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RN to MSN Programs in Missouri

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This practical guide to Missouri RN to MSN programs is designed to help busy RNs make an informed decision. Evaluate costs, curricula, and admissions requirements in our school listings. And learn if you're eligible to apply for online RN to MSN programs in Missouri.

To prepare you for post-graduation, we've also created a large section on jobs for Missouri RN to MSN graduates. This is where you'll find links to local job boards, wage data, hospital rankings, state loan repayment programs, and MO nursing associations & organizations (e.g. AMNP).

Online RN to MSN Programs in Missouri

You can get the full picture by reading the profile in our school listings. Here’s a quick summary of important points:

  • Research College of Nursing: RCON states that most of the undergraduate coursework at RCON is completed online—you may wish to ask about any mandatory campus visits and practicum requirements. Once you reach the graduate level, the MSN in Executive Practice Healthcare Leadership is 100% online. However, the MSN FNP is hybrid, with a combination of on-campus and online courses. We also want to note that RCON only accepts MSN students living in ~13 states (listed on the program page) and all NP clinicals must occur in the greater Kansas City area.

Missouri’s Healthcare Landscape

Missouri is in a bit of a mess. According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), it usually has high rates of many lifestyle-related causes of death (e.g. heart disease, cancer, stroke, kidney disease, etc.), excessive drinking, and adult obesity. Low birthweight rates are up. The Missouri Opioid Crisis is a constant battle. And it’s subject to violent crime—St. Louis is often one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.—and deaths from firearms & homicides can be almost twice the national rate.

Part of the problem, according to America’s Health Rankings, is low per capita public health funding. One healthcare leader noted that from 2002-2018, the line item in the state budget that provides support to local public health agencies fell from almost $10 million to just over $3 million.

Worse still, Missouri often does poorly in the Commonwealth Fund’s Scorecard on State Health System Performance, with bottom-ranked indicators for hospital re-admission rates and children without a medical or dental care preventive visit. Access to care is a serious problem. As of 2019, the state had not expanded Medicaid, an issue that has put extra pressure on hospitals.

Things are particularly tough in rural counties:

  • In the 2018 U.S. Rural Health Report Card, Missouri received an overall grade of D and failing grades for all-cause mortality, cancer rates, mental health, physical health, uninsured rates, and access to care. 23% of its rural residents lived in poverty.
  • From 2014-2019, six rural hospitals in Missouri closed, with three closing between 2018 and 2019. Almost all rural counties are classified as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) for primary and mental health care.
  • If you look at the map for County Health Rankings, you’ll see that most of the counties with the lowest rankings in health outcomes & health factors are in the southeast corner.

Missouri Nursing Challenges & Opportunities

In other words, experienced healthcare professionals are desperately needed, especially in the realms of public health, rural care, primary care, and psychiatry. Nurse midwives could also help to remedy the issues surrounding prenatal care.

Yet the Missouri Nurses Association (MONA) is quick to point out that Missouri’s APRN scope of practice laws are some of the most restrictive in the nation. As of 2019, Missouri NPs needed to have a written collaborative practice agreement with a physician and were not recognized as primary care providers.

Nurses who are willing to go to battle on this issue can find up-to-date details on APRN practice regulations on the Missouri Board of Nursing website.

Jobs for Missouri RN to MSN Graduates

Career Outlook for RN to MSN Graduates

You’ll find all kinds of useful data about Missouri’s job market on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)’s pages for Nurse Practitioners and Nursing Instructors & Teachers, Postsecondary. We particularly like the employment & wage maps, since they allow readers to compare regions and states—hover over an area to view the data points.

  • Because of their hospitals, universities, and population sizes, St. Louis and Kansas City are the obvious centers of activity for experienced nurses. Almost 50% of Missouri’s NPs and 36% of its nursing instructors work in St. Louis.
  • And there are even more nurse educators in Kansas City, home to UMKC and the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.

You’ll also find a lot of the Best Hospitals in Missouri and Magnet Facilities in these metropolitan areas, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Mercy Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, and the Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis. Kansas City has St. Luke’s Hospital, North Kansas City Hospital, and the Children’s Mercy Hospital. And the best hospital in Columbia is—by most standards—Boone Hospital Center.

But big cities aren’t your only options. Thanks to Missouri State University & Drury, Springfield employs a fair number of nurse practitioners (e.g. 12%) and nursing instructors (e.g. 17%) and Joplin often has one of the highest concentrations in NPs in the country. You can explore your options with Missouri Health Career’s searchable list of hospitals and medical centers in Missouri.

Willing to fight the good fight? Missouri runs a Nurse Loan Repayment Program that awards funding to licensed Missouri RNs and APRNs who are willing in underserved areas (i.e. HPSAs). As we mentioned in our coverage of Missouri’s healthcare landscape, many of these are rural areas.

Career Resources for Future APRNs

Missouri Nursing Job Boards

Missouri APRN Salary & Wage Data

Missouri Nursing Organizations

State Board of Nursing

Missouri Nursing Associations & Coalitions

Missouri Nursing Specialty Organizations

Missouri RN to MSN School Listings

1 Schools Found

Research College of Nursing

College of Nursing

Kansas City, Missouri

CCNE accredited

RN-MSN Entry Point Option - Executive Practice and Healthcare Leadership

Offered Online

RN-MSN Entry Point Option - Family Nurse Practitioner

Offered Online

Nursing School Overview

RCON is a small private college in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area that offers undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. In this case, small means around 500 students and a student-faculty ratio of 13:1. In Missouri, it's known for having a particularly strong relationship with HCA Healthcare. The college is part of the HCA Research Medical Center. Students complete their clinical experiences and find jobs in HCA Mid American Health facilities. And HCA employees receive a significant tuition discount on MSN tuition rates (50% off for full-time employees and 25% off for part-time employees). FNP students are also encouraged to make an impact in the local community through community-based leadership activities. Above all, we give RCON props for publishing student achievement info on its website, including MSN certification exam pass rates, completion rates, and retention statistics. If you'd like more insight into the program, degree handbooks are also publicly available.

RN to MSN Admissions & Curriculum

This accelerated RN-MSN is aimed at RNs with an associate degree or diploma in nursing from an accredited school or program. No BSN is earned in this pathway - just the MSN. Candidates should have a current RN license, a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher on undergraduate work, and no more than 9 credit hours of prerequisites (e.g. general electives) left to complete. The application should also include 3 references, a resume, and a personal essay. After most prerequisites have been completed, students in the RN-MSN pathway take 6 undergraduate bridge courses (14 credits). Most of the coursework is completed online, but there may be practicum requirements for courses such as Community Health Nursing. The length & format of the MSN will depend on the specialty. The 100% online MSN in EPHL is 36 credits, including 360 hours of clinical experience. It can be finished in 28 months (5 semesters + 2 summers), with the final semester devoted to a seminar & practicum. But the hybrid FNP is a mixture of online coursework and on-campus classes and it's 46 credits, including 660 clinical practicum hours. On a full-time schedule, students can finish the MSN FNP in 2.5 years (5 semesters + 3 summers). On a part-time schedule, it might take 3.5 years (7 semesters + 3 summers).