Immersion hours in UNCW's DNP
Immersion hours are the share of UNCW's 1,000 DNP hours that happens away from patient care. BSN-DNP nurse practitioner students need 250 of them, which UNCW expects to build through the three DNP project courses, while Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership students log immersion as the bulk of their DNP hours, usually at their own workplace and with no assigned preceptor.
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What UNCW means by immersion
UNCW's clinical handbook defines immersion hours by what they are not: "These are not patient-focused hours, and the student does not have an assigned preceptor." They are practice hours tied to your DNP project and the site where you carry it out, approved by your project faculty and the site rather than supervised by a clinical preceptor.
The catalog labels the same idea in different ways. FNP and AGPCNP list 250 non patient care hours, PMHNP lists 250 indirect patient care clinical hours, and the DNP Student Handbook calls them immersion hours. All of them sit inside the total explained in UNCW's 1,000-hour DNP rule.
Immersion hours follow the same housekeeping as clinical hours. They go into Typhon within 5 days, travel time to the site is excluded, and none accrue while the UNCW campus is closed.
Where BSN-DNP students earn the 250
On the new curriculum, the DNP project spans three 3-credit courses, NSGL 696, NSGL 697 and NSGL 698, and the DNP Student Handbook expects 120 immersion hours to be accumulated in each. On the full-time NP plans the three run summer, fall and spring, finishing with DNP Project III alongside the capstone practicum. The DNP project courses page covers the project itself.
Three courses at about 120 hours each come to roughly 360 by our arithmetic, more than the 250 the catalog requires. UNCW's public documents do not reconcile the two; treat 250 as the program floor and your project faculty's expectations as the working target for each course.
The DNP Student Handbook has you complete the DNP Project Site Approval form in the first week of NSGL 696. Project sites may include your current employer, and for BSN-DNP students the project must fit the advanced practice role. If you do not work somewhere suitable, UNCW will set up an affiliation agreement with an agency and clinical liaison you identify, when the agency asks for one.
Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership
For the two master's-entry concentrations, immersion is the main event. Neither has a clinical practicum, and UNCW's handbook observes that most of these students complete their immersion hours where they already work, as an APRN or a healthcare systems leader. A signed Letter of Agreement between UNCW and the employer or practice site is required.
Post APRN students begin with the 500 clinical hours from their previous master's program and add DNP immersion hours to reach 1,000. The DNP Student Handbook sets that immersion share at 500 or more, while the Fall 2025 clinical handbook's course tables plan for about 430, so confirm your target with the program coordinator before your first project course.
Nurse Executive Leadership students count 1,000 post-baccalaureate practice hours, and anyone whose master's practicum came to fewer than 500 hours owes extra. Course faculty and your advisor can assist, but UNCW's handbook leaves identifying, obtaining and accurately logging the remaining hours to the student.
Immersion in the older NP curriculum
Before the 2025-26 catalog, NP students split the 1,000 hours far more evenly, and immersion carried more weight. The Fall 2025 clinical handbook still describes that model: 540 clinical plus 460 immersion hours, with a 3-credit residency, NSGL 681 Residency in Advanced Nursing Practice, contributing about 120 immersion hours and a DNP project course, NSG 699, taken twice.
| Concentration | Expected immersion hours |
|---|---|
| FNP | 470 |
| AGPCNP | 470 |
| PMHNP | 450 |
| Post APRN | 430 |
| Nurse Executive Leadership | 785 |
These tables use the older course numbering and do not exactly match the handbook's own 460 figure for NP students, so read them as planning estimates. Students admitted before Fall 2025 should confirm their immersion target with their project faculty or the Graduate Clinical Coordinator.
Getting an immersion site approved
UNCW's clinical handbook maps the project site process in five moves.
- Pick the project and site with your project faculty.The student chooses both, with faculty guidance from the start.
- Submit the site through DocuSign.Site information goes in through the project site form link in your Canvas course.
- Course faculty review it.Faculty check that the site suits the project before anything is signed.
- The site champion signs.The person at the site who backs your project signs the documentation.
- Begin, then close with a Letter of Support.Once cleared, you start logging immersion hours; the Letter of Support comes toward the end of the course.
The handbook also asks for a DNP Project Intent form alongside that Letter of Support. Form names and timing differ between UNCW's two DNP handbooks, so follow the instructions in your project course.
Where our placement work supports your immersion hours
Immersion hours have no assigned preceptor, but they still need a site willing to host you and sign on to your project. For BSN-DNP students, we take the clinical preceptor search off your plate, finding North Carolina preceptors for each practicum and preparing their details for UNCW's review, so the hours you spend outside clinic go into the project instead of cold calls.
For Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership students whose employer is not the right fit for the project, your placement advisor identifies organizations, and a contact at each, open to hosting your project work in the state where you are licensed, then gathers the agency details UNCW needs to put an agreement in place. Tell us your concentration and project timing in the form below.
Questions UNCW students ask
Can I do UNCW DNP immersion hours at my job?
Often, yes. The DNP Student Handbook says project sites may include your current place of employment, and the clinical handbook notes that most Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership students complete immersion hours where they work. BSN-DNP students need a project that fits the advanced practice role, and every site needs approval from your project faculty and from the site itself.
Are Post APRN immersion hours limited to North Carolina?
UNCW's published wording ties the Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership project to the state where the student is licensed, rather than to North Carolina specifically. That differs from the NP concentrations, whose clinical hours must be completed in North Carolina. Confirm your planned site and state with your program coordinator before you begin logging hours.
What was NSGL 681 at UNCW?
NSGL 681, Residency in Advanced Nursing Practice, was a 3-credit course in UNCW's older NP curricula that carried about 120 immersion hours. It still appears in the 2026-27 course list for cohorts finishing the older sequence, but the new curriculum replaced it, along with the twice-taken NSG 699, with three project courses, NSGL 696 to NSGL 698.
How many immersion hours does a UNCW PMHNP student need?
On the new curriculum, 250, which the catalog labels indirect patient care clinical hours, alongside 750 direct-care hours in the four practica. The Fall 2025 clinical handbook's older model lists about 450 expected immersion hours for PMHNP students, so anyone admitted before the 2025-26 catalog should confirm which target applies to their cohort.
Do immersion hours count on days UNCW is closed?
No. UNCW's handbook applies its campus-closure rule to immersion and clinical hours alike: wherever your site is, hours cannot accrue while the UNCW campus is closed. Travel time to an immersion site is excluded too, and getting there is your responsibility regardless of distance.
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 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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