NAU's MS Advanced Practice, FNP emphasis: courses, hours and preceptors
Northern Arizona University's Family Nurse Practitioner emphasis is a 48-unit online master's with 780 clinical hours packed into three practicums: NUR 661 over the summer, followed by NUR 663 in fall and NUR 665 in spring. You can take the coursework from home; the practicums need a family primary care preceptor that NAU approves. Here is how the degree fits together and where the preceptor work lands.
Plan your three FNP practicums
Tell us your start term and where you live. Your placement advisor replies with family practice options near you.
How the 48 units are built
NAU now teaches the FNP role inside one combined degree, the MS Nursing, Advanced Practice, whose first students started in Fall 2023. The older stand-alone MS FNP plan stopped admitting after Summer 2023, so older web pages and PDFs about that plan describe a program you will not be in. The 2026-27 catalog splits the FNP route into a 23-unit core and a 25-unit emphasis.
| Block | Courses | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced practice core | NUR 510, NUR 520, NUR 530, NUR 540, NUR 550, NUR 560, NUR 650, NUR 675 | 23 |
| FNP emphasis | NUR 660, NUR 661, NUR 662, NUR 663, NUR 664, NUR 665, NUR 676 | 25 |
| Degree total | 15 courses, three of them clinical practicums | 48 |
Only one core course changes with the track: FNP students take NUR 550, and PMHNP students take NUR 653 in its place. The catalog lists the degree as online with fieldwork required, Degree Search puts the usual length at 2.5 years, and NAU policy gives master's students six years to finish, with one possible extension.
Where the 780 hours sit
Every clinical hour in the FNP emphasis falls in three courses taken in a set order. The AY 21-22 graduate handbook and NAU's 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines agree on the split, and the guidelines add that at least 500 of the 780 hours are faculty-supervised practice in the family population focus.
| Course | Term | Hours | What the catalog says it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
NUR 661 Family Primary Health Care Practicum I | Summer | 180 | First primary care practicum: common health and illness conditions across the lifespan |
NUR 663 Family Primary Health Care Practicum II | Fall | 300 | Comprehensive assessment and management of acute and chronic conditions |
NUR 665 Family Primary Health Care Practicum III | Spring | 300 | Crisis intervention, chronic illness and complex conditions for the family unit |
Each practicum runs beside a theory course: NUR 660 with NUR 661, NUR 662 with NUR 663, and NUR 664 with NUR 665. Each practicum is also a prerequisite for the next, and under the guidelines a practicum dropped because paperwork arrived late waits a full academic year before you can take it again. The FNP hour mix page shows how NAU suggests dividing the hours by population, and the Practicum I guide starts the course-by-course detail.
Before the first practicum: prerequisites and paperwork
NUR 661 carries the longest prerequisite list in the degree: NUR 510, NUR 520, NUR 530, NUR 540, NUR 550, NUR 560, NUR 650, NUR 675 and NUR 676, with NUR 660 taken alongside. Put simply, the whole core plus NUR 676 is behind you when the summer practicum opens.
Some of what the practicums rely on was settled at admission. The catalog asked for an RN license for Arizona or a multistate license, an IVP Fingerprint Clearance Card, clinical health requirements, and undergraduate nursing research and public health nursing courses (didactic and clinical) passed with a B or better. Statistics has to be done before NUR 530, and NAU advises 3-5 years of general nursing practice first.
The clinical paperwork runs on its own, earlier clock. Under the 2022-23 guidelines your health and credential documents must be filed a full two months ahead of the first rotation day, and a student who misses that risks administrative withdrawal from the practicum and its theory course together. The clinical documents deadline page builds a backward plan from your first clinical day.
Who arranges the preceptor
NAU's FNP Clinical Guidelines for 2022-23, the newest version anyone can still read, describe a shared model that starts with you: "Students are encouraged to suggest potential preceptors and mentors," and the final placement decision belongs to the FNP Program Coordinator. You put a candidate forward on the FNP Preceptor/Agency Green Form, either with the site's approval already secured or asking the Clinical Placement Coordinator to help request it.
From there NAU starts an affiliation agreement if the practice has none, the preceptor supplies a CV or resume, license and certification, and you are told when you may begin. NAU can also offer a placement, and its guidelines are candid that while it tries to limit travel, overnight stays may still be needed. A preceptor you arrange near home keeps all three practicums close to where you live and work. The placement process and Green Form pages cover each step.
Planning three practicums as one search
The FNP emphasis rewards treating the clinical year as one project rather than three separate hunts. Summer's 180 hours make the lightest term; fall and spring carry 300 each. The guidelines' recommended mix includes roughly 100 hours each in pediatrics and women's health over the program. One family practice with a strong pediatric panel and routine gynecologic visits can therefore serve more than one target, and a second site can supply the 75 to 150 specialty hours.
