Graceland University clinical hours, program by program
Graceland University asks every nurse practitioner student who matriculated in August 2023 or later for 750 direct-care practicum hours: 225 in each of the first two practicum courses and 300 in the final one. Earlier students may still be on 600 (FNP) or 540 (AGACNP and PMHNP), and DNP students count practice hours toward a separate 1,000-hour goal. The planner below lays out each track; the sections under it explain the totals and where Graceland's documents disagree.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Graceland program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Pick your Graceland program
Your clinical courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From Graceland's own catalog and program pages.
- Who precepts
- A nurse practitioner with at least an MSN and a year of experience, or a board-certified physician; never a physician assistant
- Where
- Primary care close to home for Pediatrics and Adult; the Family practicum at least half primary care, up to 150 specialty hours
- Start looking
- Appendix A, Appendix B and Castle Branch by June 15, October 15 or February 15 for the term; start up to a year ahead
- Who precepts
- Hospitalists and internists, a pulmonologist, ICU clinicians, then an intensivist or emergency department practitioner
- Where
- Hospitals and specialist offices only; no primary care, urgent care, telehealth or patients under 13
- Start looking
- The same June 15, October 15 and February 15 paperwork deadlines, plus one on-campus focus session in Independence
- Who precepts
- A psychiatrist or a certified PMHNP in all three practicums
- Where
- Psychiatric care across the lifespan: 100 patients under 18, 100 over 65, 100 aged 18 to 64; up to 450 telehealth hours
- Start looking
- Practicums in a fixed order; paperwork by June 15, October 15 or February 15 for the term
- Who precepts
- The same preceptor rules as the matching MSN track, with at least two different preceptors across the three practicums
- Where
- Close to home in an approved state, in the settings each track requires
- Start looking
- Plan the first practicum a year ahead; paperwork deadlines are the same as the MSN
- Who precepts
- NP track preceptors as in the MSN, then a practice mentor for the DNP project
- Where
- In an approved state where you live and plan to do your practicums
- Start looking
- NP practicums first, then the practice improvement project courses
- Who precepts
- A practice mentor at a practice site in your home community
- Where
- The organization where your practice improvement project runs
- Start looking
- 1,000 post-BSN supervised hours in total, counting verified master's hours; NURS8950 if you arrive short
- Who precepts
- Practice experiences in a health care or community organization; Graceland does not publish preceptor rules
- Where
- Possibly at your own employer, if it helps you meet the course objectives
- Start looking
- Ask the contract coordinators early if a site needs a Graceland ID or paperwork
Every Graceland program's hours in one table
For the three MSN nurse practitioner tracks and the matching post-graduate certificates, the number is the same: 750 hours in three practicum courses, one course per trimester, with the largest block saved for last. What changes from track to track is the setting and the patient mix, and each course guide covers those.
The figures come from the 2026 Graduate Student Handbook (9-10-26 updates). Select a course number to open its guide.
| Program | Courses with hours | Current total | Pre-August 2023 total |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) | NURS6740 225, NURS6760 225, NURS6830 300 | 750 | 600 (180, 180, 240) |
| MSN Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP (AGACNP) | NURS5450 225, NURS5460 225, NURS5470 300 | 750 | 540 (180 each) |
| MSN Psychiatric Mental Health NP (PMHNP) | NURS6841 225, NURS6842 225, NURS6843 300; NURS5430 has a clinical component | 750 | 540 (180 each) |
| Post-graduate FNP, AGACNP or PMHNP certificate | The same three practicums as the matching MSN track | 750 | Same as the MSN track |
| BSN-to-DNP (FNP, AGACNP or PMHNP track) | The chosen track's three practicums, then NURS9710, NURS9711 and NURS9712 | 750 practicum plus 500 DNP practice | Program began in 2025-26 |
| Post-master's DNP | NURS8100 12, NURS8120 8, NURS8140 16, NURS8210 100, NURS9710 200, NURS9711 100, NURS9712 200 | At least 636 in the program; 1,000 post-BSN to graduate | Not part of the 2023 change |
| Online RN-BSN | Practice experiences in NURS4350 and NURS4460 | Not published | Not published |
| Postgraduate Nurse Educator certificate | Online courses only | No practicum | No practicum |
Why some students are on 600 or 540 hours
Your total depends on when you matriculated. Students who started on or after August 1, 2023 are on 750. Those who matriculated before July 31, 2023 finish on the older plan: 600 hours for FNP (180 in Pediatrics, 180 in Adult, 240 in Family) and 540 for AGACNP and PMHNP (180 in each practicum).
Returning students move to 750 whatever their original start date. From August 2026, a student who comes back after withdrawing is placed on a newer catalog, and once the Fall 2026 term begins, all returning and new students carry the 750-hour requirement. The handbook ties the figure to the accreditor: “As of August 2023, CCNE required 750 practicum hours.”
Unsure which total is on your record? Ask Program Advising (programadvising@graceland.edu) before you line up preceptors. The full story is on the 750-hour rule page.
Where Graceland's documents disagree on hours
Graceland prints hour figures in several places, and three of them do not match the handbook. None of these changes the plan the handbook sets, but each one trips up students who read the catalog first.
