NURS5430 Behavioral Therapy Concepts
NURS5430 Behavioral Therapy Concepts is the PMHNP course in which you demonstrate therapy skills "while in a clinical setting in their own community", as Graceland University's catalog puts it. Its hours are the least settled figure in the track: the PMHNP program page still lists 150 practice hours, while the 2026 Graduate Student Handbook builds the full 750 from the three practicums alone. Settle your number with the PMHNP track coordinator before you line up a setting.
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.
A course with a clinical piece, outside the numbered practicums
NURS5430 belongs to the 28-semester-hour PMHNP specialty, alongside the three numbered practicums, NURS6841, NURS6842 and NURS6843. It is not one of those three, yet it is not purely online either: the course includes a clinical component carried out in a setting near where you live, and you show your behavioral therapy skills there.
Graceland's own documents treat it as close kin to the practicums. The handbook lists it with NURS6841, NURS6842 and NURS6843 under the heading for all PMHNP practicum courses when it names the lead faculty responsible for them, and it adds NURS5430 to the prerequisites for the final practicum. The course appears in the MSN, in the post-graduate PMHNP certificate and in the PMHNP track of the BSN-to-DNP, so every Graceland PMHNP student meets it.
What the handbook does not do is give it hours. Its PMHNP hour table covers only the three numbered practicums: 225, 225 and 300. That silence, set against older pages that do assign hours, is why this course deserves a direct question to the School of Nursing.
Three versions of the PMHNP hour split
Graceland has published the PMHNP hours three different ways since the track began in the 2020-21 catalog. Each version below comes from an official Graceland source.
| Source | NURS5430 | NURS6841 | NURS6842 | NURS6843 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Graduate Student Handbook (9-10-26 updates) | Not listed | 225 | 225 | 300 | 750 |
| PMHNP program page, certificate list; October 2023 handbook for students beginning 8/2024 | 150 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 750 |
| Graduate catalog PDFs, 2020-21 through 2024-25 | Not listed | 180 | 180 | 180 | 540 |
Credits moved as well. The 2026-27 catalog lists NURS5430 at 2 semester hours and NURS6843 at 5, while the 2025-26 catalog, the web page's certificate list, the BSN-to-DNP course list and the handbook's certificate listing still show 3 for NURS5430. The course description on the web page still speaks of completing 150 hours of practicum experiences.
Which figure applies to you
Read together, the changes tell a consistent story. When NURS5430 dropped from 3 to 2 credits and NURS6843 rose from 4 to 5, the split moved from 150 plus 200, 200 and 200 to 225, 225 and 300. The total stayed at 750; the hours shifted out of NURS5430 and into the numbered practicums. The handbook, updated September 10, 2026, is Graceland's governing document for clinical rules, so its version is the current one.
Your own plan may still differ. Students who matriculated before August 1, 2023 sit on the older 540-hour total, and the handbook moves returning students to the current catalog after the Fall 2026 term begins. If your plan was drawn up under the 150-plus-600 arrangement, it may still show clinical hours in this course.
The PMHNP track coordinator and the lead faculty for the PMHNP practicum courses decide how the rule applies to you, and Program Advising at programadvising@graceland.edu can show the catalog year on your completion plan. Ask in writing through your Sting email, and keep the reply with your records. The 750-hour rule page covers the matriculation cutoffs in more depth.
Treat the clinical setting like a practicum site
Graceland's contract rule reaches any clinical activity. The handbook says an affiliation agreement must be signed and on file before clinical activity begins, at every site where hands-on care is provided, regardless of the number of hours spent there. If your NURS5430 work involves patients, assume the site needs the same agreement a practicum site would, and check with the contract coordinators at soncontracts@graceland.edu whether that means an Appendix A request for this course.
The same caution applies to supervision. Graceland's PMHNP rule, a psychiatrist or certified PMHNP, is written for the practicums; the handbook does not say whether it governs this course too. A setting led by a psychiatrist or PMHNP meets both readings, and it can double as a candidate site for a later practicum.
Keep your Castle Branch items current while you are in this course. Graceland requires them to be complete before you register for any practicum, and a lapse in the course that precedes your practicums is easier to fix early than on the eve of NURS6841.
Questions to settle before the term
- How many clinical hours, if any, you owe in
NURS5430under your catalog year. Ask the PMHNP track coordinator. - Whether the setting needs Appendix A, Appendix B and an affiliation agreement. Ask the contract coordinators.
- Who may supervise you there, and whether a therapist without prescriptive authority is acceptable. Ask the course's lead faculty.
- Whether encounters in this course count toward the 300-patient PMHNP age mix. Ask the lead faculty before you log anything in Typhon.
- Which term the course falls in and whether it can share a trimester with a numbered practicum. Ask Program Advising, since Graceland limits students to one practicum per trimester.
Get each answer in an email. Graceland's rules live in several documents that do not always agree, and a written reply from the right office is the record that settles it. The contract coordinators page explains who handles what.
How we help with the NURS5430 setting
Once you know what the course asks of you, our placement desk finds a clinical setting in your community that fits it: a psychiatric or behavioral health practice where therapy is part of the daily work and the clinician is willing to supervise a Graceland student. We confirm the lead clinician's credentials and license, collect the site's contract contact and address, and have the details ready in the shape Appendix A asks for, in case the contract coordinators want the full practicum paperwork.
We plan this course with your practicums in view. A practice that hosts your NURS5430 work and employs a psychiatrist or certified PMHNP may be a strong candidate for NURS6841 as well, which shortens the search that matters most. Share your city and track in the form below, or read how our process works.
Questions Graceland students ask
How many clinical hours is NURS5430 at Graceland?
It depends on the source. The PMHNP program page's certificate list and the older handbook give 150 practice hours. The 2026 Graduate Student Handbook lists no hours for NURS5430; its 750 PMHNP hours come from NURS6841, NURS6842 and NURS6843 alone. Ask the PMHNP track coordinator which figure applies to your catalog year and keep the answer in writing.
Is NURS5430 a practicum course?
Partly. It is not one of the three numbered PMHNP practicums, but it has a clinical component in your own community, the handbook lists it with the PMHNP practicum courses when naming their lead faculty, and it is a handbook prerequisite for NURS6843. Plan for practicum-style approvals until the contract coordinators tell you otherwise.
Why did NURS5430 drop from 3 to 2 credits?
Graceland does not publish a reason. The timing matches the shift in the PMHNP hour split: the 2026-27 catalog cut NURS5430 to 2 semester hours and raised NURS6843 to 5, in step with the handbook's move from 150 plus 200, 200 and 200 to 225, 225 and 300. Your plan's catalog year decides which credit value you see.
Do I need a signed agreement for the NURS5430 site?
Graceland requires an affiliation agreement before any clinical activity at a site where hands-on care is provided, however few hours you spend there. If your NURS5430 work involves patients, raise the site with the contract coordinators at soncontracts@graceland.edu early, so an agreement can be started in time for the term.
When do I take NURS5430 in the PMHNP sequence?
The handbook lists it as a prerequisite for the final practicum, NURS6843, so it comes before your last term. Its exact place is set by your completion plan, which Graceland posts on the myGraceland SON Resources page and which Program Advising can adjust. The clinical hours page shows the full PMHNP sequence.
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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