RN-BSN practicums at Olivet: NRSG 364, NRSG 471 and the legacy courses

Which plan you are on

Your core start date decides your practicum courses. On the new plan, core courses are offered online every eight weeks with two core starts a year, fall and spring, and the core takes 16 months; the program sheet describes each core course as seven weeks long, so check your syllabus for the real dates.

Olivet's hour totals do not agree. Sixty is the new plan's figure on the RN-BSN web page and in the Fall 2026 handbook, counting 15 and 45. The program sheet gives 45, and the web page's own FAQ mentions 45 practicum hours in Population Health, which matches NRSG 471 alone. Plan for the handbook's two courses and confirm the total with your advisor.

NRSG 471: 45 hours of population health

Sixth on the core list, NRSG 471 splits its 45 hours unevenly. Most of them, 30, are online teamwork, working with pre-licensure and MSN classmates on a presentation about community health. The remaining 15 are hands-on time with adult patients, reconciling medications and teaching.

The web page places those hours online and onsite in your own community, and calls the clinical activities tentative and open to change. The 15 direct-care hours are the part that needs a real setting near home, somewhere adults come for care and a nurse can supervise medication reviews and teaching.

If you miss hours, you recover them before the course closes, and an Incomplete sits on the course until the last one is logged. The leave and delays page covers Incompletes in full.

Legacy plan: NRSG 326, NRSG 443 and NRSG 467

For students who began the core before August 2026, the handbook is direct: the student obtains the preceptor and, where needed, the agency. Each of the three courses carries 15 practicum or project hours, and the paperwork runs through the bsnpracticum@olivet.edu mailbox.

1. Choose a preceptor who fits each courseAny legacy preceptor must hold a BSN or a higher degree and an unencumbered nursing license. For NRSG 326 (community health) and NRSG 443 (global and transcultural nursing), the preceptor should work in or alongside a community agency; the handbook's examples are schools, colleges, outpatient clinics and pregnancy centers, and it strongly favors one preceptor across both courses. The leadership, law and ethics course (NRSG 467) calls for an RN, BSN or above, with management or leadership experience past or present.
2. Send the forms with original signaturesDownload the Preceptor Information Form (and, when the agency needs one, an Agency Affiliation Agreement) from Files in the Canvas course and send them to bsnpracticum@olivet.edu before NRSG 326 opens. Signatures must be handwritten originals; a stamp or a typed name is refused.
3. Wait for the approval emailTwo things gate your first hour: the course must have opened, and Olivet's email approving the preceptor must be in your inbox. NRSG 326 adds a third, a completed background check and drug screen.
4. Log and uploadEach course needs 15 hours on a log sheet your preceptor signs, and research can fill as many as 6 of them. Upload the log to Canvas together with the Evaluation of Preceptor and Agency.