University of Hawaii AGPCNP Programs (Adult Gerontology)

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene offers two AGPCNP pathways, both leading to the Doctor of Nursing Practice:

BSN-DNP (for RNs with a bachelor’s degree or higher)
GEPN-DNP (Graduate Entry Program in Nursing, for non-nurses with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree)

Both pathways are full-time cohorts with Fall (August) entry only. Clinical training takes place in Hawaiʻi, and UH frames licensure support around Hawaiʻi practice. UH does not offer an AGPCNP MSN or a post-graduate AGPCNP certificate.

Program Tracks Overview

Program	Est. Tuition (Resident)	Est. Duration	Credit Hours
BSN-DNP	$77,077	3 years (8 semesters)	77
GEPN-DNP	$126,126	4 years	126

Tuition estimates multiply UH Mānoa Outreach College’s Fall 2026–Spring 2027 School of Nursing & Dental Hygiene rate ($1,001/credit resident) by each pathway’s published credit total.

UH Mānoa takes the preceptor search off the student’s plate. The DNP program describes school-coordinated clinical site placements for its clinical tracks, including rural, neighbor island, and underserved settings. Students are not expected to recruit their own preceptors, a task that delays progression in many NP programs.

That model only works inside Hawaiʻi. The program is a hybrid, full-time, lockstep cohort with no part-time option, and clinicals run through Hawaiʻi sites. It is built for nurses who live in Hawaiʻi or will relocate there for three to four years, not for mainland nurses seeking a distance program.

UH Mānoa arranges your AGPCNP clinicals across Hawaiʻi, but only full-time students living in the islands can use that advantage.

Quick Facts

Program Types	BSN-DNP; GEPN-DNP (entry for non-nurses)
Format	Hybrid (BSN-DNP); GEPN pre-licensure year in person
Campus Attendance	Mandatory orientation in the first week of every semester; overall on-campus frequency not clearly published
Clinical Hours	Not clearly published
Clinical Placement	School-coordinated
Clinical Locations	Hawaiʻi, including rural and neighbor island sites
Population Focus	Adult-gerontology primary care, with emphasis on underserved Hawaiʻi populations
Start Term	Fall (August) only
Tuition	$1,001/credit resident; $1,896/credit nonresident (fall/spring)
Accreditation	CCNE (DNP)

Doctor of Nursing Practice – Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner

The BSN-DNP AGPCNP costs an estimated $77,077 for Hawaiʻi residents. It requires 77 credits over three years (eight semesters) of full-time study. Applicants need a nursing bachelor’s degree or higher and an RN license, or a passed NCLEX with licensure by the end of the first semester.

BSN-DNP Curriculum

The 77 credits divide into four blocks:

Advanced practice core (11 credits): advanced assessment with lab, pathophysiology, pharmacology, and clinical skills and procedures.
AGPCNP clinical sequence (24 credits): four Primary Care seminar-and-lab pairs (NURS 676–679) plus complex care management. Each seminar runs alongside a lab, so clinical work and didactic content progress together.
Population and specialty courses (18 credits): mental health in primary care, acute and episodic care, chronic illness, women’s health, and two gerontology courses.
DNP and leadership coursework (24 credits): biostatistics, informatics, leadership, evidence-based practice, program evaluation, health policy, and a three-part scholarly project.

Two features stand out. First, the gerontology content is deeper than many AGPCNP plans, with two dedicated courses (NURS 695 and NURS 701) beyond the primary care sequence. Second, Primary Care III is the clinical centerpiece: its 9-credit lab is the largest single course in the program.

Some published course titles reach beyond the adult-gerontology population. NURS 678 lists pediatrics among its “special populations,” and NURS 679 and NURS 681 are titled “across the lifespan.” UH does not explain how pediatric content fits an adult-gero certification track. Applicants should not read these courses as pediatric clinical preparation.

UH describes this as a sample curriculum that may change by admission year. Students may take equivalent courses at other UH schools or through NEXus to stay on schedule.

