha, NE

45.6 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

6 DNP tracks at this institution, Family nurse practitioner, Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing, Nursing administration, Nursing practice (general), Psychiatric-mental health NP, Registered nursing (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

Creighton is unusually direct about what the degree costs you in time. Its own page warns that full-time students may struggle to hold down full-time work, and it puts the scholarly project at roughly 30 to 40 hours a semester on top of coursework, which is the kind of number most schools leave you to discover after you enroll. Coursework across all tracks and specializations runs online, full time or part time. Nurse anesthesia is the exception in scale rather than in format: 2,250 clinical hours spread across large metropolitan hospitals, rural and specialty hospitals and community clinics, so the rotations are deliberately not all in one kind of setting.

In-State Tuition
$46,800
Out-Of-State
$46,800
DNP Awards
24
UG Completion
83%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 87.5
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Creighton University →

Ranked 3 of 3

Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health

Omaha, NE

41.2 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (other)
  • Offered online

Nebraska Methodist splits its BSN-to-DNP into two numbers you can actually plan around. The degree is 75 credit hours. Fifty-seven of those you can complete online, in a mix of synchronous and asynchronous courses, and the remaining 18 are clinical practice carrying 1,080 contact hours. So roughly three quarters of the coursework is remote and the clinical quarter is not, which is a far clearer division than most schools calling themselves online will give you. Those 1,080 contact hours also sit above the 1,000 post-baccalaureate hours the degree standard calls for. The same split holds across the tracks, including family nurse practitioner and the adult-gerontology clinical nurse specialist route.

In-State Tuition
$17,633
Out-Of-State
$17,633
DNP Awards
18
UG Completion
60%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 82.4
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health →

Choosing A DNP Program In Omaha

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

What University of Nebraska Medical Center charges depends on where you live

It is the one public institution in the Omaha metro publishing both rates, at $11,416 in state against $34,405 out of state, a difference of $22,989 a year. Residency is set by the state under its own rules rather than by where you sit to watch a lecture, so an out-of-state applicant should treat that gap as the first question rather than a footnote.

A field of 3 is small enough to contact all of it

Creighton University, Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health and University of Nebraska Medical Center are the accredited doctorates in the Omaha metro, which is few enough that writing to every one of them is a morning's work rather than a project. It is also the fastest way to learn what no program page prints: who secures your clinical placement, what the school charges if a doctoral project runs past its term, and which tracks are open to new applicants this cycle. Against a field this size, a reply beats a rubric.

The Nebraska 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.

Creighton University and Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health carry the distance flag

2 of the 3 measured institutions in the Omaha metro 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.

A metro is a commute, and Nebraska is the field

This page covers the institutions inside the Omaha area because a campus you can reach on a weekday is a different proposition from one you cannot. It is a narrower field than the one you are actually choosing from: DNP programs in Nebraska carries every accredited institution in the state, and for a program you would attend at a distance the metro boundary means nothing at all.

Who Licenses You In The Omaha Metro

Practice environment from AANP’s own state fact sheets, read 2026-09-08; AANP last revised the classification 05/2026. Boards from the NCSBN member directory, read 2026-09-08.

Nebraska
Full Practice
0

Every institution on this page sits in Nebraska, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as full practice. The school does not grant practice authority and never has; the license and the certification behind it do.

The board detail, the full AANP definition and the license verification route are on the state guide: DNP programs in Nebraska . AANP is reading state statute rather than issuing a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm with the board before you rely on it.

What The Work Pays In The Omaha Metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan area cut for Omaha, NE-IA, read 2026-09-10. 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, Omaha metroEmployedNational median
Nurse Practitioners29-1171$133,7601,380$132,300
Nurse Anesthetists29-1151$271,680230$236,590
Registered Nurses29-1141$84,60013,200$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$97,390180$80,250

Nurse practitioners in the Omaha metro have a median of $133,760, across about 1,380 of them, which is within $1,460 of the national $132,300.

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. The metropolitan cut is a different survey area from the state one, so these figures will not reconcile with the state page and are not meant to. How BLS defines these areas .

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

HRSA designated primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas, read 2026-09-08. These are state counts, not metro ones.

Nebraska, designated areas
126
Nebraska, of those rural
117

These figures cover Nebraska in full rather than the Omaha metro specifically. HRSA publishes designations at the level of the individual area, and rolling them into a metro needs a county crosswalk this guide does not hold, so the state count is what is shown and it is shown as a state count. What follows from it still applies here, because eligibility never attached to a jurisdiction in the first place.

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.

In a metro that is mostly urban the practical consequence is that eligible sites are a smaller share of the employers you are likely to interview with than the state count suggests, and they are usually federally qualified health centers, public hospital systems and university clinics rather than private practices. Whether a particular employer counts is settled by the program rather than by the designation, so check the site before you take the job.

HRSA’s shortage-area data portal maps the designations to the address. Paying for a DNP covers the routes that do not depend on where you practice, and the state guide breaks the designations down further: Nebraska.

Studying From Outside The Omaha Metro

Most of the measured field here is distance-flagged, 2 of 3 accredited doctorates in the Omaha metro, so the question is less whether you can study at a distance and more whether an out-of-state program offers anything the local ones do not. 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 the Omaha metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Omaha Option Fits Your Situation

Each of these routes to a published figure or a named institution. None is a recommendation, and none is a statement about whether a school will admit you.

If the published price is what decides it: University of Nebraska Medical Center

The lowest published in-state rate among Omaha's publics, at $11,416 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

If you are moving to Omaha: settle residency before you apply

University of Nebraska Medical Center publishes a $22,989 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Omaha public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: Creighton University states that route

Creighton University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Omaha may take bachelor's entrants too: this site records a route only where the school states it, so an absent name means unread rather than closed.

If you already hold an advanced practice credential: Creighton University

Creighton University publishes a post-master's route, the shorter way in when your master's already carries supervised hours. Ask how many transfer; the ceilings differ sharply.

If you cannot relocate: 2 institutions here carry the distance flag

Creighton University, Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health carry it. The flag covers taught content only. Supervised hours still happen near you, and campus days are the school's to set, so ask for the count and the months.

What The Figures On This Page Are

Tuition is the institution’s published annual graduate rate, not a per-credit price and not a program total. Awards are conferrals in the reporting year. Completion is the federal undergraduate rate, the weakest input in the model, and no federal series reports DNP completion. Wages are the metropolitan cut of the federal survey, a different survey area from the state one. How this site scores programs sets out each input and its weight in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many DNP programs are there in Omaha?

3 institutions in the Omaha metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Omaha, NE-IA metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the Omaha metro on this page?

The Omaha, NE-IA metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Omaha, NE. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Omaha than online?

Neither is reliably cheaper. Published in-state tuition at a public institution is usually the lowest figure available to someone who qualifies for it, and distance programs charge a single rate to everyone regardless of where they live. Which comes out lower depends entirely on whether you hold in-state status somewhere, so compare the published rates rather than the format.

Do these figures include fees and clinical costs?

No. Every tuition figure on this page is the published rate an institution reports to the federal government, which excludes fees, health insurance, textbooks and the travel a clinical placement can require. Treat it as a floor for comparison between institutions rather than a total cost of attendance.

Related Pages

Sources

  1. 1 CCNE Directory Of Accredited Programs Which institutions hold accreditation.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, conferrals and completion.
  3. 3 Metro Definition The Omaha, NE-IA metropolitan statistical area, rolled up to the municipalities listed above. Institutions are matched on city and state.

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.

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