Clinical hours in every Olivet nursing program
Olivet Nazarene University's FNP tracks call for 750 clinical hours and the MSN in Nursing Education & Leadership for 150 practicum hours. The RN-BSN is listed at 60 or 45 depending on the document, and the Traditional BSN counts clinical and lab hours separately. Pick your track in the planner, then use the table below it to see where Olivet's own figures differ.
Plan the hours in your next course
Tell us your Olivet track and the course coming up. We line up preceptors for the hours it needs.
Pick your Olivet program
Your practicum courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From Olivet's own handbooks and program pages.
- Who precepts
- An approved preceptor you select, whose patients match each course: adults and older adults, women, children, then patients across the lifespan
- Where
- Primary care in your own area, inside one of Olivet's approved states for FNP practicum hours
- Start looking
- Start with your own network early; the first clinical comes after the core and 3P courses, and the coordinator helps after 30 attempts
- Who precepts
- Preceptors for acute and episodic adult care, women's health, pediatrics, chronic adult care, then complex adult and complex pediatric and women's health
- Where
- Your own area, inside an approved state
- Start looking
- 665E rises from 120 to 125 hours in October 2026 and 665F in January 2027
- Who precepts
- The same population preceptors as the MSN FNP
- Where
- Your own area; the certificate page requires an approved state
- Start looking
- The first clinical is the fifth course slot, after NRSG 635, the 3P courses and NRSG 645
- Who precepts
- An approved preceptor you select: population health for NRSG 604, then an educator or nurse leader for NRSG 620
- Where
- Community and population health settings, then a school of nursing, clinical education department or leadership setting
- Start looking
- NRSG 604 is the fourth course; NRSG 620 comes last and runs 8 weeks
- Who precepts
- A hospice nurse for NRSG 364; group work plus adult medication reconciliation and teaching for NRSG 471
- Where
- Your own community
- Start looking
- Background check and drug screen cleared before NRSG 364, the third core course
Hours by program, including the figures that conflict
Olivet states clinical hours in three kinds of documents: the program web pages, the School of Nursing handbooks posted on the library site, and one-page program sheets. Where they agree, the table gives one figure. Where they disagree, it shows each figure with its source, because the number that binds you is the one in your own handbook version.
| Program | Practicum courses | Hours listed | Where the figures differ |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP, new curriculum | NRSG 636C, NRSG 637C, NRSG 638C, NRSG 639C | 750 (240 + 135 + 135 + 240) | NRSG 688 FNP Immersion follows with no hours stated |
| MSN FNP and PG-APRN, current curriculum | NRSG 665A to NRSG 665F | 750 once 665E and 665F reach 125 | 665E and 665F list 120 hours until October 2026 and January 2027 |
| Post-Graduate APRN (FNP) Certificate | NRSG 636C to NRSG 639C | 750 | Credits: 28 on the web page, at least 37 in the current handbook, 24 to 37 in the new one |
| MSN Nursing Education & Leadership | NRSG 604, NRSG 620 | 150 (30 + 120) | NRSG 604 also sits in the FNP course order with no hours attached |
| MSN Education track, current curriculum | NRSG 658, NRSG 634 | 150 (30 + 120) | Same split under older course numbers |
| Post-Bachelor's NEL Certificate | NRSG 620 (the web page adds a 30-hour practicum) | 150 on the web page, 120 in the handbook schedule | Two practicums on the page, one in the handbook |
| RN-BSN, starts on or after August 23, 2026 | NRSG 364, NRSG 471 | 60 (15 + 45) on the web page and in the Fall 2026 handbook | 45 on the program sheet |
| RN-BSN, core started before August 2026 | NRSG 326, NRSG 443, NRSG 467 | 45 (15 each) | None |
| Traditional BSN, Level 0 from August 24, 2026 | NURS 201 through NURS 478 | 540 clinical plus 495 lab, stated as 1,035 | Level subtotals add to 990; the listed lab courses add to 450 |
| Traditional BSN, Levels 1 to 4 (legacy plan) | NURS 202 through NURS 478 | 720 clinical | None |
Tap a program in the planner above for its full course order and guide. The table is the place to check when two Olivet documents give you different numbers.
Which figure applies to you
Your handbook version settles it. The library carries two graduate handbooks, one labeled New Curriculum and one labeled Current Curriculum, and neither ties itself to particular start dates. The undergraduate splits are dated (August 23, 2026 for the RN-BSN, August 24, 2026 for the Traditional BSN), so those students can place themselves from their start date alone.
- Read your course numbersClinicals numbered
NRSG 636CtoNRSG 639Cmean the new FNP curriculum; clinicals in theNRSG 665series mean the current one. The side-by-side guide to the two curricula lists every difference. - Open your requirements courseSigning the handbook agreement means accepting the practicum rules that the Canvas requirements course for your track lays down, so read it before you plan any hours.
- Ask the Online Advising TeamWhere a program page and a handbook disagree, ask your advisor which figure your plan of study uses, and keep the reply in writing.
- Check your licensure stateFNP students who plan to license outside Illinois should read that board's rules as well, since Olivet warns that some states add their own clinical-hour or documentation requirements for APRN licensure.
How Olivet records the hours you complete
Hours count once they are documented, not when they are worked. Project Concert is where that happens: the fee sheet has FNP students tracking competencies and documenting each clinical encounter there, and NEL students tracking competencies. The Project Concert guide covers the logging side.
