NAU's MS Advanced Practice, PMHNP emphasis: the 51 units and the practicum inside them
Northern Arizona University's Psychiatric Mental Health NP emphasis is a 51-unit online master's whose clinical work is concentrated in one large course, NUR 680, worth 13 units, alongside NUR 689, a 4-unit project aimed at a health need in a rural community. NAU publishes the units but no hour total and no current PMHNP handbook, so this guide separates what is on record from what you confirm with your program coordinator.
Find a psychiatric preceptor near you
Tell us your town and when NUR 680 starts. Your placement advisor replies with psychiatric settings that fit.
Course map for the PMHNP emphasis
The PMHNP route shares seven core courses with the FNP route and then goes its own way. The 2026-27 catalog lists a 23-unit core and a 28-unit emphasis, 51 units in all, three more than the FNP emphasis. Degree Search gives both tracks the same 2.5-year length.
| Block | Courses | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced practice core | NUR 510, NUR 520, NUR 530, NUR 540, NUR 560, NUR 650, NUR 675, NUR 653 | 23 |
| PMHNP didactic courses | NUR 654, NUR 655, NUR 656, NUR 657, NUR 658 | 11 |
| Clinical practicum | NUR 680 Assessment and Management in PMH Setting: Clinical Practicum | 13 |
| Professional project | NUR 689 Professional Project | 4 |
NUR 653 fills the core slot where FNP students take NUR 550. The PMHNP emphasis arrived with the combined MS Advanced Practice, first offered in Fall 2023, so it has a short paper trail: fewer archived documents exist for it than for the FNP route, and the handbook that covered it is gone.
NUR 680, the clinical center of the degree
Where FNP students spread clinical time over three courses, PMHNP students carry theirs in NUR 680. The catalog lists it as variable from 1 to 13 units, with 13 required in the MS, and describes an advanced practice psychiatric-mental health practicum built on psychiatric assessment, diagnostic evaluation, treatment planning, documentation, leadership and evaluation. Its only listed prerequisite is NUR 654.
NAU's catalog says the course "requires in-person engagement", a note printed on the PMHNP certificate's course list and college page, which also mention engagement in direct patient care environments. The MS catalog entry leaves the note off, but it is the same course number. Where the in-person time happens, how often, and whether the 13 units fall in one term or several are set in your plan of study, not in any public page. The NUR 680 guide tracks what is known.
How many clinical hours to plan for
No NAU source that can be opened today states a PMHNP hour total. The APRN clinical handbook that covered PMHNP students in 2023-24 has been taken down, and no archived copy of it exists.
NAU's graduate ratio gives a working estimate. Its FNP tables count 180 hours for a 3-unit practicum and 300 for a 5-unit one, which is 60 hours per unit, and 13 units at that rate comes to about 780 hours. That number is our inference from the ratio, not a requirement NAU prints, so use it as a planning range and get the real figure from your program coordinator or course faculty before you promise a preceptor a schedule. The clinical hours page puts every NAU program side by side.
The 780-hour PMHNP figure is an estimate from NAU's 60-hours-per-unit ratio, not an NAU requirement. Get your hour target in writing before you schedule.
NUR 689 and the rural community project
NUR 689, Professional Project, is a pass-fail capstone that the catalog ties to meeting an identified health need in a rural community. The MS takes it at 4 units, the course is listed from 1 to 6 units, and it has no listed prerequisites or hour figure.
The rural thread runs through the degree's own marketing too: NAU's Degree Search page for the MS Advanced Practice mentions clinical rotations in rural and underserved communities. A practicum site in a rural or tribal community can give you firsthand context for the project, though NAU sets no rule linking the two, and the project's scope comes from course faculty. The NUR 689 guide and the rural and tribal clinicals page go further.
Preceptors for a PMHNP practicum
The only NAU placement procedure on record is the FNP one: the student suggests a preceptor on the Preceptor/Agency Green Form, the Clinical Placement Coordinator secures or requests the site, and the program coordinator approves. With no PMHNP handbook to read, treat that as the likely model and ask your program coordinator how PMHNP requests are submitted, and by what date.
