What is Clinical Placement?
Clinical placement is the required clinical education component of Carson-Newman’s Family Nurse Practitioner degree and Post-Master’s Certificate programs. Clinicals work in tandem with the classroom-based coursework to prepare you for your future as a Family Nurse Practitioner providing primary care in the field.
Watch this 30 second video to learn more about how Carson-Newman provides support during the clinical placement process, so you can focus on your development as an FNP.
How Does This Benefit You?
The Carson-Newman Department of Nursing believes you are only as successful as your training, which is why we have taken the stress out of the clinical placement process. As an online Family Nurse Practitioner student, you get the benefit of having a clinical placement specialist who will work with Carson-Newman to source and secure a quality placement site and preceptor for most of your graduate-level clinical rotations. With this peace of mind, you can focus on your studies and building competency instead of worrying about clinicals.
"I actually started [another MSN-FNP] program a couple of years ago, but I stopped because I couldn't find anywhere to do clinicals. Finding clinical placements is super, super hard. You could wait six months before you can actually get in somewhere, so, it really slows down your progress. So when I saw that Carson-Newman was willing to find placement for me, I jumped on board very quickly."
- Miranda Kerley, Online MSN-FNP Student
How Many Clinical Hours are Required?
Carson-Newman’s Master of Science in Nursing - Family Nurse Practitioner (MSN-FNP) degree*, and Post-Master’s Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate (PMC-FNP) program** require three (3) clinical rotations in order to graduate, plus an additional 60 clinical hours for the NURS 507 Advanced Health Assessment course, totaling 660 clinical hours. If a student selects NUR 600 Advanced Practice Project as his or her capstone course, the total number of clinical hours required to graduate increases to 690.
Required Family Nurse Practitioner MSN-Level Clinical Rotation Courses
Clinical placements and preceptors are provided for the following MSN-level Clinical Rotations:
NURS 531: Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Women (180 clinical hours)
NURS 535: Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Children and Adolescents (180 clinical hours)
NURS 537: Advanced Primary Nursing Care for Adults (240 clinical hours)
*Clinical placements and preceptors are not provided for the NURS 507 Advanced Health Assessment course (60 clinical hours).
**Based on experience, some PMC-FNP students may not have to complete the full 600 hours. C-N will review experience and create a custom degree map to fulfill requirements.