The WilmU DNP + MBA in Healthcare Administration
Wilmington University pairs its Doctor of Nursing Practice with an MBA in Healthcare Administration: 54 credits and 500 practice hours for APRNs, or 66 credits and 1,000 hours on the Leadership path. The business courses run in class or online, while the practice hours sit in the DNP's own courses with a doctorally prepared preceptor. That preceptor is what we find.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your WilmU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your WilmU course.
Two paths through the dual program
WilmU's DNP + MBA curriculum page splits the dual program by the DNP concentration underneath it. The APRN path mirrors the Advanced Practice concentration's 500 practice hours; the Leadership path carries the Leadership concentration's 1,000.
| Path | Credits | Practice hours | Practice courses |
|---|---|---|---|
| APRN | 54 | 500 | GRN 9001, GRN 9002, GRN 9003 |
| Leadership | 66 | 1,000 | GRN 8121 to GRN 8124, then GRN 9001 to GRN 9003 |
Set beside the stand-alone concentrations, 33 credits for Advanced Practice and 45 for Leadership, each path runs 21 credits longer. The practice structure matches the underlying concentration, which the Advanced Practice and Leadership guides describe course by course. One caution carries over: the DNP overview puts advanced practice nurses at 1,500 hours rather than the 500 used here, so ask the DNP Program Chair which figure your cohort follows.
Online, hybrid, New Castle and Brandywine
The dual program's page lists online and hybrid formats at New Castle and Brandywine, and WilmU's program finder shows the DNP + MBA as Online and Hybrid. That differs from the stand-alone DNP, which WilmU's curriculum page presents as a fully online doctorate without a campus residency.
New Castle is WilmU's main campus, near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, with in-person advising, registration and transcript evaluation. Brandywine is in the city of Wilmington. If you choose hybrid sections, WilmU's attendance policy expects you at the in-class sessions; online, WilmU counts you present when you log in and participate the way your instructor directs.
Which of your courses meet in person, and on which campus, is worth settling with the DNP Program Chair before registration opens. The locations page covers what happens at each WilmU site.
Where the practice hours happen
WilmU ties the dual program's practice hours to the DNP courses: GRN 9001 to GRN 9003 on both paths, with GRN 8121 to GRN 8124 added on the Leadership path.
Those courses run on the DNP's schedule. GRN 9001 fills a 15-week semester and is where the Wilmington University Human Subjects Committee reviews your project plan; GRN 9002 and GRN 9003 follow as 7-week blocks, with continuous enrollment from the first to the last. Leadership-path students complete four experiential engagement courses beforehand, 125 hours apiece, a single course in each 15-week semester.
In each of those courses you work with a doctorally prepared preceptor, and WilmU says students most commonly base the project at their own place of work. For someone earning an MBA alongside, that workplace answer can be administrative: a finance, operations or quality function where a doctorally prepared leader oversees the work.
A project that draws on both degrees
On the Leadership path, the catalog lets you shape experiential engagement content together with DNP faculty, and on either path the Human Subjects Committee reviews the project plan. Within those steps, a dual-degree student can build a project where clinical outcomes and business questions meet: the cost of a care-delivery change, a staffing model or a service line decision.
The preceptor should match that blend. Our search targets leaders with doctorates whose day-to-day role sits close to your question, such as a nurse executive with budget responsibility, a doctorally prepared quality leader or an academic with health-systems expertise, and we confirm they can stay with you across the project sequence.
Each preceptor and site still needs WilmU faculty's approval. What we deliver is a file organized so that decision is quick: license, doctoral degree, role and contact details, with any intake steps at the host organization already mapped.
Credentialing, grades and pace in a dual program
- Credentialing: both
GRN 8121andGRN 9001list finished, current credentialing among their prerequisites, and the College runs its background check and drug screen through a designated system, billed to the student. See clinical credentialing. - DNP grades: B is the floor in DNP coursework; one retake is allowed per course, and two repeated courses is the program maximum.
- GPA: graduation needs a cumulative 3.0; dropping under it triggers academic probation, which limits you to 9 credits per semester.
- Full time: for MSN and DNP students, WilmU's threshold is 18 credits across a year.