Advanced practice core

NURS 612 Advanced Assessment & Clinical Reasoning (2) and NURS 612L Lab (1)
NURS 613 Pathophysiology for Advanced Practice (3)
NURS 615 Clinical Skills and Procedures for Advanced Practice Nursing (2)
NURS 629 Pharmacology for Nurses in Advanced Practice (3)

Primary care sequence

NURS 676 / 676L Primary Care I: Health Assessment (1 / 2)
NURS 677 / 677L Primary Care II: Management of the Adult with Acute & Chronic Conditions (1 / 3)
NURS 678 / 678L Primary Care III: Special Populations (Peds, Gero, Women) (1 / 9)
NURS 679 / 679L Primary Care IV: Primary Care Integration Across the Lifespan (2 / 3)
NURS 681 Diagnosis & Management of Complex Care Across the Lifespan (2)

Population and gerontology courses

NURS 616 Mental Health in Primary Care (3)
NURS 640 Chronic Illness Management (3)
NURS 695 Successful Aging: Physiologic (3)
NURS 701 Advanced Gerontology: Promotion and Maintenance (3)

DNP project

NURS 755 / 756 / 757 DNP Scholarly Project A–C: Proposal, Implementation, Evaluation & Dissemination (2 each)

View the full AGPCNP DNP course list

BSN-DNP Clinical Requirements

Total clinical hours: not clearly published. UH lists 18 lab credits (NURS 612L and the four Primary Care labs) but does not convert them to hours.
DNP practice hours: not clearly published.
Placement responsibility: school-coordinated for clinical tracks.
Settings: community, outpatient, and long-term care.
Locations: Hawaiʻi, including rural and neighbor island communities.
Orientation: mandatory during the first week of instruction each semester.

School-coordinated placement is the program’s clearest practical advantage. The cost is limited control over location. Neighbor island rotations are part of the published design, so Oʻahu-based students should expect possible inter-island travel and plan for its cost and time.

The missing clinical-hour total matters for comparison shopping. Applicants comparing UH with programs that publish hour totals cannot verify UH’s clinical volume from public sources.

BSN-DNP Admissions

Bachelor’s degree or higher in nursing from an accredited institution, earned by July 15 of the start year
Minimum 3.0 GPA
Current unrestricted U.S. RN license, or passed NCLEX-RN with licensure by the end of the first semester
CV
No interviews
No prerequisite courses listed
Two applications: UH Mānoa Graduate Division ($100) and NCAS ($90)
Applications open September 1, 2026; deadline May 1, 2027 (11:59 p.m. EST)
Start: August 2027

A new BSN graduate can apply before holding an RN license, provided they pass NCLEX and are licensed by the end of the first semester. UH does not list a minimum years-of-experience requirement.

Review DNP application information

GEPN to DNP-AGPCNP

The GEPN to DNP-AGPCNP costs an estimated $126,126 for Hawaiʻi residents. It requires 126 credits over four years of full-time study. It is open only to applicants with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree and no RN license.

A published conflict worth knowing about. The GEPN overview page lists courses as delivered “in-person,” while the AGPCNP DNP page lists delivery as hybrid. Both are likely accurate for different phases: the in-person label fits the pre-licensure year, and the hybrid label fits the DNP years. This page treats year one as in person and years two through four as hybrid. UH does not state this split explicitly.

GEPN-DNP Curriculum

The pathway is the 77-credit AGPCNP DNP described above, preceded by a 49-credit pre-licensure year. That first year runs three continuous semesters and prepares students for NCLEX-RN. Students then move directly into the DNP cohort and must hold an RN license by the end of their first DNP semester.

GEPN is not an accelerated BSN. Students do not earn a bachelor’s degree; the degree is awarded when the DNP is complete.

Pre-licensure year highlights (49 credits)

NURS 505 / 505L Foundations of Nursing Science (2 / 4)
NURS 513 / 513L Acute Care Nursing (4 / 6)
NURS 517 / 517L Clinical Immersion to Nursing Practice (3 / 4)
NURS 508 / 508L and NURS 509 / 509L Childbearing Families; Children & Families (2 / 2 each)
NURS 518 Introduction to Community and Public Health Nursing (2)

View the GEPN-DNP-AGPCNP curriculum

GEPN-DNP Clinical Requirements

Pre-licensure year: clinical practicums in community and hospital settings under faculty supervision
DNP years: same school-coordinated AGPCNP clinical model as the BSN-DNP
Total clinical hours: not clearly published for either phase

A GEPN graduate starts NP training with no independent RN work experience. Clinical judgment comes entirely from the pre-licensure year and DNP practicums. Applicants who want bedside experience before NP school should consider working as an RN first and applying to the BSN-DNP.

