UC's Nursing Education MSN: 112 practicum hours and who supervises them

How the Nursing Education MSN runs

UC describes its Nursing Education MSN as online with a direct care requirement: coursework online, plus an in-person precepted experience. It is 30 credit hours over two years in five semesters. Students can start in spring, summer or fall, and UC publishes a separate sample plan for each start term, so the semester your practicums fall in depends on when you began.

The entry bar is an unrestricted RN license and at least one year of registered nurse experience in the US. Instead of the three separate advanced courses NP students take, this track uses one integrated course, NURS8094 Integrated Advanced Health Assessment, Pathophysiology, and Pharmacology, worth 3 credits.

The practicum is the part of the program that reaches outside UC. It is small in hours, but it goes through the same Clinical Site Coordination process as every other UC graduate track, and your Clinical Site Coordinator (CSC) is the person to route it through.

112 practicum hours in two courses

The practicum splits into two 3-credit courses that need different kinds of supervision. Here is how UC's January 2026 requirement document lays them out.

Going by the course titles, a setting with an active simulation program suits NURS8092, while the direct hours in NURS8088 need real patient, family or community encounters. UC gives 112 as the program total. As in every UC graduate practicum, time outside the official semester dates won't count, because UC's malpractice cover doesn't extend past them.

Direct and indirect hours: who supervises which

UC assigns a faculty member as preceptor for indirect hours, so most of your 112 hours don't hinge on an outside search. The piece you arrange yourself is the 16 direct-care hours in NURS8088. Wherever you do practicum work, though, UC's rule still holds that no hours happen at a site without an agreement in place.

For the direct-care hours, UC wants a preceptor who holds an MSN, or a BSN along with a master's in another field, and who is one level above you. That resembles UC's leadership standard more than its NP rules; no nurse practitioner certification is involved. Depending on the setting, a nurse educator, a clinical nurse specialist or a nurse manager with a master's degree could fit, subject to your CSC's review.

One restriction catches working nurses: practicum hours can't be earned during paid work time. If you use your own hospital, the hours have to fall outside the time you're paid for.

Finding a site and a direct-care preceptor

For NURS8092, UC points to hospital or outpatient settings with a professional development focus, and to accredited colleges. For the direct hours in NURS8088, look for a hospital, outpatient or community setting where you'll have patient, family or community encounters, with a master's-prepared nurse above your level.

The Nursing Education documents we reviewed don't bar your employer as a site, but UC's general rule against training in the unit where you're employed may still apply. Check with your CSC before asking your own manager, and see the employer site page for how that rule plays out on other tracks.

Colleges and large hospital systems may want their own contract. UC's standard Educational Affiliation Agreement generally needs a minimum of six weeks, and a site's own agreement can sit in legal review for half a year or more. Raise the agreement question in your first call with a site. The affiliation agreement page compares the two routes.

The same deadlines, even for a small practicum

Sixteen direct-care hours can feel easy to leave until the last minute. UC's process doesn't shrink with the hours, so plan the practicum a term ahead.

1. Check your sample planFind the semester each practicum falls in on the plan for your start term, then count back from it.
2. Confirm the preceptor fitsMake sure the direct-care preceptor holds the right degree, sits above your level and can schedule you outside paid time.
3. Submit the Preceptor ApplicationDo the student section first. Deadlines fall on the first Friday in October (spring term), the first Friday in February (summer term) and the last Friday in May (fall term).
4. Clear compliance and onboardingKeep your Critical Requirements current and finish whatever onboarding the site asks for.
5. Secure the site by week 2No secured site when the second week closes means a withdrawal by the drop date, with a full refund, or a risk of administrative withdrawal.

The packet deadlines page lays out each date by term.

The Nurse Educator certificate, state rules and how we help

UC also offers a post-bachelor's Nurse Educator certificate of 11 to 12 credits. Its only practicum is NURS8088, which the certificate's requirement document lists at 56 indirect hours, so ask your CSC whether any direct-care time applies to you.

State rules follow UC's graduate list, so no clinicals can take place in the seven states UC closes to graduate work, which the state authorization page names. Washington accepts UC's MSN clinicals, and Nursing Education is among the programs on its Nursing Commission's approval list.

Why Nursing Education students bring us in: the 16 direct-care hours in NURS8088 need a master's-prepared nurse one level above you, and NURS8092 needs a hospital education department or college willing to sign an agreement. We search near you for both, check each preceptor against UC's degree-and-level rule before you ask, and put the paperwork your CSC checks in order. UC decides whether each preceptor, site and agreement is accepted, and the file it receives is complete.