NURS6740Pediatrics. The graduate catalog, the 2025-26 catalog PDF and the FNP program page still say the course needs 180 clinical hours and at least 180 pediatric patients. The handbook gives 225 for anyone on the 750-hour plan. The 180 is a leftover from the 600-hour curriculum.- The PMHNP split. The handbook puts 225, 225 and 300 hours in
NURS6841,NURS6842andNURS6843. The PMHNP program page's certificate section still shows an older split:NURS5430Behavioral Therapy Concepts at 150 hours and each practicum at 200. The 2026-27 credit change (NURS5430down to 2 semester hours,NURS6843up to 5) lines up with the handbook. - Credits on the final practicums.
NURS6830carries 5 semester hours in the catalog but 4 in the handbook's certificate listing, andNURS6843shows as 4, 5 or 4-5 depending on the page.
When two Graceland sources give different hours, email your track coordinator and file the written answer with your practicum records. Approval covers the full course either way: the handbook says Graceland approves “the most allowable hours for the practicum for each preceptor.”
Plan every practicum to the handbook's figure (225, 225, then 300) unless your track coordinator tells you, in writing, that a different number applies to you.
How the hours fit into a 16-week trimester
Graceland schedules one practicum per trimester, and each trimester runs 16 weeks. The handbook sets a weekly load of 16 to 24 clinic hours and wants every hour done by the close of week 14, leaving the final two weeks for evaluations and wrap-up.
The handbook's own arithmetic shows the pace. Two 8-hour days a week for 14 weeks comes to 224 hours, about one 225-hour course, and three 8-hour days for 12.5 weeks reaches the 300 hours of a final practicum. Budget for the heavier schedule in your last course.
Hours count only inside the term's dates and only after the approval email for that site and preceptor arrives, so the clock starts on the first day of term, not the day your preceptor agrees. The practicums in a track must also fall within 12 months of each other. See what counts as a practicum hour and the trimester calendar.
Patient counts ride along with the hours
Each track pairs its hour total with a patient target, and the patient target is the one that catches students out. In the FNP track the count equals the hours: 750 patients across 750 hours. AGACNP students aim for about 100 patients in each practicum. PMHNP students need about 300 encounters split evenly by age: 100 under 18, 100 aged 18 to 64, 100 over 65.
Graceland plans on a student seeing one or two patients per hour, and it cautions that a student may need extra practicum hours to hit the required count. A preceptor with a thin schedule can leave you with the hours but short of patients, so ask about daily volume before anyone files Appendix A. Adults seen during the pediatric practicum add nothing to either total.
DNP practice hours follow a separate count
Doctoral hours are practice hours rather than NP practicum hours, and they sit on their own ledger. At least 636 hours are built into the post-master's DNP's courses, and graduates must document at least 1,000 supervised practice hours after the BSN. Verified master's-level practice hours can be applied to that 1,000.
Students short of hours enroll in NURS8950. The catalog sets the trigger at fewer than 400 post-BSN hours, while the course description says fewer than 364, so confirm the figure with the DNP track coordinator.
The BSN-to-DNP adds 500 DNP practice hours to the 750 practicum hours of its NP track. DNP hours happen where you live, guided by a practice mentor at a practice site; Graceland's pages leave open who arranges the mentor and site, so ask your DNP faculty advisor early.
Why Graceland students choose us to plan their hours
We build your placement around the hours and patients your course carries, not around whichever clinic answers first. For a 225-hour course we look for a preceptor who can give you two full clinic days a week with steady volume; for the 300-hour final we plan three days, or a primary preceptor plus a second one approved from the start.
We plan across all three practicums at once. Every track requires two or more different preceptors and Graceland suggests 120 or more hours with an APRN or NP, so we map who precepts which course before the first Appendix A goes in. Everything reaches the contract coordinators ready for your term's paperwork date, and should a preceptor leave mid-term, the replacement search starts that same day.
Tell us your program, your next practicum and your city through the contact form, or read how it works first.
Questions Graceland students ask
Do Graceland post-graduate certificate students complete fewer clinical hours?
No. The FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP certificates use the same three practicum courses as the matching MSN track, so a certificate student on the current plan completes 750 hours. What can shrink is the coursework: Program Advising reviews your earlier graduate courses and builds an individual plan that may drop some core classes. The practicum hours stay whole.
Can hours from my RN job count as Graceland practicum hours?
Only hours inside an approved practicum count: an approved preceptor and site, an approval email, the term's dates and direct care within the course's population. Graceland rules out your own unit and anyone above or below you in your reporting line, though a separate clinical area of a large employer can be approved.
Does the Graceland PMHNP still require 150 hours in NURS5430?
The current handbook splits the PMHNP's 750 hours across the three practicums, 225, 225 and 300. The 2026-27 catalog describes NURS5430 Behavioral Therapy Concepts as having a clinical component in your own community, while the PMHNP program page still lists 150 hours for it and 200 per practicum. Ask your track coordinator which split applies to your catalog year.
How many clinical hours does Graceland's RN-BSN require?
Graceland does not publish a number. The online RN-BSN's practice experiences sit in NURS4350 Population Health Nursing and NURS4460 Senior Capstone, and the RN-BSN handbook allows some of them at your workplace, provided the organization supports the course objectives. Ask your course faculty for the expected hours, and write to soncontracts@graceland.edu if a site needs a Graceland ID.
What happens if I do not finish my practicum hours by the end of the trimester?
With the instructor's approval you can receive an incomplete, but the unfinished hours must be done in the following term and you cannot start the next practicum until they are. That moves your next practicum back a full trimester. Graceland allows no extension beyond one term for graduate incompletes, and an incomplete left unfinished becomes an F.
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
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