NURS5460 AGACNP Practicum: Acute Care
NURS5460 is the intensive care practicum of Graceland University's AGACNP track: 225 hours, most or all of them in an ICU. Graceland lets you move up to 75 of those hours into a single specialty such as cardiology or neurology, and the course cannot begin until NURS5450 is complete.
Find your NURS5460 ICU preceptor
Share your city, your own unit and the trimester you start NURS5460. Your placement advisor looks for ICU preceptors outside your unit who fit Graceland's rules.
What NURS5460 requires
The handbook's AGACNP section and the program page describe this course the same way: 225 practice hours and 4 semester hours, 1 didactic and 3 clinical. Students who matriculated before August 1, 2023 complete 180 hours here instead. It is the middle link of a fixed chain, with NURS5450 before it and NURS5470 after it, so a delay here moves your final practicum too.
| Item | What Graceland publishes |
|---|---|
| Setting | An ICU, or an ICU plus up to 75 hours in one specialty |
| Specialties named | Neurology, cardiology, hematology/oncology, orthopedics, endocrinology, rheumatology; others by request to the lead faculty |
| Hours | 225 (matriculated August 1, 2023 or later) or 180 (earlier) |
| Patients | About 100 |
| Prerequisite | NURS5450 AGACNP Practicum: Chronic Care |
| Leads to | NURS5470 AGACNP Practicum: Final |
| Track-wide limits | No patients under 13, no telehealth, hospital or specialist settings only |
Deciding whether to use the specialty hours
The specialty allowance is optional and capped at 75 hours in one specialty; everything else happens in the ICU. A specialty that feeds the unit you are in, such as cardiology beside a cardiac ICU or neurology beside a neuro ICU, gives the hours a common thread. One unrelated to your unit spreads your patient mix thinner.
A specialist brings you to two preceptors in this course, which is Graceland's limit for a single practicum. If that specialist sees patients at an office outside the hospital, the office is a separate site with its own Appendix A, its own site contract and its own approval email, plus the specialist's Appendix B. For a specialty missing from the handbook's list, ask the lead faculty before you file anything: Graceland considers others only on request.
Skipping the specialty is simpler. One ICU preceptor at one hospital means one set of paperwork and a single schedule to plan around.
An ICU preceptor Graceland will approve
The handbook names the setting, not a preceptor type, for this course. An intensivist or an acute care NP working in the ICU both fit, provided they pass Graceland's general test. For an NP that means a master's degree plus a year in practice (a second handbook page asks for 1 to 3 years, so check which your coordinator applies); for a physician, board certification or board eligibility. No physician assistant may precept Graceland practicum hours.
This course is a natural home for the APRN time Graceland recommends. Graceland's advice is 120 or more APRN or NP hours over the whole track, tied to ANCC and AANP eligibility, and one ICU nurse practitioner can supply all of it within NURS5460.
If you work as an ICU nurse, your own unit is off limits, as is precepting by your supervisor or anyone you supervise. A large system's other ICUs can qualify as a separate clinical area; practicums at your workplace explains what the coordinators check.
Hospitals, their student portals and your lead time
ICUs sit inside hospitals, and some hospitals route student requests through their own offices and software. Whenever a site demands that Graceland work through a particular system, website or request process, the handbook wants the contract coordinator told, because that site's calendar then decides when the agreement can be signed. See sites with their own request systems.
No clinical activity can happen until a signed affiliation agreement is on file, and a contract with one hospital does not automatically cover its sister facilities. Graceland's handbook puts the lead time for some students at a year or longer before the first practicum. For this course, the practical reading is to have your ICU search running while you are still in NURS5450.
Your term's paperwork deadline (June 15 ahead of Fall, October 15 ahead of Spring, February 15 ahead of Summer) and the rest of the timing are on practicum deadlines.
Shifts, logs and the week-14 target
The load is the same as NURS5450: 225 hours inside a 16-week trimester, with faculty asking for all of them by the end of week 14. If your preceptor works 12-hour shifts, about 19 shifts cover the course, and two a week finishes in under ten weeks, which leaves room for a missed week or a holiday.
Count only what Graceland counts. Direct patient contact is in; time spent observing during hospital rounds and patients outside the course population are out, and for AGACNP that population starts at age 13. Ask your instructor how to log rounds where you are presenting your own patients. Your preceptor's midterm and final evaluations are completed in Typhon, and late evaluations can stop your progress in the course.
If your hospital runs a remote or virtual ICU, time spent there is telehealth, and the AGACNP program allows none. Only in-person ICU work with your approved preceptor adds to the 225.
How we set up NURS5460 for you
Your placement advisor searches ICUs within reach of home, outside the unit where you work, and asks each hospital the question that decides your timeline: does it run its own student request process, and how long does it take? Your advisor collects the hospital's address and contracting contact for Appendix A, along with the preceptor's licensure, board status and experience for Appendix B, so the contract coordinators can move early.
If you want specialty time, we find a specialist whose service matches your ICU and keep the plan within the 75-hour cap. We also track your whole-program count: two preceptors at most in this course, no preceptor across more than two of your three terms, and an NP somewhere along the way. Share your term and city on our contact page and we will start.
Questions Graceland students ask
Can I do NURS5460 in the ICU where I work?
Not on your own unit. Graceland rules out the unit that employs you, and it rules out any preceptor who manages you, reports to you or is personally close to you. If your employer is a large system, a different ICU can count as a separate clinical area, and the contract coordinators review that arrangement before approving the site.
Can my NURS5460 intensivist precept NURS5470 too?
Yes, if your count allows it. NURS5470 calls for an intensivist, an emergency department practitioner or both, and a preceptor may serve in two of your three practicums. Your NURS5450 preceptor then has to be someone else, because the track needs two or more different people precepting you, and a new Appendix B is filed for the new term.
Does a step-down or progressive care unit count as an ICU?
The handbook says ICU and does not define it further. If the unit you have in mind is step-down, progressive care or a mixed unit, describe it accurately on Appendix A and ask the AGACNP lead faculty before the deadline whether it meets the setting. The only non-ICU time the handbook describes for this course is the specialty allowance of up to 75 hours.
How many patients do I need in NURS5460?
About 100 across the practicum, by the handbook's AGACNP figures. That is well below the one-to-two-patients-an-hour pace Graceland describes in general, so each ICU encounter carries more of the course. Log every encounter in Typhon as you go, and tell your instructor early if your unit's census makes 100 look hard to reach.
Which specialties can I use for the 75 hours?
The handbook lists neurology, cardiology, hematology/oncology, orthopedics, endocrinology and rheumatology, and it allows others on request to the lead faculty. Choose one specialty, not several, keep it at 75 hours or fewer, and make sure the specialist's practice is a hospital or specialist setting rather than a primary care office or urgent care clinic.
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.