The preceptor standard is firmer, because Arizona's rule for APRN programs, R4-19-502, covers every NP track NAU runs. A preceptor holds a current unencumbered RN or physician license where they practice, has a year of experience as a physician or advanced practice nurse, and practices in a population focus comparable to yours, which here means psychiatric and mental health care. Nurse preceptors also hold national or board certification in that role and focus. In practice that points to psychiatrists and certified psychiatric mental health NPs. The preceptor requirements page takes each item in turn.
Licensure table and where you live
NAU's professional licensure table treats the MS PMHNP the same way as the MS FNP: Meets in most states and Does Not Meet in the seven listed on the licensure disclosure page. Two recent moves are worth knowing. Utah switched from Does Not Meet to Meets for the MS PMHNP between the March and May 2026 versions of the table, and Kansas, which now fails the PMHNP certificate, still shows Meets for this MS emphasis.
The table prints no date, so look again before you enroll and whenever you move. NAU asks continuing students to confirm their physical location each term, and its compliance pages send anyone who moves to their academic program to check the effect on experiential activities such as practicums. Tell your program about a move before you line up a preceptor in the new state.
Why NAU PMHNP students choose us
Psychiatric preceptors are the hardest piece of a PMHNP plan to secure, and NUR 680 asks for in-person time, so distance matters as much as fit. We search psychiatric settings near where you live, screen each candidate's license, experience, population focus and certification against R4-19-502, and collect the CV, license and certification NAU reviews before you ever submit a name.
We also help you pin down the current PMHNP request route and cutoff with your program coordinator, then bring a site whose approval is already confirmed, with an early read on whether an affiliation agreement is needed. Through every term of NUR 680 we stay reachable, and if a preceptor leaves, the replacement search starts that day. Final approval rests with NAU; the request we help you send arrives complete. Share your town and practicum term in the form below.
Questions NAU students ask
Does NAU's MS PMHNP have an on-campus requirement?
NAU publishes no campus intensive for the MS PMHNP. What it does publish is that NUR 680, the clinical practicum, requires in-person engagement, and the certificate page pairs that with direct patient care environments. The catalog is silent on where or how often, so your program coordinator is the source for your term's specifics.
Why is the PMHNP emphasis three units longer than the FNP emphasis?
The two share a 23-unit core. The PMHNP emphasis then adds 28 units: five didactic courses worth 11 units, 13 units of NUR 680 and 4 units of NUR 689. The FNP emphasis adds 25 units across four theory courses and three practicums. The project course is the piece FNP students have no counterpart for.
Can I take the PMHNP certificate and the MS PMHNP together?
No. The catalog says a student in the PMHNP graduate certificate may not also pursue the MS PMHNP emphasis. The certificate serves nurses with a completed nursing master's, while the MS is the route for nurses starting graduate study. A graduate nursing advisor can confirm which one matches your transcript.
What certification can NAU PMHNP graduates pursue?
NAU's MS Advanced Practice page says graduates are eligible for Arizona state certification, to apply for prescribing and dispensing privileges in Arizona, and to apply for national certification. Arizona's Board lists the ANCC family psychiatric-mental health NP credential among the national certifications it recognizes, and certifies graduates as registered nurse practitioners in that population focus.
When should a PMHNP student start looking for a preceptor?
Well before the first NUR 680 term. NAU's published FNP rules want clinical documents on file two months before rotations and Green Form requests in by fixed dates ahead of each term, and a new affiliation agreement can take from days to months. Ask your program coordinator for the PMHNP dates, then work back from them with a few months of margin.
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 catalog: NUR 680 course entry (archived)
- Northern Arizona University College of Nursing: PMHNP graduate certificate
- Northern Arizona University: professional licensure by state
- Northern Arizona University College of Nursing: MS 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.