UNCW clinical hours, program by program
Every UNCW DNP concentration adds up to 1,000 hours, but the direct-care share depends on your cohort and on which UNCW page you read: the catalog says 750, the course pages add up to 780, and the Preceptor's Corner tells preceptors to expect 600. This guide sets the figures side by side, explains how UNCW counts an hour, and points you to the page that goes deeper on each question.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UNCW program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UNCW course.
Pick your UNCW program
Your clinical courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From UNCW's own catalog and nursing pages.
- Who precepts
- NPs, CNMs, MDs, DOs or PAs practicing in North Carolina, board certified, a year or more as a provider
- Where
- Primary care, pediatrics and women's health, in North Carolina only
- Start looking
- 6 to 12 months ahead; details to UNCW at least 8 weeks before the semester
- Who precepts
- NPs, MDs, DOs or PAs in North Carolina, with at least one NP preceptor during the program
- Where
- Primary care for ages 13 to end of life, including frail-elderly care
- Start looking
- 6 to 12 months ahead; the first practicum is spring of year 2 on the full-time plan
- Who precepts
- PMHNPs, psychiatrists or PAs with a psychiatric focus; therapists for therapy hours; one student per preceptor per day
- Where
- Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings in North Carolina, more than one site across the program
- Start looking
- 6 to 12 months ahead; PMHNP practica can't be repeated, so start early
- Who precepts
- A nurse educator with a master's or higher, three years of teaching, licensed where the practicum is
- Where
- Schools of nursing, staff development and patient education settings where you are licensed
- Start looking
- Site and preceptor approved at least 5 weeks before the practicum course
- Who precepts
- NP tracks: your practicum preceptors; Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership: immersion hours without an assigned preceptor
- Where
- The DNP project setting, in the state where you are licensed for the non-NP concentrations
- Start looking
- Project courses run alongside the last practica on the NP plans
Use the planner, then check the fine print
The planner above this section gives each UNCW program its own tab: the practicum courses, the hours attached to each, who can precept you and when to start looking. It is the quick version. The sections below are the long version, with the source behind every figure and the spots where two UNCW documents give different numbers.
Two things make UNCW's hour picture harder than it should be. The School of Nursing moved its NP concentrations to new practicum sequences for students admitted from the 2025-26 catalog onward, so two sets of course numbers are live at once. And UNCW's pages were not all updated together, so the catalog, the plan-of-study pages, the clinical handbook and the Preceptor's Corner each carry their own totals. When they disagree, your course syllabus and the Graduate Clinical Coordinator settle it for your cohort.
Hours by UNCW program
Figures come from the 2026-27 catalog, the plan-of-study pages, UNCW's preceptor pages and the Fall 2025 clinical handbook. Totals marked "our sum" are our arithmetic from UNCW's course hours.
| Program | Clinical courses | Hours UNCW publishes |
|---|---|---|
| DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner (new sequence) | NSGL 650, NSGL 651, NSGL 652, NSGL 653 | 180, 180, 180 and 240 (780, our sum); catalog: 1,000 = 750 direct + 250 non-patient |
| DNP, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP (new sequence) | NSGL 660 to NSGL 663 | Same pattern; plan page: 780 direct + 250 non-patient; catalog: 750 + 250 |
| DNP, Psychiatric Mental Health NP (new sequence) | NSGL 646 to NSGL 649 | 187.5 each on the plan page (750 by our sum), plus 250 indirect hours |
| DNP NP concentrations, earlier cohorts | FNP NSGL 620 to NSGL 622; AGPCNP NSGL 636, NSGL 638, NSGL 639; PMHNP NSGL 643 to NSGL 645 | 180 per course; 540 clinical + 460 immersion in the Fall 2025 clinical handbook |
| PMHNP Post-Doctoral Certificate | NSGL 646 to NSGL 649 | No certificate total published; the DNP plan gives these courses 187.5 each |
| DNP, Post APRN | No practicum; project courses NSGL 696 to NSGL 698 | 1,000, counting 500 from your master's plus DNP immersion hours |
| DNP, Nurse Executive Leadership | No practicum; NSGL 696 to NSGL 698 | 1,000 post-baccalaureate practice hours; more if your master's had under 500 |
| MSN Nurse Educator | NSG 588 and NSG 589 (older cohorts NSG 596 and NSG 597) | 186: 168 in the practica plus 18 the handbook assigns to NSG 510, which the new course list drops |
| Nurse Educator Post-Graduate Certificate | NSG 588 (older cohorts NSG 594) | 150 over a 15-week semester on the preceptor page; the new 7-week course's hours are not published |
| BSN Prelicensure and ABSN | NSG 302 through the NSG 434 capstone | 135, 180, 180, 180 by semester; 675 on the Prelicensure plan |
| RN-BSN (online) | Practice experiences inside courses | No set number of clinical hours |
The per-course numbers, and what they mean for a weekly schedule, are laid out in practicum hours per course. How the DNP's total divides between patient care and everything else is the subject of UNCW's 1,000-hour DNP rule.
Where UNCW's own numbers disagree
Three UNCW sources describe the new FNP and AGPCNP practicum sequences three ways. The 2026-27 catalog lists 1,000 hours as 750 direct patient care plus 250 non-patient hours. The same catalog's course pages give 180 hours to each of the first three practica and 240 to the last, which comes to 780. The AGPCNP plan-of-study page writes 780 direct plus 250, a combined 1,030.
