UNCW's FNP practicum courses, NSGL 650 to NSGL 653
In UNCW's current BSN-DNP FNP curriculum you complete four practica: NSGL 650, NSGL 651 and NSGL 652 at 180 patient contact hours each, then NSGL 653 at 240, all in what the catalog calls population specific primary care settings. Earlier cohorts take NSGL 620–NSGL 622 instead. Each course widens the patient mix, so the preceptor who fits one course may not fit the next.
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Tell us your UNCW program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UNCW course.
The four FNP practica at a glance
All four courses belong to the 74-credit BSN-DNP FNP plan, and each carries an "Instructor approval" note in the catalog, so you need course faculty sign-off to register. Hours below come from the catalog course pages; terms come from UNCW's published FNP plans of study.
| Course | Title | Credits | Hours | Full-time plan | Part-time plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NSGL 650 | Advanced Family Nursing Practicum I | 3 | 180 | Spring, year 2 | Spring, year 3 |
NSGL 651 | Advanced Family Nursing Practicum II | 3 | 180 | Summer, year 2 | Summer, year 3 |
NSGL 652 | Advanced Family Nursing Practicum III | 3 | 180 | Fall, year 3 | Fall, year 4 |
NSGL 653 | Advanced Family Nursing Practicum IV | 4 | 240 | Spring, year 3 | Spring, year 5 |
The part-time plan leaves the spring of year four without a practicum, so NSGL 653 lands a full year after NSGL 652. The course hours total 780, while the catalog's exit requirement names 750 direct patient care hours within the 1,000; the 1,000-hour guide sets out both figures. Your syllabus is the number to plan against.
What each course asks of the site
UNCW's FNP preceptor page describes a widening patient mix. NSGL 650 is the foundational practicum, with patients across the lifespan. NSGL 651 adds pediatric and adolescent populations. NSGL 652 expands into women's health and more complex care. NSGL 653 is the capstone, which UNCW calls the final and most intensive practicum, built around autonomous, multi-system care and the point by which every program encounter requirement must be met.
The Preceptor's Corner sums up the FNP need as primary care, pediatric and women's health experience, and the older clinical handbook calls a family practice setting ideal. Read against the course list, that points to a workable plan:
NSGL 650: a family practice or adult primary care clinic with a broad age mix and a steady chronic-care panel.NSGL 651: a family practice with a busy pediatric schedule, or a pediatric office, for well and episodic visits from infancy through the teens.NSGL 652: a practice with women's health volume, such as an OB-GYN office or a family practice doing gynecologic and prenatal visits, where a CNM can also precept.NSGL 653: a high-volume family practice where you can carry complex patients and close any gaps in your counts.
That mapping is our planning advice, not a UNCW rule; each syllabus's objectives decide what fits. The encounter targets are listed on the FNP encounters page, and UNCW applies them to both curricula.
Prerequisites: two UNCW sources disagree
The 2026-27 catalog lists one prerequisite for NSGL 650: NSG 612 Advanced Family Nursing I: Adult Health, the same course the old NSGL 620 required. UNCW's FNP preceptor page gives a different set: NSG 601 Pathophysiology, NSG 602 Advanced Health Assessment and NSG 603 Advanced Pharmacotherapeutics. The same page makes NSG 612 and NSG 613 pre- or co-requisites for NSGL 651, and NSG 614 (women's health) and NSG 615 (complex problems) pre- or co-requisites for NSGL 652.
Both plans of study place NSGL 650 in the spring right after NSG 612, so the conflict matters most when you are off the published plan, for example after a leave, a retaken course or a rearranged part-time schedule.
If your schedule departs from the plan of study, ask your advisor which prerequisite list your NSGL 650 section enforces before you commit a preceptor to that semester.
Who precepts FNP practica
Your preceptor can be an NP, a certified nurse midwife, a physician (MD or DO) or a PA practicing in North Carolina, with at least a year as a provider, ideally at the site where you would train. NPs and CNMs hold an RN license, NC Approval to Practice and board certification; physicians and PAs hold an NC license and board certification. The full checklist is on our preceptor requirements page.
