Acute care preceptors for NKU's online AGACNP track

At 47 credits, the AGACNP can be finished in as few as 24 months, per its program page. Those credits break into eight core courses, five specialty courses, a capstone worth 3 credits and five clinical residencies at 1 credit apiece, "with a total of 750 clinical hours". Only one clinical runs per session. Expect around 125 to 150 hours per residency, which NKU asks preceptors to spread over two or three days each week.

Clinicals IV and V aim at high-acuity and specialty areas. Before the current design, the 2023-24 catalog showed four residencies (MSN 660L to 663L) worth 500 hours, while the NP answer in NKU's online FAQ was never updated and still says 500 to 600. Today's program pages say 750; the hours comparison follows the change.

Acute care has one extra entry rule. On top of the 1,000 hours of RN practice every NP applicant documents, NKU asks AGACNP applicants for one year of critical care experience, confirmed on a verification form. After admission comes the four-course advanced practice core, MSN 609 through MSN 612, where older catalogs name BIO 669 for pathophysiology.

The acute care block follows: MSN 624, 625 and 626 in differential diagnosis and disease management, MSN 627 on advanced technologies and diagnostic reasoning, and MSN 628, a seminar on health promotion and clinical decision making. MSN 659L opens once 626 and 627 are done, and the MSN 633 capstone pairs with the last residency. On the Fall 2024+ template the standard path runs 16 sessions. Each residency has its own write-up on the AGACNP clinicals page.

NKU accepts five credentials for this track: MD, DO, AGACNP, FNP or PA, all holding graduate degrees and at least twelve months of practice. A PA counts only in states that let PAs precept. The setting is the acute care hospital, and the patients are acutely ill adults from adolescence through older age.

The acute care rules to plan around

• ER and urgent care may supply up to 50% of your hours, and no more
• Twelve months or more in the role they hold now, at the degree level they hold now, plus a clean, active license
• The preceptor works at the hospital where you train, in an NKU-approved state
• At your employer, your own unit, your supervisor and your paid shifts are off limits
• No relatives, partners, roommates, friends or your own primary care provider

Since admission already requires critical care experience, your own hospital is often the first place to look. A different unit with a different supervisor, on unpaid time, keeps it inside NKU's rules. Setting rules and employer sites go deeper.

The AGACNP is one of seven NP programs under NKU's admission-state rule, in place since Spring 2023. Applications come only from Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Florida, Virginia and West Virginia were added between late 2025 and early 2026.

Preceptors must also practice somewhere NKU approves. Large hospital systems can span state lines, so confirm the state of the actual unit before you ask anyone. Relocating after admission "may affect student program status", so raise any move with your advisor and concentration coordinator before you go. Illinois, Michigan and Nevada are the three non-compact states on the list, which matters if your license and your hospital sit in different states. The NP admission states page holds the full history.

Each residency is its own Medatrax self-placement request. NKU sets a 30-day floor for preceptor information and highly recommends 90, and the affiliation agreement has to be final before the term. A hospital without an agreement needs a contact person you pass to NKU, and NKU notes that a new negotiation may not wrap up before class begins.

The hospital preceptor supplies a current resume, proof of license and a signed Preceptor Responsibilities form, and registers a Preceptor Profile in Medatrax. The coordinators vet the preceptor while Contracts & Compliance handles the contract and your PreCheck/Sentry record; the approval email arrives once all three portions clear. Five residencies mean five requests. For a Spring 1 2027 residency starting January 11, the 90-day mark falls in mid-October 2026 by our count; NKU's actual deadlines post in Canvas, and the deadlines page lines them up against session dates.

Acute care placements turn on hospital agreements and unit access, and that is where we put our effort. A placement advisor finds AGACNP, FNP, physician or PA preceptors in hospitals near you, confirms the unit, the credentials and the state, and plans ER or urgent care time so it stays under half of your hours.

We collect every document the preceptor owes NKU, and we get NKU the right site contact early so any affiliation agreement has room to finish. Your request reaches NKU complete, well before the 90-day mark. NKU makes the approval call; we hand it a file built to its acute care rules. All five residencies are mapped together, and if a preceptor's schedule changes, we move fast on a replacement. The how it works page shows the full sequence.