NURS5470 AGACNP Practicum: Final
NURS5470 is the last and longest AGACNP practicum at Graceland University: 300 hours with an intensivist, an emergency department practitioner or both. Graceland encourages you to spend most or all of it away from the specialty you already work in, and finishing it on time is what keeps your graduation date where you planned it.
Line up your final practicum
Tell us the specialty you work in now, your city and your NURS5470 term. Your placement advisor looks for intensivist or emergency department preceptors outside it.
The final practicum by the numbers
The 300-hour figure is consistent across the 2026 handbook and the AGACNP program page, and the course's fifth credit is where the extra clinical time sits: the program page lists it as 1 didactic and 4 clinical, against 1 and 3 for the two earlier practicums. The order is fixed, and the course opens only once NURS5460 is complete.
| Item | What Graceland publishes |
|---|---|
| Hours | 300 for students who matriculated August 1, 2023 or later; 180 for earlier students |
| Preceptor | An intensivist and/or an emergency department practitioner |
| Patients | About 100 encounters |
| Prerequisite | NURS5460 AGACNP Practicum: Acute Care |
| Weekly load | 16 to 24 hours a week, all hours by the end of week 14 |
| Track limits | No patients under 13, no telehealth, no minute clinics, urgent care or primary care offices |
Stepping outside your own specialty
Graceland's handbook is direct about the intent of this course: "Students are encouraged to spend most or all of the practicum hours in the specialty area outside their current area of practice/expertise." For a nurse who works in critical care, that usually points to the emergency department; for an emergency nurse, to an intensivist's service.
The word is encouraged, so a split between the two settings is open to you, and the lead faculty approves the final mix. What does not bend is the workplace rule: no practicum on the unit where you are employed, and no preceptor who supervises you, reports to you or has a personal relationship with you.
Choosing the unfamiliar setting has a practical side too. Your first 8 hours are mostly observation in every practicum, and after that Graceland expects you to function as a beginning provider, so a new environment asks for a strong first week with your preceptor.
Emergency department hours under AGACNP rules
Graceland names the emergency department for this course while barring urgent care clinics across the AGACNP track, so be precise on Appendix A about which one your site is. A hospital emergency department fits the course; a walk-in urgent care clinic is excluded for AGACNP students.
The age rule matters most here. AGACNP students should not see any patient younger than 13, and a general emergency department treats children. Agree with your preceptor before day one that pediatric patients go to someone else, and leave them out of your Typhon logs, since patients outside the course population do not count.
If your emergency department employs physician assistants, remember that Graceland allows no PA to precept practicum hours. The person on your Appendix B must be an NP or a board-certified or board-eligible physician, and only time with that approved preceptor goes in your log.
Balancing the preceptor count before you commit
By the final course your preceptor history is set, so check it first. The limits are easy to state and easy to trip over: two or more different people precept you over the track, no single course has more than two preceptors, and nobody precepts you in all three terms. So if one person already covered both NURS5450 and NURS5460, the final course needs someone new. The two-preceptor rule has worked examples.
It is also the last course in which to meet Graceland's APRN recommendation, 120 or more hours alongside an APRN or NP by the end of the track, which it links to ANCC and AANP eligibility. If every preceptor so far has been a physician, an acute care NP in the ED or ICU closes that gap here. The preceptor requirements page lists the credentials each type of preceptor needs.
Fitting 300 hours inside 14 weeks
Three hundred hours over 14 weeks works out to about 21 or 22 a week, close to the upper end of Graceland's weekly range of 16 to 24. The handbook reaches 300 in its example with three eight-hour days a week for 12.5 weeks. If your preceptor works 12-hour shifts, 25 shifts do it, which is two a week for about 12 and a half weeks.
There is very little slack in that math. An approval email that arrives after the first day of term, a preceptor who loses shifts, or a quiet first week can push you toward weeks 15 and 16, and hours after the term's end date do not count. If you are slipping, read behind on clinical hours before midterm, not after.
If NURS5470 hours run past the term, your instructor may approve an incomplete, and the remaining hours then have to be done during the following term. Because it is the last practicum, your finish date moves with it.
How we line up the final practicum
Your placement advisor starts the NURS5470 search while NURS5460 is still running, because emergency departments and intensivist services sit inside hospitals that may run their own student request processes. We look for a preceptor in the setting you do not already work in, check them against your earlier preceptors so the two-term and two-per-course limits hold, and favor an NP wherever your APRN hours still need filling.
You receive a finished Appendix A and Appendix B packet ahead of your term's paperwork deadline, and a shift plan that lands 300 hours inside 14 weeks. If a preceptor withdraws during your final term, we start on a replacement right away, so the last course stays on its trimester. Begin on our contact page.
Questions Graceland students ask
Can NURS5470 be split between an ICU and an emergency department?
Yes. The handbook joins intensivist and emergency department practitioner with "and/or", which permits a mix. Two settings usually means two preceptors, which is Graceland's limit for one practicum, and each separate site needs its own Appendix A, site contract and approval email. Tell the lead faculty how you plan to divide the 300 hours.
Is NURS5470 the last course in Graceland's AGACNP program?
It is the last practicum: NURS5460 is its prerequisite, so it always comes third. Whether other courses share that trimester depends on the completion plan Program Advising keeps for you. Graceland also expects practicum courses in a track to be taken within 12 months of each other, so talk to advising before leaving any gap ahead of the final practicum.
How many patients should I see in NURS5470?
About 100 patient encounters across the 300 hours, according to the handbook's AGACNP section. Log each one in Typhon as it happens, leave out anyone younger than 13, and raise it with your instructor by midterm if the count is running behind, while there is still time to change which days or shifts you work.
What if I matriculated before August 2023?
Then your NURS5470 total is 180 hours and your three AGACNP practicums add up to 540. That changes if you withdraw and come back: from August 2026 a returning student joins the current catalog, and once Fall 2026 begins everyone is on 750. The 750-hour rule explains who is on which figure.
Can a hospitalist precept NURS5470?
The handbook names intensivists and emergency department practitioners for this course and pairs hospitalists with NURS5450. If a hospitalist at your site also covers the ICU, ask the lead faculty before filing Appendix A whether that time qualifies; approval follows the course's setting, and the final practicum's setting is critical care or emergency care.
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.