Advanced Practice Nursing

Graduate nursing that leads to practice as a nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife or clinical nurse specialist — diagnosing, prescribing and managing care. ⚠⚠ A narrow top on a very wide base: Florida's registered nursing programmes run at 39 public institutions, and the advanced practice ones at 9. ⚠⚠⚠ And the credential is drifting doctoral — Florida awarded 532 professional doctorates in nursing practice in 2023 against 522 master's in general nursing.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠⚠ THE DEGREE IS MOVING TO DOCTORAL, BUT THE LAW HAS NOT MOVED WITH IT — AND THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS TO YOUR PLANNING. NONPF, the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, committed in April 2018 to move all entry-level NP education to the Doctor of Nursing Practice by 2025 and reaffirmed it in April 2023. Its own figures: DNP NP programmes grew from 124 in 2014 to 254 in 2021, BSN-to-DNP graduates from 934 in 2015 to 3,327 in 2021, and entry to MSN NP programmes has levelled. ⚠⚠ But NONPF is an association of FACULTIES, not a regulator. Its commitment carries no legal force; both AANP and ANCC still certify master's-prepared nurse practitioners; and only a state board of nursing can set the degree required for licensure. ⚠ So read the trend as real and the deadline as aspirational: a master's still qualifies, and a DNP is increasingly what programmes offer. ⚠⚠ Compare the physician assistant route, where Florida wrote the escalation into STATUTE with a date — s. 458.347 requires a master's of anyone matriculating after 31 December 2020. Nursing has no equivalent provision. ⚠ THE CLINICAL HOURS: the National Task Force's 2022 Standards added a criterion requiring NP programmes to move incrementally to 750 direct patient care hours. ⚠⚠ That is hours INSIDE the programme; the hours before it come from working as a registered nurse, which is the real prerequisite and is not written down as a number. ⚠ Florida's footprint: 8 institutions award the DNP (UF 114, UNF 86, USF 83, FIU 81, UCF 69, FAU 40, FGCU 37, FSU 28); nurse anesthesia sits at 3 institutions and 55 credentials; family nurse practitioner as a named master's at 2, with UWF alone awarding 95.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Nurse Practitioner and Advanced Practice Nurse

⚠⚠⚠ Florida grants nurse practitioners autonomous practice — and almost every account of it omits the limit that matters. Autonomous registration covers PRIMARY CARE ONLY. It does not let you practise your specialty without a physician protocol, and only certified midwives are excepted. 11,201 APRNs were registered for autonomous practice as of the 2024 legislative analysis. ⚠⚠ The occupation itself is nearly twice the size of the physician assistant profession — 320,400 employed, 29,500 openings a year, $132,300 median.

Physician

⚠⚠⚠ There is no pre-medical major, and AAMC's own numbers say the medical-sounding one is the worst choice. Of 54,699 applicants in 2025-26, 58.6% majored in biological sciences and were admitted at 42.1% against an overall 42.9% — while mathematics and statistics reached 57.3%, humanities 52.0% and physical sciences 51.3%. ⚠⚠ Specialized health sciences came LAST at 40.3%. Six Florida public medical schools award 757 degrees a year.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The base, and it is enormous by comparison: 78 Florida public institutions once practical nursing is counted, and 39 awarding registered nursing degrees — 5,037 associate and 4,774 bachelor's in a single year. ⚠ Everything on this page requires an RN licence first, so the route is always nursing then this, and the RN years are where the clinical judgement comes from.

Physician Assistant Studies 6 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The genuine alternative, and the comparison should be made on the STATUTES. An APRN registered under s. 464.0123 may practise autonomously in Florida PRIMARY CARE; a PA under s. 458.347 always needs a supervising physician, who may supervise at most ten. ⚠ But the PA's scope reaches surgery, emergency medicine and every specialty, and autonomous APRN practice does not. ⚠⚠ Six Florida public PA programmes against nine here.

Public Health 14 Florida schools

⚠ Named because public health nursing and population-health roles are a substantial destination for advanced practice nurses, and the MPH is a common second credential. ⚠⚠ It is also the one route on this site where a nursing licence underneath a graduate degree turns a thin credential into a strong one.

Health Care Administration 24 Florida schools

⚠ The other graduate direction an experienced nurse takes, and the more common one past a certain age. Nurse executives and directors of nursing sit inside the medical and health services manager occupation at a $123,860 median. ⚠⚠ 24 Florida institutions teach it, 20 of them state colleges — far more reachable part-time than a DNP.

Medicine 6 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ Named because of one striking comparison: nurse anesthetists number 53,800 nationally against 45,300 anesthesiologists, with 2,700 annual openings against 1,300. ⚠ The nursing occupation is LARGER than the physician one it works alongside, and reaching it takes an RN licence plus a doctorate rather than medical school plus a four-year residency.

Florida public institutions offering this program

9 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Doctorate (professional practice), Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's, Post-master's certificate, Postbaccalaureate certificate. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Atlantic University

Doctorate (professional practice) · Postbaccalaureate certificate

Florida Gulf Coast University

Doctorate (professional practice)

Florida International University

Doctorate (professional practice) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

Florida State University

Doctorate (professional practice) · Master's

University of Central Florida

Doctorate (professional practice) · Postbaccalaureate certificate

University of Florida

Doctorate (professional practice) · Post-master's certificate · Postbaccalaureate certificate

University of North Florida

Doctorate (professional practice) · Post-master's certificate

University of South Florida

Doctorate (professional practice) · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of West Florida

Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 22 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.