NURS6841 PMHNP Practicum: I
NURS6841 PMHNP Practicum: I opens Graceland University's psychiatric practicum sequence: 225 hours in the 2026 Graduate Student Handbook for students matriculating August 1, 2023 or later, every one of them under a psychiatrist or a certified PMHNP. It always runs first, so the preceptor you secure here sets up both of the practicums that follow.
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.
What Practicum: I asks of you
The handbook sets NURS6841 at 225 hours of direct patient care, the opening share of the 750-hour PMHNP total (225, then 225, then 300 in the final practicum). It runs inside one 16-week trimester, and faculty ask that every hour be logged by the end of week 14, which leaves two weeks of cushion for a missed clinic day.
Graceland looks for roughly 100 patient encounters in each PMHNP practicum. The handbook's general expectation is one to two patients an hour, so a psychiatric practice with a full outpatient schedule gets you there comfortably, while a slow panel can leave you short. Time at drug representative lunches, watching hospital rounds, or with patients outside the course's population is not clinical time.
If you matriculated before August 1, 2023, your total is 540 and Practicum: I is 180 hours. Once the Fall 2026 term starts, the handbook places all returning and new students on 750, so look at the total on your own completion plan; the 750-hour rule explains who sits on which figure.
Only a psychiatrist or a certified PMHNP qualifies
The PMHNP track has the tightest preceptor rule in Graceland's graduate programs. All three PMHNP practicums are precepted by a psychiatrist or by a nurse practitioner certified as a PMHNP. The handbook spells out who falls outside: an FNP, or any other NP who happens to see many mental health patients, does not qualify without PMHNP certification. Physician assistants are excluded from every Graceland practicum hour.
The general standards sit on top of that rule. An NP preceptor needs at least an MSN and at least a year of experience; a different handbook page says one to three years in the APRN role, so the stricter reading is the safer one to plan around. Physicians must be board-certified or board-eligible, and every preceptor needs an unencumbered license in the state where the site operates.
Relationships matter as much as credentials. A relative, partner, supervisor or subordinate cannot precept you, and neither can anyone on the unit where you work. The full list is on who cannot precept you.
The locked sequence starts here
Graceland's PMHNP section is blunt: "The order of the practicums cannot be changed." NURS6841 comes first, NURS6842 second and NURS6843 last. FNP students may swap their first two practicums; PMHNP students have no such option, so a Practicum: I site that stalls cannot be traded for a later course.
The catalog lists NURS5664 Diagnosis and Management I (Adult & Geriatrics) as the prerequisite, and the handbook adds NURS5196, the competencies lab linked to the PMHNP focus session. Practicum: II, by contrast, carries the pediatrics course NURS5665 as its prerequisite.
Because nothing can leapfrog Practicum: I, a delay here ripples through the whole plan. An incomplete holds up the next practicum by a term, the three practicum courses have to be completed inside a 12-month window, and each term spent waiting for a preceptor moves graduation back about four months. See incompletes and delays for the mechanics.
Pick your first preceptor with all three terms in view
Graceland lets one preceptor cover at most two of the three practicum terms, insists on two or more different preceptors over the track, and allows no more than two preceptors in a single practicum, one of them designated primary. A psychiatrist who takes you for Practicum: I could stay on for Practicum: II, but the final practicum would then need someone new. The two-preceptor rule page lays out the combinations.
Certification adds a second consideration. ANCC and AANP eligibility depends on at least one documented stretch of time with an APRN or NP preceptor, and Graceland suggests logging 120 hours or more that way over your three practicums. In a PMHNP track, the only NPs allowed are certified PMHNPs, so if a psychiatrist anchors Practicum: I, plan a PMHNP into a later term or pair one with the psychiatrist now.
Keep the age targets in mind as well. By the end of the track Graceland wants 300 encounters split evenly: 100 children and teens under 18, 100 adults past 65 and 100 between 18 and 64. A first site that also sees adolescents or older adults gives you a head start that Practicum: II can build on.
Paperwork and clearance before your first hour
- Castle Branch current.Keep the GF47 packages up to date. The 11-panel drug screen through Castle Branch is due 4 to 6 weeks before the first practicum course on your plan, and your background check must already be complete by the end of your first term.
- Appendix A from you.Submit one online request through myGraceland for each site and address where you will see patients this term.
- Appendix B from the preceptor.Your psychiatrist or PMHNP completes the Preceptor Application & Agreement online, which also creates the Typhon account they use for your evaluations.
- Affiliation agreement signed.A contract coordinator sends it to the site from your Appendix A details, and no clinical activity starts until it is on file.
- Deadline met.The whole packet is due on the 15th of June for a Fall start, of October for Spring, or of February for Summer; the deadlines page covers the rest.
- Approval email in hand.You get one email per approved preceptor and site, which you show your instructor when class opens. Without it, hours at that site do not count.
Graceland mails your photo badge before this first practicum, and you wear a white lab coat bearing the embroidered School of Nursing logo. Plan on mostly watching during your first 8 hours; after that first day, Graceland expects you to step into the role of a beginning provider, with your preceptor supervising.
Why PMHNP students hand Practicum: I to us
Psychiatric preceptors are hard to come by even in large systems; The University of Kansas Health System, for one, lists psychiatry and mental health among the areas where its preceptors are limited. Our placement desk searches psychiatrists and certified PMHNPs within reach of your home in an approved state, verifies the certification before any name goes to Graceland, and asks each practice about its age range so your first site moves the 100/100/100 count forward.
We assemble the details both appendices call for, from the site's contract contact to the preceptor's license, credentials and experience, so the contract coordinators can start the affiliation agreement well before your deadline. We sketch your second preceptor at the same time, and if a preceptor steps back we begin the replacement search right away.
Share your city and the term your Practicum: I opens in the form below, and a placement advisor builds your search from there. Our step-by-step process shows what happens next.
Questions Graceland students ask
Can a family nurse practitioner precept NURS6841 at Graceland?
Only if that FNP also holds PMHNP certification. Graceland accepts psychiatrists and certified PMHNPs for all three PMHNP practicums and names FNPs who see mental health patients as not qualifying on that basis alone. If your contact is dual-certified, make sure the Appendix B lists the PMHNP credential so the contract coordinator can confirm it without a round of follow-up emails.
Can I take NURS6842 first if my Practicum: I site falls through?
No. The handbook fixes the PMHNP order, and NURS6842 builds on NURS6841. If a site falls through, write to soncontracts@graceland.edu no later than two weeks ahead of the paperwork deadline, and ask Program Advising at programadvising@graceland.edu how your completion plan shifts if Practicum: I moves to a later term.
How many hours a week does NURS6841 take?
Graceland looks for a minimum of 16 to 24 clinic hours weekly, wrapped up by week 14. The handbook's own example, two 8-hour days for 14 weeks, comes to 224 hours, one short of 225, so a two-day schedule needs a little extra time somewhere in the term. Three days a week gives more room for cancellations.
Do telehealth visits count toward Practicum: I?
They can. PMHNP is the only Graceland track that allows telehealth, up to two terms or 450 hours in total, and each video visit requires that both you and the preceptor hold a license where that patient is at the time. A compact license covers patients in compact states. The telehealth page covers the details.
Is NURS6841 the same course for certificate and BSN-to-DNP students?
Yes. Certificate students and BSN-to-DNP students on the PMHNP track take these same three practicums, with the same 750-hour total and the same preceptor rule as the MSN. Credit totals for the programs differ by source, so check your individual plan with Program Advising before you schedule the term.
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
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