A nurse leader for your NKU executive leadership capstone

NKU's page puts the concentration at 33 credits, finishable in as few as 12 months and split between four core courses and seven concentration courses, with "100 clinical hours" required. All 100 sit in MSN 631L Nurse Executive Leadership Administration Capstone, the practicum that ends the track.

Concentration courses on the current page

• MSN 640 Health Care Strategic Planning and Analysis
• PSY 550 Organizational Psychology
• FIN 624 Accounting and Finance for Nurse Executives
• DNP 805 Quality Improvement Strategies
• MSN 603 Role of the Nurse Executive Leader
• MSN 641 Management of Human Resources in Nursing
• MSN 631L Nurse Executive Leadership Administration Capstone

The finance course carries two numbers. The current page says FIN 624, while the 2023-24 catalog, the 2024-25 capstone prerequisites and the 2025-26 sequence say MSN 604. The title is the same, so follow whichever your degree plan shows. PSY 550 needs a C or better; nursing courses need a B or better.

On the 2025-26 standard sequence, the track takes 11 seven-week sessions and MSN 631L is the eleventh. The four core courses open the plan, followed by PSY 550, MSN 640, MSN 603, the finance course, DNP 805 and MSN 641.

The 2024-25 catalog lists MSN 603, MSN 604, MSN 640, MSN 641, PSY 550 and DNP 805 as prerequisites for the capstone, so every leadership course is behind you when it starts. That order works in your favor. By the time you meet your preceptor you can discuss strategy, budgets, staffing and quality improvement in their terms, and on the standard path you have more than a year to find the right leader. See the capstone course page for course detail.

NKU's FAQ asks for an MSN-prepared nurse leader in a management role, at nurse manager level or above. The setting is a hospital or another setting the Nurse Executive Leadership coordinator approves. The hours can include shadowing, meetings or a "mini-capstone project".

Plus NKU's general preceptor rules

• A year or more in the role and degree level they hold today
• A license in good standing, in an NKU-approved state
• On staff where your hours happen, with room under NKU's student cap
• Not your direct or immediate supervisor, and no family, partner, roommate or personal friend

If you work under a nurse manager, the supervisor rule is the one to watch. A director in another department or at a sister facility may fit where your own chain of command can't. The employer page explains NKU's three conditions for training where you work.

A title alone doesn't make a good capstone. Look for a leader with work in motion during your session: a budget cycle, a staffing plan, a quality initiative that draws on DNP 805, or a strategic plan like the ones you built in MSN 640. Seven weeks is short, and a live project gives your mini-capstone something real to attach to.

Ask early how much access you'll have to meetings and data, and whether the leader has precepted students before. NKU thanks its preceptors with a professional development provision after the term and a letter summarizing their hours; ask the placement team whether that applies to leadership preceptors. The outreach page has wording for the first conversation.

Seven weeks and 100 hours works out to roughly 14 hours a week by simple division. Agree on the shape of that time with your preceptor before the session opens: which meetings you'll sit in on, which projects you'll shadow, and what your mini-capstone will tackle. A clear plan makes the weeks productive for both of you.

Hours go into Medatrax, per NKU's FAQ, so note the meeting or project behind each entry; it makes your preceptor's verification quick. A liability insurance charge rides on the MSN 631L course fees. If a doctorate is on your horizon, the DNP page covers NKU's post-master's DNP, whose coursework also includes DNP 805.

The NP admission-state rule doesn't touch this track. Nurse Executive Leadership follows NKU's MSN state table, which excludes states including California, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. South Carolina sits under both headings, and only the newer copy authorizes Virginia. The state authorization page has the whole table.

NKU's Students page gives this track a Canvas shell of its own and an assigned Contracts & Compliance contact, so plan on the self-placement route: a Medatrax request, your leader's resume, license and signed responsibilities form, plus a site contact if an affiliation agreement is needed. The 30-day minimum and the 90-day recommendation hold here too, and the agreement must be final before the term.

We find nurse leaders who want to teach the business side of nursing. A placement advisor locates MSN-prepared managers and directors near you, outside your reporting line, and confirms their degree, license, state and site before you ask. We look for leaders with a project on the go during your capstone session, so your 100 hours have a clear purpose from the first week.

We then assemble every document your leader owes NKU, plus the site contact, so the MSN 631L request is complete when it reaches NKU, well inside the 90-day window. NKU has the final say on every placement; our part is a file that meets its rules on the first read. Every step is laid out on how it works; to begin, send us your details through the form.