A graduate clinical or practicum course is passed with two results together: graded work averaging 83% or higher, and a full set of hours rated satisfactory. Olivet closes clinical submissions at 11:59 p.m. CST on a course's final day, and its online weeks start Monday at 12:01 a.m. CST and end Sunday at 11:59 p.m. CST. That is the calendar you pace hours against in an eight-week course.
Undergraduate records work differently. Legacy RN-BSN students, whose core began before August 2026, turn in a signed 15-hour log for each practicum course, and research can account for as many as 6 of those hours. The Traditional BSN plans convert credit at 1 credit hour to 45 clinical or lab hours, and a clinical day canceled by a facility is made up in the Virtual Learning Center.
Where Olivet lets the hours happen
Graduate hours are done in your own area with an approved preceptor you select. For FNP students that area has to fall within Olivet's approved list, which covers 37 states and DC. The 13 states on the other list are off limits for FNP practicum hours, and living in an approved state next door does not change that. The licensure disclosures guide explains the list.
The NEL and Post-Graduate APRN program pages also require an approved state, though the NEL pages print no state list, so NEL students should confirm their state with an advisor before approaching a site.
RN-BSN hours happen in your own community. NRSG 471 splits its 45 hours: 30 online, building a community health presentation in a team that includes pre-licensure and MSN students, and 15 in person, reconciling medications and teaching adults. Traditional BSN students are assigned to sites up to about 90 minutes from the Bourbonnais campus.
When hours fall short
Each program treats unfinished hours its own way, and the rules are firm enough that it pays to plan around them from the first week of a course.
NRSG 620: open hours at the 8-week mark bring an X grade and an 8-week extension, and a course still unfinished at 16 weeks is repeated.- FNP clinicals: a failed population course, didactic or clinical, is retaken while its paired course is audited, and the audit can mean redoing as much as half the clinical hours.
- Graduate clinicals that are more than two years old by the time you finish can be subject to an audit.
- RN-BSN, new curriculum: missed hours are made up before the course window closes, with an Incomplete recorded until the last one is in.
- Leave of absence: Olivet expects the Return Form a full two weeks ahead of your first clinical or practicum course back.
Full detail sits in the grades and progression guide, and behind on clinical hours helps once a course is already running.
Why Olivet students plan their hours with us
We build every placement around the hour count of the course in front of you. For an FNP student that means four preceptors whose patients match adult and older adult care, women's health, pediatrics and the whole lifespan, each confirmed before the course opens and each inside an approved state. For an NEL student it means a population health setting for 30 hours and an education or leadership preceptor who can host 120 hours inside eight weeks.
We also watch the dates that quietly stall hours: the drug screen window before a practicum, annual TB and flu renewals, a BLS card that has to last the whole course. If a preceptor steps away partway through, the placement desk begins the replacement search right away so your log keeps moving. Tell us your track and next course through the contact page and we will map the preceptors your hours need.
Questions Olivet students ask
Do FNP Immersion days count toward Olivet's 750 clinical hours?
Olivet's handbooks total the 750 hours across the clinical courses and list no hours for NRSG 688 in the new curriculum or NRSG 685 in the current one. The fee sheet does list an FNP Immersion lab fee. Ask your advisor how immersion time is recorded, and see the FNP Immersion guide for what Olivet publishes about it.
Do my 2,000 RN work hours count as clinical hours?
No. Olivet lists them as two separate requirements. The 2,000 RN hours are a condition of the MSN and Post-Graduate APRN programs, earned in your nursing work and due by the end of NRSG 681, or you are temporarily withdrawn. Clinical hours are earned only inside the clinical courses with an approved preceptor. See the 2,000 RN hours rule.
Does NRSG 604 Population Health carry clinical hours for FNP students?
In the NEL sample schedule, NRSG 604 carries 30 direct clinical hours. The FNP sample schedule includes the same course but attaches no hours to it, and the FNP program page counts its 750 hours across four clinical courses. Ask your advisor whether any NRSG 604 activity is logged for your track before you arrange a site for it.
Are Traditional BSN lab hours the same as clinical hours?
Olivet lists them apart. The new plan states 540 clinical hours and 495 lab hours, at 1 credit hour for every 45 clinical or lab hours, with the immersion courses such as NURS 222 carrying the lab share. The legacy plan for students in Levels 1 to 4 counts 720 clinical hours. Your sites are assigned by the school rather than chosen by you.
How many hours a week should I plan for an FNP clinical?
Olivet's handbooks give each clinical's total hours but not its length in weeks, so the weekly figure comes from your syllabus rather than a published rule. Divide the course hours by the weeks the syllabus sets, then leave a margin for canceled clinic days, because the course's final day is also its deadline.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Olivet's own handbooks, program pages, fee sheet and licensure disclosures. Your handbook version, your Canvas clinical requirements course, your faculty and the SON Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
Olivet asks you to start with your own network. We make the search the easy part of your program.
Tell us your Olivet track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, inside Olivet's approved states, and prepare everything Olivet's approval and the site's onboarding need.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adults and older adults for
NRSG 636C, women's health forNRSG 637C, children forNRSG 638C, education and leadership forNRSG 620 - Credentials, license and site details ready before your clinical course opens, with the drug screen timing on your calendar
- In your own community, in Illinois or any state Olivet approves for your clinicals
Start your placement plan
Track, city and start date is all we need to begin.