UC AGPCNP practicums: 504 outpatient hours

The three AGPCNP practicums

They land in the final three terms of the plan, MSN semesters 4 through 6 and DNP semesters 6 through 8. Each pairs with a seminar, ANNP8050, ANNP8052 and ANNP8054, and the first course is deliberately small at 112 hours.

UC Online lists the MSN at 44 credits and 504 clinical hours. The preceptor for any of the three must be an NP, an MD or a DO.

What counts toward the 252 primary care hours

At least half of your 504 hours, 252 or more, must be in primary care. Internal medicine and family practice offices that see patients 13 and older, along with FQHCs, are the core settings on UC's sheet. Visits with children under 13 fall outside the track's population, so a family practice's pediatric schedule won't help.

UC lets up to 100 hours from five other settings count toward the primary care figure: urgent care, assisted living, long-term and extended care, and home-based care. The 100 is one shared allowance, so 60 hours in urgent care plus 40 in assisted living uses all of it.

Specialty offices can fill the rest, and Practicum III is where UC invites a specialty choice. Keep a running tally each term so specialty time doesn't crowd out primary care before you reach 252.

Settings UC won't approve

The AGPC guide rules out several settings entirely. Time spent in them won't count, even with a qualified NP beside you. If a practice mixes office visits with hospital rounds, only the office side fits, so ask your Clinical Site Coordinator (CSC) how to log a mixed schedule.

• Inpatient units of any kind
• Operating rooms
• Hospice
• Weight-loss clinics
• Addiction treatment programs
• Integrative-medicine practices

Your employer is out as well. Unlike the FNP and midwifery tracks, which allow workplace clinicals with limits, the AGPC guide bars your place of work from serving as a clinical site at all. Clinicals at your workplace sets the tracks side by side.

Preceptor limits across the three terms

AGPC preceptor rules are tighter than in most UC tracks, and several are counted per term rather than across the program.

• Three or more preceptors, spread over three or more practice locations, by graduation.
• A ceiling of two preceptors per semester, and just one in Practicum I unless faculty sign off on a second.
• 80 hours or more with every preceptor you use.
• 100 hours or more under an NP; physicians (MD or DO) can cover the rest.
• Clinical days of four hours or longer with the preceptor.
• No family members, and no supervisor from your own department.

Because Practicum I normally allows a single preceptor for all 112 hours, that person needs room for the whole course. The search itself is covered on finding a UC AGPCNP preceptor.

What secured by week 2 means for AGPC

All UC tracks share one cutoff: a secured site before the second week of the term is out. The AGPC guide defines secured as every piece of paperwork processed and your CSC's clearance in hand. A preceptor's verbal yes is not enough. Start the packet early enough for all of that to clear.

So the preceptor's approval, the site's affiliation agreement and any site onboarding all have to be finished before week 2 ends. Miss it and the guide points you to dropping the course by the drop date, with a full refund, rather than facing an administrative withdrawal or a failing grade; UC's week-2 cutoff walks through the options. Hours also count only inside the term's dates, so there is no catching up over the break.

Post-master's AGPCNP certificate

Certificate students take three internships, ANNP8056, ANNP8057 and ANNP8058, each carrying 168 hours in the same kinds of primary care settings: internal medicine, family practice, FQHCs and specialty offices, with patients 13 and older. By our sum of UC's per-course figures that is 504 hours. Each internship is 1 credit on UC's curriculum guide, alongside NURS8026, ANNP8030 and ANNP8032, and the certificate can start in spring, summer or fall.

Only residents of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana can enroll in the certificate, so its clinicals happen in the tri-state area, and it has its own requirements sheet separate from the MSN and DNP one. Read that sheet before you plan. More on admission and plans: UC's post-master's certificates.

Planning AGPC hours with a placement advisor

We plan AGPC placements around the rules that catch people out: no employer sites, one preceptor in Practicum I, three different practice locations, and the 252-hour primary care floor. We look for outpatient NP and physician preceptors outside your employer who can give you at least 80 hours inside a term, and we map which term each one fits so the three-location rule works out by graduation.

If a preceptor cancels mid-term, a replacement takes your second preceptor slot for that semester, so we move quickly and look for someone who can carry the remaining hours alone.

We help you prepare the packet for your CSC, and UC alone approves each preceptor and site. Tell us your term and practicum through the form on this page.