Graceland University practicum placement: common questions
Quick answers to the broad questions Graceland University nursing students ask us most, each with a link to the page on this site that goes deeper. If yours is missing, put it in the form below; a placement advisor answers with your own plan in mind.
Ask your own question
Include your Graceland program, next practicum course and term so the answer fits your plan.
Who do you help?
Graceland's online graduate nursing students who need preceptors, on the FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP tracks, whether they are earning the MSN, a post-graduate certificate or a BSN-to-DNP. Most are working RNs studying from home, many in Missouri, Iowa and Kansas and many more farther afield.
Post-master's DNP students log practice hours close to home under what Graceland calls a practice mentor, at a practice site; no published Graceland page says who arranges either, so start with your track coordinator and then tell us what they need. RN-BSN practice experiences can sometimes take place at your employer, and Graceland does not publish an hour count for them; your course and Program Advising are the guides there. Clinicians who would like to teach a Graceland student can start at precept a Graceland student.
Is the search really mine, and where do you fit?
Mostly yours, with help. The 2026 handbook puts the arranging on the student, with Graceland assisting, and the coordinators both help and approve. Graceland also offers NPHub, an optional paid partner that finds and contracts preceptors for students who opt in. The detail, including how the rule has shifted since 2017, is on finding your own preceptor.
We take on the search and the preparation, and Graceland keeps the decisions. Your placement advisor finds preceptors who fit your course, and you receive everything the two appendices request, so you and your preceptor can file cleanly. A contract coordinator and/or your course's lead faculty then approves the preceptor and site, and the contract coordinator checks for or sends the affiliation agreement and emails your approval. The full chain is on the placement process page.
Can I do my practicum in my own state?
Usually in your home community, provided Graceland is approved to offer practicums in your state. Graceland's School of Nursing takes students from the states where it holds that approval and asks applicants to check with it, but it publishes no list. The newest licensure chart Graceland has posted dates from June 2020; it marks the MSN as meeting requirements in 32 states, not leading to licensure in five and undetermined in 13.
You need an unencumbered RN license both where you live and wherever your practicum hours take place, proven by verification straight from the board; a photocopy of the license no longer counts. Check your state's row on Graceland's licensure disclosures and have the School of Nursing confirm your state before you settle on a site.
How many hours will I need, and at what pace?
Students who matriculated from August 1, 2023 onward, and every returning student from the start of Fall 2026, complete 750 practicum hours in the NP tracks: 225, 225 and 300. Earlier matriculants follow the older totals. Graceland expects 16-24 hours a week in clinic, allows one practicum per trimester and wants hours wrapped up by week 14.
Only direct patient contact counts toward those hours, and the first eight hours of each practicum are mostly observation. Patient counts matter as well: FNP students see as many patients as hours, AGACNP students about 100 per practicum, and PMHNP students 300 in all, split evenly across three age groups. The clinical hours page breaks the totals down by track, including the places where Graceland's own sources disagree.
Can my employer, a coworker or a PA precept me?
Your employer, sometimes; your own unit, no. A large health system can host your practicum in a clinical area separate from the unit where you work, but your manager, your direct reports and your relatives or partners are off the list. Physician assistants are not allowed as preceptors for any practicum hours at Graceland.
Those lines remove more options than students expect, so clear a pairing with the contract coordinators before you raise it with the clinician. Practicum at your workplace explains how students make an employer placement work.
What if something goes wrong partway through?
If a preceptor leaves, tell your course faculty and the contract coordinators right away, since the coordinators monitor every preceptor change, and start a replacement search; a single stand-in may fill in for as many as 40 hours at your main site during the term before any new form is needed. If hours fall behind, an incomplete may be possible with your instructor's approval, but it delays your next practicum by a term.
Preceptor dropped out walks through the first steps, and the guide to falling behind on hours covers the rest. Your placement advisor can open a replacement search once you get in touch.
Questions Graceland students ask
Is your service the same thing as NPHub?
No. NPHub is the optional paid partner Graceland describes in its handbook: students opt in through Graceland's option form, and NPHub finds and contracts the preceptor. Ours is a placement service that builds the search around your city and the clinicians you prefer, while you file Appendix A yourself. The three-route comparison sets them side by side.
What should my first message to you include?
Name your program, the practicum course coming up and its term, your home city or ZIP code, the weekdays you could be in clinic and anyone you would like as a preceptor. Tell us where your Castle Branch packages stand as well. Your placement advisor replies with a plan for the search and the deadline it is aimed at.
Do I need to be in Castle Branch before the search starts?
Graceland's flowchart puts starting your Castle Branch packages ahead of finding a preceptor, and your packets are due with Appendix A and Appendix B, so begin them now if you have not. The search can run alongside, but your approval email will wait on a current, compliant Castle Branch record.
Can I train with a preceptor across a state line?
Yes, if Graceland is approved for practicums in that state and you hold an unencumbered RN license there. Your preceptor, in turn, needs a license in the site's state. PMHNP telehealth hours also need a license wherever each patient is during the visit; a compact license may meet that requirement.
How will I know my preceptor has been approved?
By email. Each preceptor and site gets its own approval email from the contract coordinator, who also enters them in Typhon by the first week of term or sooner. Keep every one: instructors ask to see them on the first day of class, and hours at a site without an approval email are not counted.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Graceland's own catalog, program pages and Graduate Student Handbook. Your handbook, your track coordinator and the contract coordinators have the final word.
Graceland's practicums are arranged by you, with Graceland's help. We do the searching.
Tell us your Graceland track, your city and your next practicum. We find preceptors who fit the course, line up what Appendix A and Appendix B ask for, and aim everything at Graceland's paperwork deadline for your term.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP, hospital and ICU clinicians for AGACNP, psychiatrists and PMHNPs for PMHNP
- Site address, contract contact and preceptor details ready before the June 15, October 15 or February 15 deadline
- Close to home in your approved state, with a second preceptor planned for Graceland's two-preceptor rule
Start your placement plan
Track, city and practicum start is all we need to begin.