TESU practicum and clinical hour requirements by program

The short answer is in the table below: FNP 750 clinical hours, each MSN specialization practicum course 100 hours, and DNP a minimum of 1,000 hours with at least 500 at TESU. The PMHNP total is not published, so treat it as a confirm-with-TESU item rather than a fixed number.

The MSN-FNP requires 750 clinical hours, completed under a qualified preceptor at an approved site. The program is 44 credits across 14 courses and is delivered online, but the clinical hours are hands-on and cannot be done remotely.

Because 750 hours is a substantial commitment for a working RN, the hard part is not the number itself, it is securing a preceptor whose license and certification match the family-practice population and who can host you across enough shifts to reach the total. That is the search where most FNP students stall.

You must carry malpractice insurance before you register for the practicum courses that carry these hours, so plan for that alongside your placement.

The MSN-PMHNP is delivered online with an in-person one-on-one preceptorship, but TESU does not publish a single clinical-hour total, so confirm the exact number directly with TESU before you plan your schedule. The program is 46 credits across 13 courses, with roughly 8 students per cohort.

The Post-Master's PMHNP certificate is a 31-credit online direct-care NP certificate. It also involves supervised clinical work with a preceptor, and, as with the master's track, you should confirm the exact clinical-hour total with TESU rather than assume a figure.

One accreditation note to keep straight: the Post-Graduate APRN certificate is pursuing initial CCNE accreditation and is not yet accredited. If you are looking at that certificate, confirm its current accreditation status with TESU, and do not assume it is accredited.

Each of the three MSN specializations requires 100 practicum hours per practicum course. These are the indirect-care tracks, Nurse Educator, Nursing Informatics, and Nursing Administration, and they are 30-credit online programs. They are not nurse practitioner tracks.

The specializations carry an extra planning layer: for each practicum course you arrange the preceptor, the site, and an approvable project. That project requirement is easy to underestimate, because a willing preceptor is not enough on its own; the work you do during the 100 hours has to be a project the program will approve.

This is exactly where we help specialization students, by sourcing a preceptor and site whose setting can actually support an approvable project, not just a signature.

The DNP (Systems-Level Leadership) requires a minimum of 1,000 post-baccalaureate clinical or practicum hours, and at least 500 of those must be completed at TESU. The program is online, and the leadership focus shapes the kind of site and preceptor that will count.

If you already banked hours during a prior graduate program, the post-baccalaureate framing matters, because those earlier hours may apply toward the 1,000 total while the 500-at-TESU floor still stands. Confirm exactly how your prior hours are counted with TESU, since that determination is theirs to make.

For DNP students, the sourcing challenge is finding a systems-level or leadership setting and a preceptor positioned to sign off on that scope of work, which is narrower than a general clinical placement.