Eight-week courses and clinical hours at Olivet
Olivet Nazarene University runs its online graduate nursing and RN-BSN courses in eight-week sessions, and each course week runs from Monday at 12:01 a.m. to Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Central time. Clinical hours have to fit inside those dates, so the preceptor, the compliance file and a weekly pace all need to be settled before a clinical course opens.
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Tell us your Olivet program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Olivet course.
How an Olivet course week runs
The MSN handbook numbers the days of each course week. Day 1 opens at 12:01 a.m. CST on Monday; Day 7 closes at 11:59 p.m. CST on Sunday. Once Day 7 of the final week has passed, Olivet takes no more work, and anything tied to clinical or practicum work must be submitted before that final Sunday-night cutoff.
Online students live across the country, and the deadline does not move with them. If you live outside Central time, translate the cutoff once and put it in your calendar for every week of the program. Each posted start date on Olivet's program pages also falls on a Monday, the first day of a course week.
| Where you live | Course week closes |
|---|---|
| Central (Illinois) | Sunday 11:59 p.m. |
| Eastern | Monday 12:59 a.m. |
| Mountain | Sunday 10:59 p.m. |
| Pacific | Sunday 9:59 p.m. |
| Arizona and Hawaii | Shifts with daylight saving time; check the season |
Which Olivet courses run eight weeks
The MSN Nursing Education & Leadership is built from twelve accelerated classes of eight weeks each plus a single sixteen-week course in evidence-based practice. Its final practicum, NRSG 620, is an eight-week course that can stretch to sixteen weeks only through an X grade.
The RN-BSN offers core courses online every eight weeks, with general education courses starting on the same rhythm, though its program sheet describes each core course as lasting seven weeks. FNP students work in the same eight-week online format, but the handbook does not give the length in weeks of each FNP clinical course, so your syllabus is the source for those.
The posted 2027 start dates for the MSN tracks, January 4, March 1 and April 26, sit exactly eight weeks apart. The academic calendar on Olivet's main site is the residential semester and block calendar for the Bourbonnais campus, so online students take their dates from their program page, their advisor and Canvas.
Pacing clinical hours inside the dates
Divide the hours by the weeks and you have the average weekly load. The figures below use the hours and weeks Olivet states; where Olivet gives no length, use the weeks on your syllabus.
| Course | Hours | Weeks | Average per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| NRSG 620 NEL practicum | 120 | 8 | 15 |
| NRSG 620 with an X grade | 120 | 16 | 7.5 |
| NRSG 364 hospice (RN-BSN) | 15 | 8 (7 on the program sheet) | About 2 |
| NRSG 471 direct care (RN-BSN) | 15 of 45 | 8 (7 on the program sheet) | About 2, plus the virtual group work |
| FNP clinicals, NRSG 636C to 639C | 135 or 240 | Your syllabus | Hours divided by weeks |
An average hides the risk. A preceptor's clinic may close one weekday, a holiday can fall mid-course, and you may get sick. Plan to finish a week or two early, and log hours in the week you earn them so the last days go to paperwork rather than catching up. If the numbers are already slipping, read behind on clinical hours.
The weeks before a clinical course opens
- Two sessions out: confirm the preceptorOlivet approves every preceptor through the steps in your Canvas requirements course. Having a name ready two sessions ahead leaves time for approval and site onboarding. This lead time is our advice; Olivet does not publish one.
- During the prior session: the drug screen windowClearance has to land inside the two-to-four-week stretch before the practicum's start, which in an eight-week rhythm lands in the back half of the course before it. The drug screen page explains the rest.
- Coming back from leave: the Return FormStudents returning to a clinical course file the Return Form two weeks before it starts; leave and delays covers the details.
- When Canvas opens the courseOlivet courses open in Canvas before the start date. Read the syllabus for the hour count, the logging rules and the due dates, and share the dates with your preceptor.
- Week 1: the FNP exam optionFNP students who would rather take both exams, midterm and final, in person at one of Olivet's testing locations have to request it before Week 1 ends, and space depends on availability.
When the last week gets tight
What happens next depends on the course. The NEL practicum, NRSG 620, has its own extension, an X grade that buys a second eight weeks. RN-BSN students recover missed hours within the same course dates, holding an Incomplete in the meantime. In other graduate courses an Incomplete is a narrow exception with an early request deadline: seven business days back from a Sunday finish lands on the Thursday of the week before the final one.
None of these is a scheduling tool. Each one moves your next course, and in the MSN a slip in the final course can push you past the May commencement.
The final Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Central is the end for clinical and practicum work too. Finish hours with days to spare, not minutes.
Why students on the eight-week clock choose us
In an eight-week course, a lost week is an eighth of the time you have. We confirm your preceptor before the course opens, check that the preceptor's schedule can hold the weekly load the course needs, and set the plan so it finishes early rather than on the last Sunday.
Your preceptor paperwork is assembled and checked before the session begins, your drug screen is timed to its window, and we answer through every week of the course. When a preceptor leaves partway through, the replacement search opens the same day; see preceptor dropped out. Olivet gives the approval; we hand it a preceptor file with every piece in place. For a course opening soon, need a preceptor fast shows how we move, or use the form below.
Questions Olivet students ask
What time zone does Olivet use for course deadlines?
Central. Olivet writes its deadlines in CST: each course week starts just after midnight on Monday and closes a minute before midnight on Sunday, and the final day's clinical and practicum deadline follows that clock. Students in other time zones should convert the cutoff to local time once and keep it on their calendar.
How long are Olivet's FNP clinical courses?
The handbook describes online graduate courses as eight weeks long but does not give the length in weeks of each FNP clinical course, whether NRSG 636C to 639C or NRSG 665A to 665F. Your syllabus and your advisor have the dates. Divide the course's hours by its weeks to see the weekly load before you agree a schedule with a preceptor.
Are Olivet RN-BSN courses seven or eight weeks?
Olivet's sources differ. The RN-BSN page talks about core courses on an eight-week cycle, and the one-page program sheet gives a seven-week length for each. The course dates in Canvas and on your syllabus settle it for your section, so plan practicum hours inside those dates.
When do Olivet's online graduate nursing programs start?
Olivet posts start dates program by program. NEL: October 26, 2026, then January 4, March 1 and April 26 of 2027. FNP: January 4 and April 26 of 2027, though its page speaks of three starts a year. Post-Graduate APRN certificate: March 1 of 2027, with the same three-starts wording. Confirm your own date with your advisor.
Can I start clinical hours before the course begins?
The legacy RN-BSN handbook rules out any hours before the course opens and before Olivet emails its preceptor approval. The graduate handbooks require compliance to be complete before the first clinical day. Ask your course faculty before logging anything early, because every hour must be documented as satisfactory within the course.
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
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