The 7-1-7 schedule and where clinicals fit

01What 7-1-7 means

The name is the pattern: seven weeks of one course, a week off, then seven weeks of the next. SAU's program pages tell students to take one seven-week course at a time, and the online FAQ says each course is typically three credit hours.

The FAQ also carves out the exception that matters here. You take only one course at a time, excluding clinical and residency. Your practicum and the four-day NUR 602R residency sit on top of the regular sequence rather than taking a slot in it.

The 2023-24 Graduate Catalog describes the same arrangement from the other side. Students move through the program in a cohort, taking seven-week didactic courses one at a time while completing any required clinical or project courses at the same time. For a working nurse, that means the practicum semesters carry two loads at once: a course with weekly deadlines and a set of clinical days.

02How practicum courses run across semesters

A practicum is not a seven-week block. In the 2023-24 catalog, each nurse practitioner practicum stretches over two or three semesters and is registered in credit chunks, while the didactic courses keep rotating underneath it.

The catalog ties 125 clinical hours to every 2 credits of NUR 680, but SAU doesn't publish a semester-by-semester hour target, so confirm yours with faculty. Numbering may have changed since 2023-24, so match these against your current course list in Brightspace or confirm them with your advisor. Each course has its own page: NUR 680, NUR 780M and NUR 780K.

03The semester frame around your courses

Graduate and non-traditional programs sit inside two long semesters a year. On SAU's 2026-27 academic calendar, fall 2026 spans July 7 through December 21 and spring 2027 spans January 12 through June 28, with graduate classes ending June 21. Fall 2027 then opens on July 6.

For clinicals, those semester lines matter more than the seven-week blocks, because practicum credit is registered by semester. A clinician who agrees to precept you needs to know which semester your hours begin and roughly when they must be finished, not just what happens over the next seven weeks.

The Nurse Educator internship, NUR 660, is described in the 2023-24 catalog as semester-long, so the same planning applies to a teaching placement. The Nurse Educator and MSN/MBA practicum, NUR 780B, asks for 125 direct-care hours on current SAU pages.

04Start dates and intakes

SAU publishes how often each program starts, but not a calendar of seven-week session dates. The counts on current SAU pages are:

• FNP: six starts a year. AGPCNP, Nurse Educator and MSN/MBA: six intakes a year.
• RN-to-MSN AGPCNP, PNP, Nurse Educator and MSN/MBA: four intakes a year.
• Post-master's certificates: start dates vary with your prerequisites.
• DNP: two start dates a year. RN-to-BSN: four intakes a year.

The PMHNP page gives no intake count. Because starts are frequent, two classmates on the same track can reach their first practicum in different months, so plan from your own Academic Planner rather than a friend's. Certificate students, whose start depends on prerequisites, should ask admissions which semester their first clinical course is likely to fall in before they enroll. Our clinical timeline covers how far ahead to begin the preceptor search.

05What the rhythm asks of your preceptor

Your preceptor never sees the seven-week structure. What they see is a student who needs a set number of hours across a semester, with paperwork signed before the first day. Frame your request that way and it is easier to say yes to.

Two points are worth settling before the rotation starts. First, SAU doesn't say whether clinical hours continue during the one-week break between courses; ask your clinical faculty, then tell your preceptor what they said. Second, the four-week rule in the 2023-24 catalog means the signed agreement, affiliation and verification forms have to reach SAU a month before the clinical course, so on paper your practicum semester begins early.

If you are asking a clinician who has never hosted an SAU student, our outreach guide covers what to send and how to explain SAU's calendar.

06A realistic week during a practicum

If you work as a nurse while you study, the practicum semesters are the tightest. In the same week you may have a seven-week course with its own deadlines, one or more clinical days with your preceptor, and written work tied to the patients you saw. A little structure keeps that from collapsing.

• Request clinical days off work for the whole semester at once, not week by week.
• Use the week off between courses to read ahead for the next one, so its opening week is lighter if it lands on a busy clinical stretch.
• Update your hour log every week. A gap you catch in week four can still be closed; one you catch in week fifteen may not. See clinical hour logs.
• Put the next practicum semester's four-week paperwork date in your calendar the day the current one starts.