- Time limit: the DNP curriculum page sets five years; ask how that limit applies across a 54- or 66-credit dual program.
A late preceptor weighs more in a long program. On the Leadership path especially, a missed 15-week semester can push each later DNP course back by a term, because those courses run one at a time.
Studying from outside Delaware
WilmU's State Licensures by Program table has one DNP row, showing Meets Educational Licensing Requirements for 49 of 51 jurisdictions; Idaho and Wyoming sit at Not Determined Yet. The table has no separate row for the DNP + MBA, so ask the Online Learning office how it applies to your state.
Delaware has approved WilmU for NC-SARA, and WilmU treats field experiences in other states as part of online learning, pledging to observe each host state's rules. Our guide to NC-SARA and out-of-state clinicals explains what that means for practice hours completed where you live.
WilmU's NP pages also tie NP clinicals to holding RN licensure in whichever state the clinical experience takes place. Those pages state it for NP students, so ask the DNP Program Chair whether the same rule reaches the setting where your DNP hours will happen.
Why DNP + MBA students choose us
Dual-degree students balance two sets of coursework alongside their jobs, and a preceptor search is the task most easily pushed to next month. Whether WilmU's DNP faculty suggest a name or the search starts with you, we locate a doctorally prepared leader whose work matches your project, confirm their commitment across the semesters you need and hand you the organized file.
The two paths call for different planning. An APRN-path student may find the best preceptor in a different organization from the one where they practice, while a Leadership-path student gains most from one preceptor who can stay across four experiential semesters. We plan for whichever path you are on, and every file we send arrives with each detail WilmU faculty look for already in place.
We stay on call through GRN 9003, and if a preceptor steps away we replace them without sending you back to the start of the search. See how it works, or share your path and intended start in the form below.
Questions WilmU students ask
How many credits is WilmU's DNP + MBA?
WilmU's DNP + MBA in Healthcare Administration runs 54 credits for APRNs, with 500 practice hours, or 66 credits on the Leadership path, with 1,000 practice hours. The Leadership path also includes experiential engagement, GRN 8121 through GRN 8124, before the project begins.
Can I take WilmU's DNP + MBA fully online?
WilmU lists the DNP + MBA as online and hybrid, at New Castle and Brandywine, while the stand-alone DNP is presented as entirely online. Whether a fully online plan is open to your cohort, and which courses meet on campus if not, is worth raising with the DNP Program Chair before you register.
Which courses carry the practice hours in WilmU's DNP + MBA?
WilmU ties the practice hours to the DNP courses: GRN 9001, GRN 9002 and GRN 9003 on both paths, roughly 145, 145 and 150 hours by the catalog's count, and on the Leadership path the four experiential engagement courses add 125 hours apiece. Each runs with a doctorally prepared preceptor.
How is the DNP + MBA different from WilmU's certificate + DNP options?
The certificate + DNP options pair the doctorate with an FNP, PMHNP or leadership certificate, and the FNP and PMHNP pairings add 750 NP clinical hours. The DNP + MBA pairs it with business coursework instead. Both need a doctorally prepared DNP preceptor; see certificate + DNP for the other pairings.
What counts as full time in WilmU's DNP?
Eighteen credits in a year is WilmU's full-time mark for MSN and DNP students, per the graduate catalog. That benchmark helps when you map a 54- or 66-credit dual program across terms. Probation caps a semester at 9 credits, which would lengthen a dual plan.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Wilmington University's own program and curriculum pages, the 2026-27 graduate catalog, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences policies and the State Licensures by Program page. Your NP Program Chair, your course faculty and the College have the final word.
A WilmU practicum coming up? Your preceptor search starts here.
Tell us your WilmU program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. Whether WilmU's faculty help with your placement or you are starting the search yourself, we find preceptors who fit the course, check the health system's own intake steps, and organize the preceptor's license and credentials well before the first day.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice across the lifespan for
GRN 7121toGRN 7124, psychiatric mental health forGRN 7221toGRN 7224, doctorally prepared for the DNP - Clinicians who meet Delaware's rule for APRN program preceptors: an active APRN, PA, pharmacist or physician license in a comparable focus
- Close to home, in a state where you hold an RN license, with each system's onboarding mapped out early
Start your placement plan
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