Psychiatric preceptors for NKU's post-master's PMHNP certificate

NKU lists the certificate at 35 credits and a fastest pace of 18 months. It has three layers. The advanced practice core runs from MSN 609 to MSN 612. The psychiatric block covers psychopathopharmacology in two parts (MSN 671 and 672), assessment and diagnosis (673), psychotherapy (674) and disorder management (675), capped by the MSN 676 capstone. Five clinicals at 1 credit apiece hold the hours.

The design has changed. The 2023-24 catalog showed 34 credits and four clinicals, 664L, 665L, 667L and 668L. The 2025-26 catalog's PMHNP block states 750 required hours, and the 2024-25 catalog assigns 125 direct-care hours to MSN 669L. The other four clinicals carry no published per-course figure, and no NKU source lists a 666L. For the course-level view, see PMHNP clinicals.

NKU runs two psychiatric certificates, and the choice turns on whether you already practice as an NP. The post-master's PMHNP asks for an MSN and an RN license, not an NP license, so it's the route for MSN-prepared nurses who don't yet hold NP credentials. If you already have an NP license and national certification, NKU's NP-to-PMHNP certificate is the shorter path at 20 credits.

Admission here asks for an MSN earned in an ACEN, CCNE or CNEA accredited program, a 3.0 GPA in that MSN, an RN license with no encumbrance, 1,000 hours of RN clinical work and a PreCheck background check. No psychiatric background is listed today, although the 2023-24 catalog once required 2,000 psychiatric RN hours. NKU may compare your earlier core syllabi with its own and add any course that didn't span the lifespan.

Two credentials qualify as your main preceptor: either a PMHNP or a psychiatrist, with graduate training and a year or more in practice. Care settings include psych and mental health facilities, outpatient clinics, treatment programs and hospital inpatient units. Therapy and counseling time may be supervised by a psychologist, an LICSW or an LPCC, capped at 80 hours for the whole certificate.

Every preceptor must also

• Have at least one year behind them in their current role and degree
• Hold a license with no restrictions, in a state NKU accepts
• Work at the site where you train, below NKU's per-preceptor student cap
• Sit outside your family, friendships, household and reporting line

NKU's setting rules page sets the 80-hour counseling cap beside the caps for the other tracks.

NKU frames every PMHNP clinical as lifespan care. Its FAQ suggests roughly 170 hours with pediatric patients and 165 each with adults and geriatric clients, and ties ANCC certification to having hours in all three groups. Those three figures add to 500, carried over from the older program, so use them as a sense of proportion within 750 rather than a quota.

With one clinical per 7-week session, the spread comes from deliberate choices: a youth psychiatric clinic in one session, adult outpatient or inpatient care in the next, and a service with many older patients later on. Record the age group behind your hours as you log them, so MSN 669L, the last clinical, isn't left to fill a gap.

NKU asks preceptors for two or three days a week across a 7-week rotation of roughly 125 to 150 hours, and those days have to be yours as well. If you work full time, settle the schedule with your employer before the session opens, and choose preceptors whose clinic days match the time you can clear. Five rotations means five rounds of that conversation, so plan the whole year at once.

Your current employer can host clinicals if you train outside your own unit or patient-care area, with a preceptor who isn't your immediate supervisor, during hours you aren't paid for. A behavioral health service elsewhere in your own system can meet all three. The employer sites page walks through each condition.

NKU accepts applicants to this certificate only from Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Each preceptor must also be practicing in a state on NKU's approved list, and relocating during the certificate can affect your standing. NP admission states tracks how the list has changed since Spring 2023.

Each clinical goes to NKU as a self-placement request in Medatrax, due 30 days before the session at the latest and ideally 90. The psychiatric preceptor sends in a resume and license, signs the Preceptor Responsibilities form and sets up a Medatrax profile. A practice that has never hosted an NKU student may need an affiliation agreement, so you pass NKU a contact there early.

We find psychiatric preceptors with the age mix already mapped. A placement advisor locates PMHNPs and psychiatrists near you, assigns rotations so pediatric, adult and geriatric patients all get real time, and fits any therapy supervision inside the 80-hour cap. We also look at each practice's clinic days, so your rotations fit the schedule you actually have.

We screen each preceptor for NKU's credential, experience, license and state requirements before any introduction, and every request arrives at NKU complete and early. NKU approves each placement; our work is making sure its reviewers find nothing missing. If a practice's schedule changes partway through, a replacement is lined up quickly. Read how it works for the full sequence.