NUR 780K: the pediatric primary care practicum

01NUR 780K at a glance

The code, semesters and credits here are the 2023-24 Graduate Catalog's. Newer catalogs are locked behind a verification screen, so the practicum may carry a different number today; Brightspace, or a quick question to your advisor, settles it. The hour figure is from SAU's live PNP pages.

02What the practicum covers

The 2023-24 course description asks for three kinds of pediatric primary care: routine well-child visits, acute problems, and children with complex chronic or disabling conditions, all seen with the family in view. That spread matters when you judge a site. A practice that only does sports physicals, or one that only sees sick visits, will leave gaps.

The track's didactic courses point the same way. NUR 702 covers advanced pediatric physical assessment and pharmacotherapeutics and gates the practicum. NUR 703 covers primary care of infants, children, adolescents and their families, NUR 704 and NUR 705 follow it in the 2023-24 concentration, and NUR 781 integrates evidence for advanced clinical practice.

SAU publishes no split between age groups or visit types. Ask course faculty what they expect to see in your logs by the end of each semester, and plan preceptors around that answer.

03Who counts as a pediatric primary care preceptor

Under the 2023-24 catalog, every SAU NP practicum uses a certified NP, physician or PA in your area whom program faculty approve. NUR 780K narrows that: its preceptors must practice in pediatric primary care, inside the pediatric NP scope. A certified PNP or a general pediatrician in a primary care office is the clearest fit.

Other clinicians are a judgment call that belongs to faculty. A family NP or PA whose panel is mostly children may be accepted; a pediatric subspecialty clinic sees complex conditions but is not primary care. SAU does not publish an answer for either, so ask before you submit.

Approval covers one rotation at a time. The broader rules, and what SAU leaves unsaid, are on the preceptor requirements page.

04The certificate version and a page error

Post-master's PNP students take NUR 780K over two semesters for 8 credits in the 2023-24 catalog, and SAU's current certificate page shows 500 hours. The catalog also let certificate students bring in up to 125 hours from previous programs; how that might apply is on the PMC hour transfer page.

There is also an error on the live PMC-PNP page. Its curriculum block shows NUR 712, NUR 713 and a course called NUR780-M PMHNP Clinical Practicum, which look like psychiatric courses copied from another page. The 2023-24 catalog placed PNP certificate students in NUR 702 to NUR 705 and NUR 780K. Ask your advisor to confirm your course list in writing, and check it against Brightspace once you are enrolled.

05No partner-network line for this track

Six SAU pages added a partner-network line in 2026, promising help securing placements, and every one belongs to the FNP or PMHNP tracks. The PNP-PC pages, the RN-to-PNP page and the PNP certificate page carry no such line. PNP students should work from the plan SAU's FAQ lays out: pick your own preceptor where you live.

SAU's published help still applies. The program director can share names of local providers who have offered to take SAU students, you can find out whether a nearby site is already under an affiliation agreement, and the Student Success Coach supports you through placement. More on using each one, and on building your own list of leads, is on the find your own preceptor page.

06Lining up two semesters of pediatric primary care

Ask early whether one pediatric practice can host you for both semesters, since a single approved site saves a second round of paperwork. If it cannot, line up the second site while the first semester is still running, because each site's clinical agreement, affiliation and preceptor verification paperwork must be filed a full four weeks, or more, before the course starts (2023-24 catalog).

A placement advisor searches for pediatricians, PNPs and pediatric primary care practices near you, checks how each one's patient mix fits the course, and prepares the documents faculty ask for. Every approval decision belongs to SAU's faculty, and ours is the groundwork that makes it straightforward. For the track overall, see the PNP-PC page; to start a search, send us your semester dates.