NUR 602R: the Spring Arbor MSN residency

01What NUR 602R is

NUR 602R is the MSN Residency, a short in-person block on SAU's main campus that pairs with NUR 602, Advanced Health Assessment Across the Lifespan. The 2023-24 Graduate Catalog lists it at zero credits and makes it a corequisite of NUR 602, so the two are taken together.

SAU's current program pages describe just one four-day campus residency, and the online FAQ calls it a four-day visit to the main campus that is tied into the health assessment course. The catalog is looser, describing a 3-4-day on-campus synchronous experience. Plan for four days on site plus travel at each end.

The campus sits at 106 E. Main St. in Spring Arbor, about eight miles west of Jackson. The course numbers on this page come from the 2023-24 catalog, the most recent full graduate catalog SAU posts as a PDF, so check your current course list in Brightspace or with your advisor.

02When the residency falls in your program

Timing depends on how you entered. SAU's pages place the residency in year two for BSN-entry students and in year three for RN-to-MSN students, who complete a BSN phase first.

SAU does not publish residency months or dates. Ask your advisor or your Student Success Coach for your session as soon as your course plan is set, because that date anchors the rest of your clinical calendar and tells you how much time you have to line up a preceptor.

03What the check-off asks of you

The residency is where faculty watch you examine a patient from head to toe. The 2023-24 catalog calls for a check-off covering a complete history and physical, and SAU's FAQ says the days give you chances to practice physical examination before you are assessed.

Treat it as the hands-on half of NUR 602. Rehearse a complete, ordered exam until you can run it without notes, and practice taking a history out loud with a friend or coworker playing the patient. These are the same skills a preceptor will expect from you in your first weeks of clinicals, so the preparation pays twice.

SAU does not publish a scoring sheet or the exam sequence it grades against. If your NUR 602 course in Brightspace posts a checklist or rubric, treat that document as your guide and practice to it, item by item.

04Why it gates your first practicum

Passing the residency is a condition for starting clinicals. The 2023-24 catalog names four courses that must be behind you, with passing grades, before a NUR 680 or NUR 780 practicum or the NUR 660 internship can open: NUR 612, NUR 618, NUR 602 and NUR 602R. SAU's current Nurse Educator certificate page lists the same four before NUR 780B.

The catalog also requires NUR 602R for moving into track-specific courses and for completing the MSN. It may be repeated once, for a fee. Until you pass, the practicum waits, and so does any preceptor who was expecting you.

The full prerequisite chain, including the courses that come before NUR 602 and the open question about NUR 628, is on our clinical prerequisites page.

05Certificate and DNP students

Post-master's certificate students often arrive having completed advanced health assessment in an earlier program. Under the 2023-24 catalog, a certificate student who has been let off NUR 602 and NUR 602R instead records a full advanced head-to-toe exam on video and turns it in through NUR 610, the certificate foundation course, ahead of any clinical course. Current certificate pages don't mention a residency at all.

Whether you are excused is the program's call, based on your transcript. Ask during admission rather than assuming, because the answer changes which courses stand between you and your first clinical day. Our post-master's certificates page covers what else differs for certificate students.

The DNP works differently again. Its page lists a virtual residency before the program begins, which is not the campus NUR 602R.

06Lining up your preceptor around the residency

The residency usually lands months before your first practicum, which makes it a handy checkpoint. By the time you travel to Michigan, you want real names on your preceptor list, not just a plan to start looking.

1. Start the search earlySAU's preceptor-search tips say to begin within your first months as a student, long before the residency. Our clinical timeline maps the lead times.
2. Confirm your residency dateGet it from your advisor, then count forward to the first practicum course on your plan.
3. Clear compliance in parallelBackground check, drug test, insurance and health records all have to be current before the practicum. See the compliance checklist.
4. Have paperwork in by the four-week markSAU's 2023-24 catalog puts the agreement, affiliation and preceptor verification paperwork due a month or more ahead of the clinical course. Our paperwork page lists what to gather.

If your search has stalled by residency time, a placement advisor adds leads in your home state and assembles the documents SAU's faculty review. SAU's faculty still approve each preceptor and site; the form below is where to begin.