Logging NKU clinical hours, from the first shift to the hours letter

NKU's online FAQ puts it simply: hours are tracked in Medatrax, NKU's clinical management system. You enter each clinical day in your time log, and your preceptor reviews and verifies the entries in Medatrax.

NKU's preceptor readiness checklist sets the rhythm as weekly verification, and NKU's Current Preceptors page and its time-log guide for preceptors add the rule that matters most to you: once your preceptor verifies an entry, it can no longer be edited.

That lock is what makes NKU's hour records trustworthy for certification boards and later programs. It also means a careless entry can follow you into later applications, so treat the time log as a clinical document rather than a timesheet.

1. Log the same dayEnter each clinical day before you sleep, while the start time, end time and setting are fresh.
2. Check before verificationReview the week's entries before your preceptor's weekly check. Fixing an entry is simple until it is verified.
3. Confirm with your preceptorAgree on a regular verification day so hours never pile up at the end of the session.
4. Keep your own notesRecord the site, setting, preceptor and hours for each day in your own file as well. It helps with setting caps and later certification.
5. Raise problems earlyIf an entry is wrong or your preceptor falls behind, tell your Clinical Instructor that week, not in week seven.

A single rotation carries about 125 to 150 hours by NKU's estimate, worked on two or three days a week across seven weeks. Our arithmetic puts that at 18 to 21 hours in a typical week. NKU's FAQ adds that weekly minimum and maximum hours vary by course and are set in the syllabus, so check yours before week one.

Some hours also need tracking by setting. FNP specialty time is capped at 125 hours, AGACNP emergency and urgent care time at half of hours, and PMHNP therapy time at 80 hours over the program, with NKU recommending hours across pediatric, adult and geriatric patients. Our setting rules page has the details. Logging the setting with every entry makes those limits easy to prove.

Paid employee time never doubles as clinical time, including at an employer that also hosts your rotation. Our employer clinicals page covers that rule.

Weekly verification protects your preceptor as well as you. NKU's preceptor pages have told preceptors to verify all of a student's hours before their professional development provision is paid, and payment is issued only after the term ends. A preceptor who verifies each week is not left with a backlog when the term closes.

The same verified hours become the preceptor's record. NKU's end-of-term thank-you letter lists the hours each preceptor supervised, and preceptors can ask NKU for an ANCC or AANPCP letter documenting their precepting. Clean, verified logs make both accurate.

If your preceptor is new to Medatrax, send them NKU's time-log verification guide from the Current Preceptors page before your first clinical day.

Today's NKU program pages set 750 clinical hours for the FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP tracks and for each NP certificate, 200 for Nursing Education and 100 for Nurse Executive Leadership. The post-master's DNP is measured against 1,000 post-baccalaureate hours, and the RN-to-BSN practicum is project-based rather than hour-based.

NKU's online FAQ still says NP students complete 500 to 600 hours. That figure matches the older curriculum; the program pages changed to 750. If you are unsure which applies to your admission year, the MSN Clinical Information Canvas and your advisor have the answer. Our clinical hours page sets out every track and the history behind each figure. Whatever the total, your Medatrax log is the running count toward it, so check your cumulative hours at the end of each session.

Boards of nursing, certification bodies and other schools sometimes ask for proof of clinical hours. NKU's School of Nursing handles this through its Graduate Form Requests page, which lists certification of clinical hours and education verification for boards of nursing among the forms it processes, each with a per-form processing fee.

Your own records matter here too. For the post-master's DNP, NKU counts verifiable MSN clinical hours toward the 1,000-hour total, and the 2023-24 catalog described documenting them with a letter from the MSN program. A log you kept yourself, matching your verified Medatrax entries, makes that letter easy to request, even years later when your program contacts have changed. Our DNP practicum page explains how the hours fit the project courses.

The easiest time to recover hours is mid-session, not the final week. If your preceptor cancels days or the site turns out slower than expected, tell your Clinical Instructor early and ask what the syllabus allows. Our page on falling behind on hours walks through the options.

NKU students also call on us at this point. A placement advisor can line up an additional qualified preceptor, assemble everything NKU needs from that clinician, and get a complete Medatrax request in front of NKU quickly. NKU approves the addition; our part is making sure nothing in the file slows that approval. Send your course and hours gap through the form below.