Deadlines chain together too. On the 2022-23 version of the Green Form, summer requests are due by March 31, fall by June 30 and spring by October 31; the 2021-22 version used March 1, June 1 and October 1. Treat the earlier set as your safety margin and confirm the current dates with the FNP Program Coordinator. Clinical days also stay off university breaks, holidays and weekends unless the coordinator approves them, which shapes your weekly schedule; the pacing guide works through the numbers.
Where NAU's documents disagree
NAU no longer posts graduate clinical handbooks, so the FNP rules come from documents several years old, and they do not always match. For the rules in force today, ask your program coordinator and course faculty.
- Practicum units: the catalog and the 2022-23 guidelines give
NUR 663andNUR 665five units each, while the AY 21-22 graduate handbook shows three credits per practicum. The hours, 180, 300 and 300, match in both. - License wording: the 2021-22 guidelines wanted a license in the state where you live; the 2022-23 version asks for Arizona or a compact state and a license wherever you do clinical work.
- The 500 supervised hours: the 2022-23 guidelines call them faculty-supervised practice in one place and direct supervision in another, while describing preceptor oversight as indirect.
Grading is firmer than many working nurses expect. The graduate handbook sets 84% as the passing mark in MS-FNP courses, and any graduate course graded C or lower must be taken again.
Why NAU FNP students choose us
We build your preceptor plan around the FNP emphasis itself: family primary care sites that see patients of every age, with the pediatric and women's health hours the guidelines recommend, as close to home as your region allows. Each preceptor we bring is checked against Arizona rule R4-19-502 the way NAU applies it, covering license, a year of experience, a matching population focus and national certification.
We gather the CV, license and certification and get the site's sign-off first, so the Green Form you file can tick "The clinical site approved this placement", and we tell you early whether the practice will need a new affiliation agreement. NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665 get planned together, we stay on call through each term, and if a preceptor steps away we line up a replacement. The FNP Program Coordinator still approves every preceptor; our job is to hand NAU a complete, rule-ready request the first time. Tell us your start term with the form below.
Questions NAU students ask
Is NAU's MS FNP fully online?
The coursework is online, and the catalog lists the MS Advanced Practice as an online program. The three family practicums are in-person clinical time with an approved preceptor at a clinical site, and NAU publishes no on-campus intensive for the FNP emphasis. Where your hours happen depends on the preceptor and site settled for each term.
Can I complete FNP clinical hours at the practice where I work?
NAU's 2022-23 FNP guidelines leave room for it, with a condition: an affiliation agreement must be in place even when you are employed at the facility. The preceptor still has to meet Arizona's rule, and the FNP Program Coordinator still approves. Check early whether your employer already has an agreement with NAU, since a new one can take months.
Does NAU's MS FNP meet licensure requirements in every state?
No. NAU's professional licensure table lists the MS FNP as Does Not Meet in Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, and Meets elsewhere. Students located in one of those states at enrollment attest that they plan to work in another state. The licensure disclosure guide explains the table and its recent changes.
Is NAU's MS Advanced Practice accredited?
Yes. CCNE accredits the Nursing - Advanced Practice MS, according to NAU's program accreditation table, which dates the next CCNE review to 2028. At the institutional level NAU holds Higher Learning Commission accreditation, last reviewed in 2017-18 and due for reaffirmation in 2027-28.
How does the MS FNP differ from NAU's FNP certificate?
NAU built the certificate for nurses whose master's in nursing is already finished. Its twelve courses include all three practicums and the full 780 hours; what it trims is NUR 510, NUR 530 and NUR 676, which brings it to 39 units in the catalog (38 in Degree Search) over roughly 25 months.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Northern Arizona University's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your program coordinator and course faculty have the final word.
- Northern Arizona University catalog 2026-27: MS Nursing, Advanced Practice (archived)
- Northern Arizona University College of Nursing: MS Nursing, Advanced Practice
- Northern Arizona University FNP Clinical Guidelines, AY 2022-23 (archived)
- Northern Arizona University Graduate Student Handbook: Academics, AY 21-22 (archived)
- Northern Arizona University Degree Search: Nursing, Advanced Practice
NAU welcomes a preceptor you arrange. We arrange one close to home.
Tell us your NAU track, your town and your next practicum. We line up preceptors who fit the course and Arizona's preceptor rule, confirm the site's approval, and gather the CV, license and certification the Green Form needs, well before NAU's cutoff.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages family primary care for FNP, psychiatric settings for PMHNP
- License, experience and certification checked against the rule NAU applies, before the Green Form goes in
- All three FNP practicums planned together, near home instead of a long drive away
Start your placement plan
Track, town and next practicum is all we need to begin.