Top Clinical Nurse Specialist Programs

The Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist program focuses on perspectives of both health restoration and health promotion, while developing skills in case management. This concentration area focuses on physiological and psychosocial theories, concepts, and research underlying self-care and growth needs of individuals. 

Adult/Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist is offered at Saint John Fisher College as well as post-master’s certificate in the same discipline. This program is offered exclusively on campus. 

The University of Detroit Mercy offers an Adult-Gerontology CNS. The program is 100% online and offers advanced principles in adult learning for teaching roles. The 2016-20 Detroit Mercy graduating classes achieved a 100% pass rate across the national certification exams for the Adult-Gerontology CNS.

Adult-Gerontology CNS is the only program offered by Alverno College. While a small program, it prepares students to provide advanced care across the age continuum from illness to wellness and from acute care to primary care.

The Adult-Gerontology CNS program follows a traditional semester format. Core courses are taught online, asynchronously with the exception of five on-campus lab days for advanced physical assessment. On-campus days are required further into the program. This is important to keep in mind when applying for this program. 

The University of Pennsylvania offers three different Clinical Nurse Specialist tracks including Pediatrics, Neonatal, and Adult-Gerontology. Students can earn an MSN CSN in a year for full-time study while experiencing clinical placements at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Penn Health System, both ranked top in the nation. 

This program allows students to earn their DNP as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, which is considered a terminal degree for the field. There is no part-time option and all students are required to maintain full-time status for the four-year duration of the program. The online DNP CNS track includes three mandatory and two optional course immersions in person. Additionally, Hopkins offers one of the only critical care CNS programs in the country. There are currently three track options: Adult-Gerontological Health, Adult-Gerontological Critical Care, and Pediatric Critical Care.

The University of Washington offers two DNP CNS programs: Pediatrics and Women’s Health. This is one of only a couple of Women’s Health CNS programs in the country, Offered exclusively as full-time programs, students graduate in 9 semesters and are board eligible. 

Students can earn a DNP CNS terminal degree in three tracks at the University of Wisconsin including pediatrics, women’s health, and adult-gerontology. 

Rush University offers three DNP programs for interested students: pediatrics, adult-gerontology, and neonatal. The cohorts are kept intentionally small to optimize clinical placement and classroom experience.