GEPN-DNP Admissions

Bachelor’s degree or higher in a non-nursing field
Minimum 3.0 cumulative undergraduate GPA
Six prerequisites with B- or better, completed within seven years:
- Two of three by the application deadline: Anatomy & Physiology I with lab (4), Anatomy & Physiology II with lab (4), General Microbiology (3)
- Remaining courses by August 15, 2027: Introduction to Research (3), Human Growth and Development (3), Applied Human Nutrition (3)
Essays (500 words maximum per prompt) and resume/CV
TOEFL or IELTS for non-native English speakers
Non-citizens: U.S. permanent residency with a valid Social Security number
Two applications: UH Mānoa Graduate Division ($100) and NCAS ($90), selecting “GEPN–DNP–AGPCNP”
Applications open September 1, 2026; deadline October 30, 2026 (11:59 p.m. EST)
Decisions expected by end of January; start Fall 2027

The GEPN deadline falls six months earlier than the BSN-DNP deadline for the same Fall 2027 start. Missing October 30 costs a full year. Applicants also need two of three science prerequisites finished by that date, not just enrolled.

Review GEPN application information

Tuition

UH Mānoa bills graduate nursing courses (numbered 500+) through Outreach College at a School of Nursing & Dental Hygiene rate. For Fall 2026 and Spring 2027:

Resident: $1,001 per credit
Nonresident: $1,896 per credit
Summer 2026: $1,001 per credit for both residents and nonresidents
WRGP/WICHE: eligible residents of participating Western states pay 150% of the resident rate, or $1,501.50 per credit

Nonresidents pay 89% more than residents in fall and spring. Over 77 credits, the gap is about $68,900. The summer rate narrows it, but UH does not publish how many credits fall in summer terms.

Estimated Total Tuition

Pathway	Resident	WRGP	Nonresident (maximum)
BSN-DNP (77 credits)	$77,077	$115,616	$145,992
GEPN-DNP (126 credits)	$126,126	Not published	$238,896

Figures are calculated, not published by UH. Nonresident totals apply the fall/spring rate to every credit; summer credits billed at $1,001 would lower them. GEPN figures assume Outreach’s nursing rate applies to all 126 credits, as its table lists that rate for nursing courses numbered 500+. UH’s DNP fee page names WRGP; WRGP eligibility for GEPN is not clearly published.

Fees Beyond Tuition

Sentinel U (one-time, new AGPCNP students): $579
CPR certification: about $120–$150, valid two years
Medical records/immunization tracking (UHP): about $80 per year
Mandatory student fees (effective Fall 2027): up to $479 per fall or spring semester and $40 per summer term. Students in Outreach distance programs are exempt from several of these fees; whether the hybrid DNP qualifies is not clearly published.
Lab and professional fees: vary by course
NEXus courses: billed at standardized NEXus rates; UH notes that UHM financial aid may not apply

Outreach College tuition and fees · DNP financial aid, tuition, and fees

Why Choose This AGPCNP Program?

Best suited for: Hawaiʻi-based nurses or career changers who can study full time and want the school to arrange their clinical placements.

Placement Coordinated Inside Hawaiʻi

UH coordinates clinical sites for its DNP clinical tracks, including rural and neighbor island settings. For a Hawaiʻi resident, this removes the preceptor search that stalls many NP students. For anyone outside the state, the advantage disappears: the program is not designed for distance clinicals on the mainland.

A DNP-Only, Full-Time Commitment

There is no MSN, no part-time plan, and no post-graduate AGPCNP certificate. Every student completes 77 DNP credits in a lockstep cohort over three years. Working RNs who need to keep full-time hours should expect a difficult schedule. Practicing NPs adding an adult-gero specialty have no pathway here.

Resident Pricing Versus Nonresident Pricing

At $1,001 per credit, the resident BSN-DNP totals an estimated $77,077 in tuition. A nonresident without WRGP eligibility could pay up to $145,992. WRGP brings that to about $115,616, which is still roughly $38,500 more than the resident price.

A Route In for Non-Nurses

GEPN lets someone with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree reach AGPCNP certification eligibility in four years without earning a BSN. That compression is the appeal. The trade-offs are an October deadline, science prerequisites due at application, an estimated $126,126 in resident tuition, and no RN work experience before NP training.

The Verdict

UH Mānoa is the strongest fit for Hawaiʻi residents who want a DNP, can commit to full-time study, and value school-arranged clinical placements in their own communities. Career changers already in Hawaiʻi have an unusual direct path through GEPN.

Mainland nurses, working RNs who need part-time study, and current NPs seeking a post-graduate certificate should compare other programs. Applicants who prioritize published clinical-hour totals should note that UH does not post them.

Accreditation

The DNP program at UH Mānoa is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), as are its baccalaureate and master’s nursing programs. The school’s programs are also recognized by the Hawaiʻi State Board of Nursing.

UH states that graduates are eligible for national certification as Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioners and may then apply for APRN licensure in Hawaiʻi. Graduates planning to practice in another state should confirm that state’s requirements with its board of nursing. View UH Mānoa nursing accreditation