ETSU DNP Nursing and Healthcare Leadership: nurse executive preceptors and a project site

One concentration under three names

ETSU labels this concentration differently depending on the page. The plan-of-study PDFs use Executive Leadership. The College's DNP page joins both names with a slash. ETSU Online and the pages written for prospective students keep to Nursing and Healthcare Leadership. They describe the same program, so search ETSU's site under all three names when you look for documents.

The concentration also carries a DNP/MBA option. Among ETSU's 2026-27 curriculum actions are approved articulation agreements that link this concentration to two MBA concentrations. If the business credential matters to you, ask the DNP program director how the MBA courses sit inside your plan, since that decides which terms carry practicum hours.

ETSU says graduates are eligible for the Nurse Executive Advanced certification from ANCC. Coursework is online, and ETSU Online describes a two-to-five-day intensive opening each semester, which students join on campus or through Zoom.

The full-time plan: practicums first, residencies second

Here is ETSU's full-time BSN-to-DNP leadership plan, dated 2020. The master's-level leadership courses fill semesters 1 to 5 and the doctoral work fills semesters 6 to 9.

Your first clinical course arrives in the first summer, so the nurse administrator search belongs in your first spring. Part-time students take the three practicums in the same terms as full-time students, semesters 3, 4 and 5, and then wait until Summer 12 to begin the residencies, which end in Summer 15. Each practicum is covered on the Executive Leadership practicums page.

What a leadership preceptor looks like

According to the current catalog, NRSE 5502 introduces the nurse executive role under a nurse administrator who serves as your preceptor. ETSU's master's description of this administration path names roles ranging from unit managers up to executives, most often in hospitals and other large providers, which is a fair guide to where leadership preceptors work.

ETSU once posted separate preceptor guidelines for its administration and leadership tracks, but those PDFs now return page not found, so no written minimums for a nurse executive preceptor are published. Ask your course faculty what title, scope and experience they expect before you approach anyone.

Expect the paperwork to feel built for NP students. The Intent Form offers AGPCNP, FNP and PMHNP as concentration choices, lists an old NRSE 5500 Executive Leadership Practicum, and asks for a patient-age mix that a leadership placement may not have. The Preceptor Intent Form page explains how to handle a form that does not quite fit your track.

Why ETSU leadership DNP students choose us

Leadership placements depend on reaching the right executive, and we specialize in exactly that. We identify nurse administrators and nurse executives near you whose roles match each practicum, and we approach organizations that can host a DNP project for the residency years.

We gather what ETSU's process asks for, including the preceptor's title, degrees, license details and the hours you plan, and we translate an NP-shaped form into a clear leadership request. We put the contract question on the table at the outset, which gives the College time to arrange one before your first summer. Faculty approval and the College's credential check stay exactly where ETSU puts them, and the packet they review from us has every item filled in. If an executive's schedule changes mid-term, we line up the next preceptor. Tell us your cohort year.