Graceland University's online RN-BSN and its practice experiences
Graceland University's online RN-BSN is 28 credits of nursing in 8-week courses, and some of those courses send you into a health care or community organization for a practice experience, sometimes at your own employer. Graceland does not publish how many hours those experiences take or who arranges them, so your course faculty and the contract coordinators are the people to ask about both.
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.
How the program is put together
Admission asks for a current RN license in the United States and a 2.50 GPA. The finished degree is 120 credits, but only 28 semester hours of nursing are taken at Graceland; the rest comes from your prior study. Graduates of the Iowa Articulation Program may receive 64 semester hours, and out-of-state students may receive 28 semester hours of escrow credit once they complete NURS3460.
Each course runs eight weeks in eight modules, which the RN-BSN handbook says may include professional sharing, assignments, quizzes and direct care practice hours. Graceland publishes 12-month sample plans with Fall, Spring and Summer starts, and courses run in Canvas.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
NURS3110 | Health Assessment for Practicing Nurse | 3 |
NURS3170 | Evidence Based Practice for Practicing Nurse | 3 |
NURS3430 | Pathophysiology and Related Pharmacology | 3 |
NURS3460 | Professionalism in Nursing | 3 |
NURS4160 | Leadership Roles in Nursing | 3 |
NURS4280 | Global Health and Policy Issues | 3 |
NURS4350 | Population Health Nursing | 3 |
NURS4411 | Informatics for the Practicing Nurse | 2 |
NURS4420 | Current Issues in Healthcare | 2 |
NURS4460 | Senior Capstone | 3 |
One small mismatch: the sample plan of study names NURS3160 Evidence Based Practice where the catalog lists NURS3170. Follow your own completion plan from Program Advising.
Where practice experiences show up
Two courses carry the hands-on work. NURS4350 Population Health Nursing and NURS4460 Senior Capstone both describe direct and indirect care, and the capstone asks you to provide "a higher level of indirect and/or direct care" to clients across health care settings while building a project. The lab work in NURS3110 Health Assessment takes place in the virtual learning environment instead.
Graceland's own documents pull in two directions here. The undergraduate catalog files the RN-BSN courses under non-clinical course offerings, while the RN-BSN handbook says some courses require you to go into an organization for a practice experience. Treat your syllabus and the handbook as the working rule, and ask the course faculty what the practice experience involves before the course opens.
What the RN-BSN handbook actually says
The handbook's practice experience section gives four rules. Some courses require a practice experience in a health care or community organization. Some of those may be done at your place of employment, if that organization will help you meet the course objectives. You must meet every requirement the facility sets for paperwork, such as HIPAA forms, and for personal identification. If the facility wants a Graceland ID, you contact soncontracts@graceland.edu.
Practice experience requirements must be completed in the United States and its territories. The handbook's contact list also names soncontracts@graceland.edu for practice experience contracts, which suggests some organizations may need an agreement with Graceland; ask early whether yours does.
For compliance documents, Graceland's undergraduate handbooks point to ClinicalStudent, where most clinical documentation requirements are stored, while noting that some facilities ask for more. The graduate programs use Castle Branch instead, which matters if you continue to the MSN.
Your employer can host a practice experience only if the organization will help you meet the course objectives. Ask the course faculty before assuming your current unit qualifies.
What Graceland leaves unstated, and who can answer
Several things a working nurse would want to know are not in any Graceland source reviewed for this site. Plan to ask rather than guess.
Open questions to settle before each course
- How many practice hours
NURS4350andNURS4460require - Who arranges the organization: you, the faculty or the School of Nursing
- Whether you need a named preceptor or an on-site contact, and what that person must hold
- How hours or activities are documented and verified
- Whether the organization needs a contract with Graceland before you start
The course faculty and syllabus answer the first four; the contract coordinators at soncontracts@graceland.edu answer the last. Program Advising (programadvising@graceland.edu) handles course order if a practice experience needs more lead time than your plan allows.
Timing matters more than it looks. Each course lasts only eight weeks, so an organization that wants a contract, onboarding forms or an ID badge before you arrive can use up much of the course if you start asking in week one. Raise it a term ahead.
Licensure, approval and your state
Graceland's RN to BSN licensure chart, dated June 2020, says the program is post-licensure and "does not lead to any type of licensure" in every state. That is the expected answer for a degree you start as a licensed RN, not a problem with your state. The licensure disclosures page explains how to read the charts.
Washington's Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission lists the RN to BSN among the Graceland programs approved to provide practice experiences in Washington. The Iowa Board of Nursing lists Graceland's RN-BSN among its approved programs, with a note reading "Interm Approval Launch fall 2026" in the board's own wording; the accreditation page covers what each approval means.
Going on to the MSN
If a nurse practitioner role is the goal, Graceland's RN-BSN page describes a combined BSN-MSN option with automatic acceptance into the MSN, two fewer courses, and the choice to stop out with the BSN. The RN-to-MSN page walks through it.
The NP practicums that follow are a different world from RN-BSN practice experiences: 750 hours across three practicums, preceptors approved by Graceland, Appendix A and Appendix B, affiliation agreements and Castle Branch. The clinical placement process shows every step.
Why RN-BSN students choose us
We help RN-BSN students find a health care or community organization near home that fits the objectives of NURS4350 or NURS4460, and we line up what that facility will ask for, from HIPAA paperwork to identification, so you start the course ready.
If you plan to continue to an NP track, your placement advisor starts mapping preceptors for your first practicum while you finish the BSN, since Graceland's graduate handbook warns that the search can need a year or more. Tell us your start term with the form below.
Questions Graceland students ask
How many clinical hours are in Graceland's RN-BSN?
Graceland does not publish a number. The RN-BSN handbook says some courses require a practice experience and that modules may include direct care practice hours, but no official source gives hours per course or for the program. Your course syllabus and faculty are the source for each course's expectations.
Can I do my RN-BSN practice experience where I work?
Sometimes. The handbook allows some practice experiences at your place of employment if that organization will help you meet the course objectives. You still follow the facility's own paperwork and identification rules, and a Graceland ID, if the facility wants one, comes through soncontracts@graceland.edu.
Do I need a preceptor for Graceland's RN-BSN?
Graceland's RN-BSN materials do not say. They describe practice experiences in a health care or community organization but name no preceptor role or qualifications, unlike the graduate NP practicums. Ask your course faculty what supervision the practice experience needs before you approach an organization.
Does Graceland's RN-BSN lead to licensure?
No new license comes from it, and that is normal. The June 2020 RN to BSN chart calls it a post-licensure program that does not lead to any type of licensure in any state, because you enter already licensed as an RN.
When can I start Graceland's online RN-BSN?
Graceland publishes 12-month sample plans of study with Fall, Spring and Summer starts, built from 8-week courses. Your actual sequence comes from Program Advising, which is also the office to ask if a course with a practice experience needs to move to a term that suits your work schedule.
Which compliance system do RN-BSN students use?
Graceland's undergraduate handbooks say most clinical documentation requirements are kept in ClinicalStudent, with some facilities asking for extra documents. Graduate NP students use Castle Branch instead, so students moving on to the MSN will set that account up later.
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.