What counts as a practicum hour at Graceland University
At Graceland University a practicum hour counts when you spend it in direct patient care, under a preceptor and at a site Graceland has approved, between the term's first and last days, once your approval email is in hand. Lunches with drug representatives, time watching hospital rounds and visits with patients outside your course's population do not count. This page covers the gray areas: the observation start, patient targets, weekly pace and how your hours are verified.
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Tell us your Graceland program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
The counting rule
Graceland defines practicum time narrowly and uses the same words in the FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP sections of its handbook: “Clinical experiences include only direct patient contacts that provide learning opportunities.” No section allows indirect hours toward an NP practicum.
Direct contact means you are with the patient in the provider role: taking the history, examining, building a differential and a plan, and presenting it to your preceptor. From the second day of each practicum, the handbook expects you to work as a beginning provider. Your preceptor signs every piece of documentation you produce, office charting and prescriptions included.
The patient must also belong to your course. In the pediatric practicum that means patients from birth to 18; AGACNP students should see no one younger than 13; PMHNP students build toward a set mix of children, adults and older adults. Time with patients outside the course's population is time that does not count.
Hours that will not count
Most disallowed hours fall into two groups: activity that is not direct care, and care delivered before the paperwork allows it. Graceland's handbook and its approval rules exclude all of the following.
- Lunches hosted by drug representatives, and time spent observing on hospital rounds; the handbook names both.
- Patients outside the assigned population, such as adults seen during the pediatric practicum.
- Anything before the term opens or after it closes, since Graceland counts only hours logged inside the term's dates.
- Time at a site, or with a preceptor, before the approval email for that pairing arrives.
- Care at a clinic or address without its own Appendix A and affiliation agreement, even inside a network where a sister clinic is approved.
- Substitute-preceptor hours beyond 40 in a term without an approved Appendix B for that person.
- Hours with a physician assistant, who cannot precept any Graceland practicum hours.
- Telehealth in the FNP track without the instructor's approval, any telehealth in the AGACNP track, and PMHNP telehealth past two terms or 450 hours.
- Hours outside the United States and its territories.
Nearly every item on that list is settled before day one. The approval email page walks through the seven conditions Graceland checks before any hour counts.
Your first eight hours
Each practicum opens with a short observation stretch. The handbook says the first 8 hours of each practicum will be mostly observation; after that stretch, starting on day two, it expects you to function as a beginning provider.
Use that opening day well. Learn the clinic's flow, its electronic record and how your preceptor wants cases presented, so the second day starts with patients rather than orientation. Ask your course faculty how they want the observation hours shown on your time log.
Observation after that opening stretch is where hours get disallowed. Shadowing on hospital rounds is named as non-counting time, and a day spent watching without seeing patients yourself does nothing for the patient count your course also requires.
Patient targets travel with the hours
Reaching the hour total is only half the job. Graceland attaches a patient target to each track, and a student can run out of term before reaching it.
| Track | Hours on the current plan | Patient target |
|---|---|---|
| FNP | 750 | Equal to the hours: 750 patients |
| AGACNP | 750 | About 100 per practicum |
| PMHNP | 750 | About 300 encounters: 100 under 18, 100 over 65, 100 aged 18 to 64 |
Graceland's working assumption across tracks is one to two patients per clinic hour, and the handbook warns that some students must complete extra practicum hours to reach the count. The fix is a preceptor whose daily volume suits the course, so ask how many patients they see on a typical clinic day before you commit.
Pace: 16 to 24 hours a week, done by week 14
Plan on 16 to 24 clinic hours weekly, one practicum per trimester, with everything wrapped up by the close of week 14, two weeks before the trimester ends. Two eight-hour days weekly produce 224 hours across 14 weeks; three such days reach 300 in 12.5 weeks.
Falling behind has a cost. With the instructor's approval an unfinished practicum can become an incomplete, but you finish it the next term and your next practicum waits a full trimester. The behind on clinical hours page covers ways to recover.
Front-load where you can. Clinics close for holidays and preceptors take leave, and hours banked in the first weeks protect you when the schedule slips late in the term.
How your hours are verified
Counting happens in three places. At set points in the term your preceptor signs off on your time logs, which you upload to the course's assignment folder. Case logs and your preceptor's midterm and final evaluations go through Typhon, where the contract coordinator has entered your site and preceptor by the end of week one.
Your instructors ask to see the approval email for each preceptor and site on the first day of class. Without an approval email for a site, the hours you spend there are not counted. Faculty also arrange random midterm site visits with your primary preceptor.
Evaluations affect progress as well: if a preceptor misses a required evaluation point, you may be blocked from moving forward in the course. See evaluations and site visits for how to keep them on schedule.
How we protect the hours you earn
Graceland students choose us because we plan for hours that count, not just a preceptor who says yes. We look for preceptors whose patients match your course's population and whose daily volume will carry you to the patient target, at sites where the paperwork can be finished ahead of your term's paperwork date.
We confirm the clinic days each preceptor can give you, plan the second preceptor within Graceland's limits, and gather the Appendix A details so your approval email is in hand before day one. If a preceptor drops mid-term, we begin the replacement search immediately so your weekly pace holds. Send us your course and city.
Questions Graceland students ask
Do observation hours count toward Graceland practicum hours?
Graceland builds a short observation stretch into each practicum: the first 8 hours are mostly observation, and after that you are expected to act as a beginning provider. Observation beyond that opening, such as watching hospital rounds, is named as time that does not count. Ask your course faculty how to record the opening hours on your time log.
Can I count hours at a second office where my preceptor also works?
Only once that office has a separate Appendix A, contract and approval email. Graceland counts sites by address, so a preceptor who works in three offices generates three Appendix A forms and three site contracts, while one Appendix B still covers the preceptor. Hours at an address that has not been approved do not count.
Do hours before the term starts count if my preceptor is ready early?
No. Graceland counts hours only between the term's first and last days, and only after every condition is met, including the approval email, clearance by Student Financial Services, a current Castle Branch record and your site listed in Typhon. Early paperwork helps; early clinic days do not add to your total.
Does telehealth count toward practicum hours at Graceland?
The answer changes by track. In FNP, virtual visits count only with the instructor's approval. In AGACNP, they do not count at all. In PMHNP, up to two terms or 450 hours may be telehealth, provided you hold a license valid where each patient sits during the visit; the PMHNP telehealth hours page has the details.
What if my preceptor is out for a week during my practicum?
Graceland permits one stand-in at your primary site per term, and that person may cover as many as 40 hours without filing an Appendix B. Hours beyond 40 count only if the stand-in completes a Preceptor Application and it is approved. For a longer absence, talk to the contract coordinators early about adding a second preceptor.
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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