NURS6830 FNP Practicum: Family
NURS6830 is the final and largest practicum in Graceland University's FNP track: 300 hours with patients from newborns to older adults. It always follows Pediatrics and Adult, at least half its hours must be in primary care, and it is the only FNP course that allows specialty time, up to 150 hours.
Plan your Family practicum
Tell us your term and city. Your placement advisor looks for a family practice preceptor, and a specialty preceptor if you want one.
The Family practicum in brief
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Credits | 5 semester hours in the catalog and on the FNP page; the handbook's certificate listing shows 4 |
| Hours | 300 on the 750-hour plan; 240 for students who matriculated before July 31, 2023 |
| Patients | Newborn to geriatric, about 10 to 20 percent children; count equal to the hours |
| Setting | At least half the hours in a primary care office that sees children and adults |
| Specialty hours | Up to 150 at an approved clinic (half of 300) |
| Prerequisites | NURS6740 and NURS6760 |
| Position | Always the last FNP practicum |
The course is the capstone of the FNP specialty. For MSN and certificate students it is the last clinical course before graduation, so its term effectively sets your finish date.
Why it always comes last
Graceland lets you swap the order of Pediatrics and Adult but fixes the Family practicum at the end, and the catalog lists both earlier practicums as prerequisites. The course asks you to manage patients across the whole lifespan, building on the two narrower courses before it.
Being last means any earlier delay lands here. An incomplete in either earlier practicum pushes the Family course back a full trimester, and Graceland wants every practicum in a track completed inside a 12-month span. If your Pediatrics or Adult term slips, recheck the Family term with Program Advising right away.
Start this search while you are still in your first practicum. Graceland suggests starting as much as a year ahead of a practicum, and a preceptor with room for 300 hours takes longer to secure than one for 225.
The primary care half: newborn to geriatric
At least half your Family hours, 150 of 300, must be in primary care. The handbook describes the setting as “a primary care office that provides pediatric and adult patient care with an age range of newborn to geriatric,” and it expects roughly 10 to 20 percent of Family practicum patients to be children.
That points to a family practice. A pediatric office has no adults and an internal medicine office sees adults only, so neither covers the lifespan on its own. A family practice preceptor from your Adult practicum can precept this course as well, since a single preceptor is allowed for two of your three terms, as long as someone else handles Pediatrics.
Check the age mix before you commit. A family practice that sees very few children can leave you short of the pediatric share, and patients outside the course's population add nothing to your count.
The specialty half: up to 150 hours
The Family practicum is the one FNP course where specialty time is allowed, capped at half the required hours and at 150 hours at an approved clinic. Settings Graceland does not treat as primary care can fill that share: urgent care, emergency departments, minute clinics, hospitalists, and diagnostic specialty clinics such as women's health, cardiac, and diabetic or wound centers.
Every specialty site is a full site in Graceland's eyes. It needs its own Appendix A for each address, an affiliation agreement, an approved Appendix B for its preceptor and an approval email before your first hour there. The specialty preceptor is also your second preceptor for the course, and Graceland allows no more than two per practicum.
The detailed rules, including which preceptors qualify in a specialty clinic, are on the FNP specialty hours page.
Pacing 300 hours
Three hundred hours by week 14 works out to about 21.5 hours a week, comfortably within Graceland's 16-to-24-hour weekly expectation. The handbook models a 300-hour course as three full 8-hour days each week across 12.5 weeks.
A split practicum changes the arithmetic. With a primary care preceptor for 150 hours or more and a specialty preceptor for the rest, you can run both in parallel or in blocks, but both need approval before the term, because Graceland stops accepting second-preceptor requests two weeks before the term opens.
If your primary preceptor is away, a single substitute at your primary site can fill in for as many as 40 hours during the term without an Appendix B. Beyond 40, the extra time does not count unless the substitute is approved as a second preceptor.
Have both Family practicum preceptors approved before day one. A specialty clinic added mid-term without its own paperwork contributes no hours.
How we set up your Family practicum
Graceland students choose us for the final practicum because we plan it as two linked placements from the start: a family practice preceptor with enough children and adults for the primary care share, and, if you want specialty time, a specialty preceptor who meets Graceland's rules for the rest.
We confirm clinic days for a 300-hour term, collect the details for each site's Appendix A and each preceptor's Appendix B, and get everything to the contract coordinators by your term's paperwork date. If a preceptor drops late in your last term, we start the replacement search at once, because this course decides your graduation date. Tell us your term or read the FNP program overview.
Questions Graceland students ask
Can I do all 300 NURS6830 hours in primary care?
Yes. The rule sets a floor for primary care and a ceiling for specialty time: at least half in primary care, no more than 150 specialty hours. A single family practice preceptor who sees children and adults can carry all 300 hours, as long as you reach the patient count and the pediatric share.
Can my Adult practicum preceptor also precept NURS6830?
Yes. Graceland allows one preceptor for two of the three practicum terms. The preceptor completes a new Appendix B for the Family term, and you still need a different preceptor for Pediatrics to satisfy the rule of at least two preceptors across the track.
Can NURS6830 hours be done in urgent care?
Up to half of them. Urgent care is not primary care under Graceland's rules, so it can supply specialty hours in the Family practicum, capped at 150 on the 300-hour plan. The urgent care site needs its own Appendix A, affiliation agreement and approval email, and its preceptor needs an approved Appendix B.
Is NURS6830 4 or 5 credits?
The catalog and the FNP program page list 5 semester hours; the handbook's post-graduate certificate listing still shows the older value of 4. The practicum requirement is the same either way, 300 hours on the 750-hour plan. Program Advising can confirm the credit value on your completion plan.
What happens if I don't finish my Family practicum hours by the end of term?
With the instructor's approval you may take an incomplete and finish in the next term, with no extension beyond that. Because this is usually your last course, the delay moves graduation back by a term. Aim to finish by week 14, as Graceland asks, so a missed week or two does not turn into an incomplete.
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.