Primary care preceptors for NKU's online MSN FNP

The current FNP program page lists 48 credits: eight core courses, six specialty courses and six clinical courses, "with a total of 750 clinical hours". Each clinical is worth 1 credit and runs 7 weeks, and NKU allows only one clinical per session. NKU's preceptor page expects each rotation to run about 125 to 150 hours, which it asks preceptors to cover over two or three days a week.

Older material still quotes smaller totals. The 2023-24 catalog showed five clinicals (MSN 650L to MSN 654L) and 600 hours, and NKU's online FAQ still tells NP students 500 to 600. The six-course, 750-hour design is what the current FNP page and the Fall 2024+ course sequence show. If your cohort's documents differ, your FNP Canvas shell settles it, and our clinical hours page tracks the history.

NP clinicals sit behind the advanced practice core: pathophysiology (MSN 609), health assessment (MSN 610), pharmacology (MSN 611) and role development (MSN 612). Catalogs from 2023-24 through 2025-26 print BIO 669 Human Pathophysiology in place of MSN 609, so check which one your plan names. A missed APEA predictor score in pharmacology means MSN 680 remediation before any specialty work.

Next come the primary care specialty courses: MSN 620, 621 and 622 for adolescents and adults, MSN 623 for geriatrics and MSN 629 for pediatrics, with the MSN 630 capstone near the end. The Fall 2024+ template runs the standard path over 17 seven-week sessions, so your first clinical is well over a year away on the day you start. That lead time is the best moment to plan preceptors. The prerequisites page lays out each course.

NKU's FAQ names four credentials for this track: MD, DO, NP or PA, backed by graduate education (a master's at minimum) and a year or more of practice. PAs are accepted only in states whose rules let them precept. The home setting is primary care, meaning clinics and physician practices, and NKU's list adds long-term care and hospice.

Rules every FNP preceptor must meet

• One year or more in their present role, at their present level of education
• A license that is active and unencumbered, in a state on NKU's approved list
• A job at the same site where your hours happen
• Room under NKU's preceptor-to-student limit (the number isn't published)
• No personal or reporting link to you (not your boss, family, partner, roommate, friend or own provider), and not enrolled as a student in another specialty

Urgent care, cardiology and other specialty offices add variety, yet NKU holds each specialty rotation to 125 hours at most. Across the program its FAQ allows anywhere from one to four preceptors. Your employer can host you too, provided you train outside your home unit, under someone other than your manager, on unpaid time; setting rules covers each cap.

Since Spring 2023 NKU has taken NP applications only from a fixed group of states, and FNP applicants fall under it. Today that group is Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. The three newest names appeared on NKU's page between October 2025 and January 2026, when the list grew from eight.

Preceptors, too, must sit in a state NKU approves. The FNP page cautions that moving to another state can change your standing in the program, so clear any move with your advisor and concentration coordinator first. Illinois, Michigan and Nevada sit outside the Nurse Licensure Compact; the RN license page explains what that means for clinicals, and NP admission states keeps the list's history.

1. Join your Canvas shellsSelf-enroll in two Canvas courses, your FNP shell and NKU's MSN Clinical Information Canvas, with notifications on. NKU posts the real deadlines there.
2. Match a preceptor to the coursePick the preceptor for the rotation you're entering: primary care, or a specialty block kept under the cap.
3. Submit the self-placement requestFile it in Medatrax at least 30 days before the session starts. NKU highly recommends 90.
4. Send the preceptor paperworkThe preceptor provides a resume or CV and license, signs the Preceptor Responsibilities form and creates a Preceptor Profile in Medatrax. If the site has no agreement with NKU, you supply a site contact.
5. Watch for the approval emailCoordinators review the preceptor, Contracts & Compliance reviews contracts and compliance, and Medatrax confirms once all three portions clear.

Six clinicals mean six requests spread across more than a year of sessions. The self-placement request page covers the request itself in detail.

We plan the whole FNP run, not one rotation at a time. A placement advisor maps primary care preceptors near you for all six clinicals, adds a specialty block where it fits under the 125-hour cap, and checks every preceptor against NKU's year-in-role, license, state and relationship rules before you ever send an email.

Then we assemble the file: CV or resume, license, the Preceptor Responsibilities form and a site contact whenever an affiliation agreement is needed. Your Medatrax request goes in early and complete, well inside the 90-day window. The final approval is NKU's; our job is a file that clears the coordinators and Contracts & Compliance on the first pass. Should a preceptor step away mid-program, a replacement is already on our list. Our how it works page lays out each stage.