Graduate Clinical Requirements

All clinical hours need to be hospital based. Students must complete the process for obtaining a hospital contract prior to their first clinical course (see student handbook). Preceptors can be an APN or MD. Students will need to obtain a Missouri license if they do not reside in a compact state.

• NURS 5110: Advanced Health Assessment and Clinical Decision Making (75 hours)
  Any area in the hospital that will facilitate the student’s ability to perform a comprehensive history and physical examination on acute and complex chronically ill patients (ages 13 and above). Emergency medicine or a hospitalist group is recommended.

• NURS 5260: Advanced Clinical Studies I (75 hours)
  The student focus is addressing short term goals that include minimizing or preventing complications. The student develops critical reasoning coupled with advanced practice skills. Areas to focus on are hospitalist group or emergency medicine. Students may have more than one preceptor/multiple sites.

• NURS 5270: Advanced Clinical Studies II (150 hours)
  The student’s focus is addressing patients with complex acute and unstable conditions. Areas of focus are intensive care units (medical or surgical), a hospitalist group or emergency medicine. Students may have more than one preceptor/multiple sites.

• NURS 5810: Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Practicum (300 hours)
  Students will complete 75 hours in the summer and 225 hours in the fall. Advising from the core faculty will determine the additional sites needed for this course. The student assumes increasing independence and subspecialty competencies in selected populations within the hospital environment. Areas to consider are: neurology, neurosurgery, renal, endocrine, hematology/oncology, palliative care, and cardiology, infectious disease, ortho/trauma. Students may have more than one preceptor/multiple sites.
  
  By the end of the NURS 5810 the AGACNP student will be able to demonstrate competencies in a majority of the specialties and subspecialties within the hospital environment: (cardiology, pulmonology, orthopedics, emergency medicine, palliative care, geriatric care, surgical care, infectious disease, intensive care, hematology-oncology, renal, endocrine, neurology).

Your clinical hours must be distributed in a way that represents the populations of multiple care settings served by the specialty. By the end of NUR 5810, you should be able to demonstrate competencies in all the clinical areas below.

• NURS 5110: Advanced Health Assessment and Clinical Decision Making
  Clinical hours may be completed in any outpatient setting that will give you a diverse population and allow you to perform a complete history and physical examination for acute and chronically ill patients. This is usually in the areas of internal medicine or family medicine, though emergency rooms or take-care clinics are also appropriate clinical sites. The preceptor may be an adult, gerontological or family nurse practitioner or physician.
• NURS 5240 and NURS 5250: Advanced Clinical Studies I and II
  Clinical hours may be completed in multiple outpatient settings, including internal medicine and family practices. Emergency rooms and take-care/urgent-care clinics are not appropriate choices for these courses. The preceptor may be an adult, gerontological or family nurse practitioner or physician.
• NURS 5810: Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Practicum
  Clinical hours can be completed in multiple outpatient settings, including internal medicine and family practice. Limited clinical hours can also be completed in subspecialty practices such as cardiology, pulmonary, neurology, endocrine, hematology, gastrointestinal or renal. This allows you to develop clinical reasoning related to the above systems, coupled with advanced practice skills.

  
  Limited hours in a continuing care retirement community with independent living and long-term care is also recommended. The preceptor may be an adult, gerontological or family nurse practitioner, or physician/specialist. A preceptor who sees patients both in the outpatient setting and does rounds in nursing homes is ideal. Emergency rooms and take-care/urgent-care clinics are not appropriate choices for this course.

You will acquire your own preceptor if you complete your clinical hours out of town and with assistance if they are completed locally.

• NURS 5110: Advanced Health Assessment and Clinical Decision Making
  The clinical site may be community, outpatient or inpatient, but you must have an opportunity to conduct histories and perform both complete and focused physical exams on a wide variety of ages. The preceptor may be an advanced practice nurse, physician assistant or physician. Family nurse practitioners and family medicine physicians are preferred.
• NURS 5280: Advanced Clinical Studies I
  You can seek rotations with internal medicine or family practice nurse practitioners or primary care physicians.
• NURS 5290: Advanced Clinical Studies II
  Hours can be completed at a family practice (either nurse practitioner or M.D.), or with an OB-GYN physician, certified nurse midwife, women's health care nurse practitioner, or pediatric nurse practitioner or pediatrician, as pertinent to the course content.
• NURS 5810: Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Practicum
  This experience will be a continuation of the above areas but should occur in subspecialty practices on a rotational basis, i.e., dermatology, sports medicine, radiology. Convenient care clinicals are not a good choice for these courses.

• NURS 5110: Advanced Health Assessment and Clinical Decision Making
  The clinical site may be community-based, outpatient or inpatient, but you must have an opportunity to conduct histories and perform both complete and focused physical exams on a wide variety of ages of children. The preceptor may be a pediatric advanced practice nurse or a pediatrician. Family nurse practitioners and family medicine physicians may be used, if they have contact with several children on the clinical day.
• NURS 5320 and NURS 5330: Advanced Clinical Studies I and II
  You must work with a pediatric nurse practitioner, family nurse practitioner or pediatrician and be involved in care of well children and children with acute and/or chronic health problems. The primary setting should be community and outpatient care. Limited clinical hours in specialty practices will be allowed.
• NURS 5810: Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Practicum
  You must complete these clinical hours with a pediatric nurse practitioner or pediatrician and be involved in care of well children and children with acute and chronic health problems in primary and outpatient sites. Limited clinical hours at in-patient sites that support clinical reasoning and advanced practice skills may be considered. A minimum of 10 neonatal contacts (one month of age or less) must be documented by the end of the program.