The Preceptor's Corner, the page UNCW sends preceptors to, asks them to expect about 180 hours a semester and 600 over the program. No current UNCW curriculum totals 600: the earlier three-course sequences reach 540, the new FNP and AGPCNP courses 780, and the new PMHNP courses 750. Read 600 as a general note to preceptors, not as your target.
The Fall 2025 clinical handbook adds one more version for earlier cohorts, 540 clinical plus 460 immersion hours, while the 2025-26 DNP Student Handbook describes the newer 750 and 250 split.
When two UNCW figures conflict, plan your preceptor time around the larger one until your syllabus or the Graduate Clinical Coordinator says otherwise. Arranging too few hours costs a semester; arranging a few spare costs very little.
How UNCW counts an hour
A handful of counting rules in UNCW's clinical handbook apply across the NP practica. Most lost hours trace back to one of them.
- Time spent caring for patients is the only time that counts. The drive to the site, EMR training and the site's own orientation stay off the tally.
- Your hours begin only once two things are in place: the first day of course orientation and the Graduate Clinical Coordinator's approval. Hours logged before both can be thrown out.
- Each course's hours have to be complete before that semester's last day of classes.
- Days when the UNCW campus is closed add nothing, wherever your site happens to be.
- FNP and AGPCNP students can count at most 50 telehealth encounters over the whole program, and those visits happen on site at the clinic.
- UNCW works on a 1:4 ratio, one credit hour for every four hours of activity a week, which is why a 4-credit capstone holds more hours than a 3-credit practicum.
Encounters and immersion hours go into Typhon, and UNCW gives you only a short window to enter each one. The Typhon logging guide covers that window and the records your faculty checks.
The rest of this hours guide
Each page below takes one hour question and answers it from UNCW's own documents, with the conflicts marked.
- FNP patient encounter minimums: the counts by age group and visit type an FNP student needs before graduating, plus AGPCNP's frail-elderly requirement.
- Evaluations and faculty site visits: the ICEP evaluations due near the 90-hour mark and how often clinical faculty come out to your site.
- Immersion hours: the 250 non-patient hours, the DNP project courses, and the Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership hours logged with no assigned preceptor.
- Your first clinical semester: the semester your first practicum lands in on each plan of study, and the month that means your search should begin.
- Grades and progression: what a C, a repeat or an incomplete practicum does to the rest of your plan.
Why UNCW students hand us the hour math
Hours only build when a preceptor has room for you on enough days. A preceptor who can take you one afternoon a week will struggle to get you to 180 hours inside a semester, and the 240-hour capstone needs more still. When you work with us, your placement advisor asks North Carolina preceptors about schedule capacity first and matches you with one whose clinic days fit your course's hours and your semester dates.
We then gather the preceptor and site details UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator reviews and have them complete and checked well ahead of the submission deadline, so your hours can start on the first day UNCW allows. If a preceptor drops partway through, we move quickly on a replacement so the count keeps climbing. Send your program and your next practicum through the form below.
Questions UNCW students ask
How many clinical hours does UNCW's DNP FNP require?
The catalog lists 1,000 hours: 750 in direct patient care and 250 non-patient hours. The four new practicum courses, NSGL 650 to NSGL 653, carry 180, 180, 180 and 240 hours, which adds to 780, so the course pages run past the catalog's direct-care figure. FNP students admitted before the 2025-26 catalog may be on the older three-course sequence instead.
Should I plan for 600 clinical hours because the Preceptor's Corner says so?
No. The 600-hour total on the Preceptor's Corner is general guidance written for preceptors, and it matches none of UNCW's current NP sequences. Earlier cohorts complete 540 practicum hours, new FNP and AGPCNP students 780, and new PMHNP students 750. Your course syllabus and your cohort's handbook give the figure that actually applies to you.
Do UNCW nurse educator students log practicum hours the same way?
They use Typhon as well, where the preceptor review form sits and where preceptors confirm the hours. The MSN Nurse Educator totals 186 practicum and practice hours. The preceptor is an experienced nurse educator licensed in the state where the practicum takes place, so the North Carolina limit on NP clinicals does not apply to this track.
Does the UNCW RN-BSN have clinical hours?
Not as a set number. UNCW says a prescribed count of clinical hours is not required in the RN-BSN. Students complete practice experiences built into the online courses, either at their current job or, if they are not working, outside a work setting. UNCW's RN-BSN FAQ also notes that these experiences cannot be completed online.
Do UNCW BSN students arrange their own clinical sites?
No. For the Prelicensure BSN and the ABSN, the School of Nursing makes clinical assignments at off-campus agencies in the counties around Wilmington, and students provide their own transportation. The plan runs 135, 180, 180 and 180 hours across four nursing semesters and ends with the NSG 434 capstone, a one-to-one preceptorship with an experienced registered nurse.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against UNCW's catalog, handbooks and School of Nursing pages. Your course, your cohort's handbook and UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
- UNCW Graduate Catalog 2026-27: DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration
- UNCW School of Nursing: Preceptor's Corner
- UNCW DNP Program Immersion & Clinical Overview (Fall 2025)
- UNCW DNP Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP: plan of study
- UNCW School of Nursing: MSN Nurse Educator preceptor and site requirements
UNCW asks you to find your own North Carolina preceptor. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UNCW program, your practicum course and where in North Carolina you can travel. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the CV, license and agency details UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator reviews, well before the deadline.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care, pediatrics and women's health for
NSGL 650toNSGL 653, adult and older-adult care for AGPCNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP - Preceptor CV with dates and site, license number and agency details ready for your submission
- In Wilmington, the Cape Fear region or wherever in North Carolina your clinicals can happen
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