The Fall 2025 clinical hours handbook adds that at least one preceptor across the program must be an NP, a line missing from the live FNP preceptor page, so plan on at least one NP. When one site cannot supply a course's hours, you can split them across up to four preceptors, each with a separate placement packet.
The previous sequence: NSGL 620 to 622
Students admitted before the 2025-26 catalog may be finishing on three 3-credit practica, NSGL 620, NSGL 621 and NSGL 622, at 180 hours each by UNCW's preceptor page and clinical handbook; the catalog course pages state that figure only for NSGL 622. The older handbook's chart has the first course covering adults and pediatrics and the next two adding women's health. Our curriculum transition guide compares the two sequences in full.
The old final course carries a specialty rule: up to 80 hours toward the matching encounter category in NSGL 622, cleared in advance by the Graduate Clinical Coordinator, with one specialty clinic allowed per program. The handbook's examples include urgent care, dermatology, allergy and immunology, cardiology, orthopedics, urology, sports medicine, HIV care, emergency fast track and international experiences. UNCW does not explain how that last example fits its rule that NP hours happen in North Carolina only, and it has not said whether the allowance carries over to NSGL 653. Ask before you plan a specialty block in either course.
Why FNP students choose us for NSGL 650 to 653
We plan your four practica as one arc rather than four separate scrambles. Starting from your plan of study, we look for North Carolina preceptors whose patient mix fits each course, a lifespan practice for NSGL 650, pediatric volume for NSGL 651, women's health for NSGL 652 and a busy capstone site for NSGL 653, and we time each request well ahead of UNCW's submission window. UNCW's own process chart suggests starting 6 to 12 months out, and our first clinical semester guide maps that to each plan.
For each placement we assemble the preceptor's CV with dates and site, license number, evaluation email and agency details, so the Graduate Clinical Coordinator sees a complete packet the first time. If a preceptor drops mid-course, we stay on call and find a replacement. See how it works.
Questions UNCW students ask
Can one preceptor take me through all four UNCW FNP practica?
UNCW's clinical handbook lets FNP students stay at one site for the whole program as long as it meets each course's objectives. A single family practice can work if it sees children, adolescents, women's health and complex adults in enough volume to reach every encounter minimum by NSGL 653. If it falls short in one area, a second preceptor for that course fills the gap.
Why does UNCW say 750 direct hours when the FNP courses add up to 780?
The catalog's exit requirement for the FNP concentration reads 750 direct patient care hours and 250 non-patient hours, while the four course pages list 180, 180, 180 and 240, which sum to 780. UNCW has not reconciled the two. Each course syllabus sets the hours you must log, so plan against the course figure.
Can I count telehealth visits in my UNCW FNP practicum?
Within limits. UNCW's clinical handbook caps FNP and AGPCNP students at 50 telehealth encounters across the whole program, and those visits must happen on site in the clinic, not from home. Plan most of your encounters as in-person visits so the cap never slows your progress toward the minimums.
What happens if I cannot finish my NSGL 650 hours on time?
UNCW expects clinical hours to be completed before the last day of classes. A student who cannot finish the hours or encounters may receive an incomplete, and the DNP handbook says progression stops until the incomplete is resolved within the time frame course faculty set. With four practica back to back, one late term can push back the next.
Do the old and new FNP courses use the same preceptor rules?
Yes. UNCW's FNP preceptor page says both sets of practicum courses share the same preceptor requirements and the same patient contact hours per course, 180 in each of the first three. The encounter minimums also apply to every FNP student, whichever sequence they follow.
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 School of Nursing, DNP FNP Clinical Preceptor and Site Requirements
- UNCW 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, DNP Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration
- UNCW 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, NSGL 650 Advanced Family Nursing Practicum I
- UNCW DNP FNP Plans of Study
- UNCW DNP Immersion and Clinical Hours Handbook (Fall 2025)
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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