Spring Arbor Nurse Educator: the NUR 780B practicum and the NUR 660 internship

01Two field experiences, not one

SAU's Nurse Educator page describes a 38-credit degree with 125 clinical hours, six intakes a year and an estimated two years and five months to finish, including one four-day visit to campus in year two. It highlights NUR 780B, NUR 625 Educational Theory and Curriculum Design, NUR 635 Instructional Strategies and NUR 660.

Students sometimes assume an education degree has no clinical piece. This one has two, and they need different kinds of mentors: a clinician for the direct-care hours and an educator for the internship. Planning both early keeps one from holding up the other.

02How the 2023-24 catalog and today's page differ

The 2023-24 Graduate Catalog built the educator concentration from NUR 625, NUR 635 and NUR 660 alone, 39 credits in all, with no NUR 780B. Its NUR 660 was a semester-long internship with 50 individually supervised hours in direct care and 100 in a nursing education setting, and the track prepared students for the NLN's CNE exam.

Today's page adds NUR 780B and gives a total of 125 clinical hours without saying how the internship hours fit alongside them. The certificate version lists 150 internship hours, and the RN-to-MSN educator page says 225 clinical hours while SAU's tuition page says 125 for the same program. Ask your advisor for your cohort's numbers in writing, and see the RN-to-MSN page if you entered with an ADN.

03NUR 780B: who can precept the 125 hours

SAU's live description says the NUR 780B practicum is arranged with a local preceptor approved by program faculty and involves 125 hours in a direct care setting. SAU lists four acceptable preceptor types: certified NPs, physicians, PAs, and master's-prepared nurses working in a specialty field. SAU clinical faculty stay in regular contact and oversee the preceptor-led experience.

That last category matters. An MSN-prepared clinical nurse specialist or a master's-prepared specialty nurse at a hospital near you may qualify, which is a much larger pool than the NP tracks draw from. The current certificate page lists NUR 612, NUR 618, NUR 602 and NUR 602R as the prerequisites. The MSN/MBA uses the same course, and the NUR 780B practicum page covers it for both.

04NUR 660: the teaching internship

The live page describes NUR 660 as individually supervised field experience in nursing-education settings, with an evidence-based practice project proposal. No SAU page says who arranges the teaching site or who can supervise it, so ask faculty early whether a school of nursing, a hospital education department or a staff development team fits what they expect.

The current certificate page lists the internship's prerequisites as NUR 551, NUR 602, NUR 612, NUR 618, NUR 625 and NUR 635, so it comes after the teaching theory courses. Course numbers come from SAU's current pages and the 2023-24 catalog; check your own list in Brightspace. The NUR 660 internship page goes further into settings and hours.

Because the internship follows the theory courses, it usually falls late in your plan of study. That gives you time to ask a teaching mentor well ahead, but it also means a withdrawn mentor near the end can push back graduation.

05Residency, prerequisites and compliance

Educator students attend the same four-day NUR 602R residency on the Spring Arbor, Michigan campus as NP students, in year two for BSN entry. It is tied to NUR 602 health assessment and must be passed before NUR 780B, so it sets the earliest date your direct-care hours can start. The MSN residency page explains what happens there.

Compliance is the other gate. The 2023-24 catalog applies one list to every School of Nursing program, educator tracks included, with yearly repeats of the background check and drug test and all costs on the student. Get those items current before the practicum rather than after you've found a preceptor; the clinical compliance page walks through each one and the order to tackle them.

06SAU's support for educator students, and state notes

The 2026 partner-network line on SAU's FNP and PMHNP pages is absent from the Nurse Educator pages. SAU's general help is still open to you: the program director's list of volunteer hosts, a check on which local sites have SAU affiliation agreements, and your Student Success Coach. For educator-specific placement questions, the leadership title to look for is Director of DNP and MSN-EDU/MSN-MBA Programs.

For educator students, the excluded states are the same four as for every SAU nursing program: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana and New York. Hold an RN license without restrictions where you practice. In Washington, residents may complete practice experiences locally; the board's June 2026 list includes the MSN Nurse Educator, and in 2022 SAU's own page named it as the only track approved there. The state authorization page has the rest.

07Why SAU educator students choose us

1. Start with NUR 780BWe look for NPs, physicians, PAs and master's-prepared specialty nurses near you who can supervise 125 direct-care hours.
2. Scout the teaching settingIf faculty accept outside sites for NUR 660, a placement advisor looks for education departments and nursing programs that could host your internship.
3. Prepare both filesWe gather each mentor's CV and license or credentials, site details and the agreement and verification paperwork, early enough for faculty review.
4. Back you upIf either mentor withdraws, we search again while faculty review the replacement.

SAU's faculty approve every preceptor and teaching site, and both files reach them complete. If you already have a willing mentor for one course, tell us, and we'll put our full effort into the other. Send your dates through the form below to begin.