NUR 680: the FNP and AGPCNP clinical practicum

01NUR 680 by track

Every code, semester count and credit figure below is drawn from SAU's 2023-24 Graduate Catalog, since the current catalogs are locked behind a human check. SAU may have renumbered or restructured the practicum since then; your Brightspace course list, or your advisor, has the final word. The hours column is from SAU's live program pages.

Each 2 credits of NUR 680 equals 125 clinical hours in that catalog, which is how 10 FNP credits reach 625 and 8 AGPCNP credits reach 500. It publishes no hour target for each individual semester, so get those from course faculty.

02What the course description asks for

The catalog frames NUR 680 around primary health care. It is arranged with a local preceptor, who must be a certified NP, physician or PA, and program faculty approve that preceptor. You stay in regular contact with SAU clinical faculty, who oversee the preceptor's work with you. It opens only after NUR 602, NUR 602R, NUR 612 and NUR 618, covered on the prerequisites page.

The description does not assign a population to each semester. The didactic courses in each track show the range faculty will expect you to see. For the FNP that means NUR 685 (adults), NUR 686 (older adults), NUR 645 (the childbearing family) and NUR 687 (children in families). For the AGPCNP it means NUR 632 (health promotion), NUR 685, NUR 686 and NUR 642 (chronic and complex problems in older adults), with the catalog naming an adult and late-teen population.

03Planning preceptors across three semesters

SAU publishes no specialty quota for NUR 680. An FNP student whose coursework runs from prenatal care to older adults should still expect faculty to look for that range in the logged patients, so ask early how they want pediatric and childbearing-family patients covered. An AGPCNP student has the opposite concern: a pediatric clinic falls outside an adult and late-teen population.

Possible settings named in SAU's clinicals blog include urgent care, hospitals, community health clinics, pediatrics, internal medicine and family practice. Because NUR 680 centers on primary care, check with faculty before you plan a semester around an urgent care or hospital service.

Approval is granted rotation by rotation, so switching preceptors in semester two or three restarts the paperwork. The full preceptor rules sit on the preceptor requirements page.

04Where FNP and AGPCNP support differs

Since 2026 SAU's FNP pages, including RN-to-FNP and the FNP certificate, promise that SAU will work with you on placements matching your preferred location, and they mention access to a clinical partner network. The AGPCNP pages carry no such line. None of these pages names partners or promises a placement, and SAU's FAQ still tells online students to pick their own preceptor where they live.

In practice, both tracks should plan their own search and use whatever SAU offers alongside it. SAU's preceptor tips post also suggests asking the program director for its roster of local providers willing to host SAU students, whichever track you are in. What the network line does and does not promise is set out on the partner network page. Track-level planning lives on the FNP page and the AGPCNP page.

05The certificate versions: NUR 680N and NUR 680G

Post-master's FNP students take NUR 680N over three semesters for 10 credits in the 2023-24 catalog. SAU's live page gives the certificate 250 to 625 hours, depending on the certification you already hold, and the catalog lets an AGNP moving to FNP bring in up to 375 primary care hours. The PMC hour transfer page explains which hours may count.

Post-master's AGPCNP students take NUR 680G over two semesters for 8 credits, toward 500 hours. Search results for the 2024-25 NUR 680G catalog entry describe it as 125 hours per 2 credit hours, graded pass or fail, repeatable, with the same four prerequisites; the page itself could not be opened.

One code remains unconfirmed. One entry in the 2024-25 catalog index carries the title NUR 770P AGNP Clinical Experience I, which may point to a renamed or split adult-gerontology practicum. Nobody outside SAU has been able to open it, so rely on your Brightspace course list.

06Grading, paperwork and why SAU students choose us

Under the 2023-24 catalog, clinical courses are graded Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory and can be retaken once; a second Unsatisfactory anywhere in the program means dismissal. How faculty evaluate you is covered on the evaluations page.

Paperwork runs on a four-week clock: under the catalog, each clinical course needs its clinical agreement, affiliation and preceptor verification forms submitted a minimum of four weeks ahead. With three semesters of NUR 680, that deadline comes around more than once if a preceptor changes.

A placement advisor searches for primary care preceptors near you who fit your track's population, lines up the next semester's preceptor before the current one ends, and assembles the file faculty will check, with each NUR 680 term's start date as the target. The approval decision is always SAU's. Share your semester dates with us and we will start looking.