NUR 663: the 300-hour fall practicum

Q: Is NUR 663 five units or three?

NAU's catalog and the 2022-23 FNP guidelines list NUR 663 at 5 units, which matches the 300 hours at 60 hours per unit. The AY 21-22 graduate handbook listed the practicum at 3 credits and put 5 credits on the theory course instead. The hours are 300 in every version, so check your plan of study for the units.

Updated September 27, 2026, reviewed by the NAU Preceptor placement team

NUR 663 Family Primary Health Care Practicum II sits in the middle of Northern Arizona University's FNP sequence: 300 clinical hours in fall, centered on comprehensive assessment and management of acute and chronic conditions across the lifespan. It is the biggest jump in the sequence, and its paperwork falls due in June, while you are still partway through NUR 661.

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300clinical hours in NUR 663

June 30fall Green Form date on NAU's 2022-23 form

What changes between NUR 661 and NUR 663

The hours rise from 180 to 300 and the clinical focus widens. NAU's catalog describes NUR 663 as comprehensive assessment and management of acute and chronic health conditions throughout the lifespan, where NUR 661 concentrated on common conditions and beginning proficiency.

NUR 663 at a glance
Item	What NAU lists
Full title	Family Primary Health Care Practicum II
Hours	300 clinical hours
Units	5 in the catalog and the 2022-23 guidelines; 3 in the AY 21-22 graduate handbook
Term	Fall, second of three practicums
Taken with	`NUR 662` (corequisite)
Requires	`NUR 660` and `NUR 661`
Unlocks	`NUR 665`, which requires `NUR 662` and `NUR 663`

In practical terms, a preceptor whose days mix same-day sick visits with chronic disease follow-ups matches that description better than one whose schedule is mostly annual physicals. The 60-hours-per-unit pattern holds on the catalog's 5 units; the older handbook's 3-credit listing is one of the conflicts worth checking against your plan of study.

Fall paperwork is filed during a summer practicum

NAU's 2022-23 Green Form asks for fall requests by June 30 (the 2021-22 form said before June 1). In the standard sequence you are logging NUR 661 hours on that date, so the search for a fall preceptor lands in the same weeks as your first practicum.

The two-month document rule tightens it further. Fall 2027 opens Aug. 23, so a rotation starting that week needs every clinical document on file by about June 23, a week before the Green Form date. The 2022-23 guidelines also ask you to keep health and credential documents current in your student file and the tracking system, so anything that lapses over the summer has to be renewed before fall, not after.

If the fall site is new to NAU, the agreement adds more lead time; the affiliation agreements guide explains what the site signs and who at the agency usually handles it.

For a late-August start, the document deadline falls around June 23, ahead of the June 30 Green Form date. Settle the NUR 663 preceptor in spring, before NUR 661 begins.

Fitting 300 hours into a fall semester

Fall gives you the full 16-week session: Aug. 24 to Dec. 11 in 2026, with the last week of instruction Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 and finals from Dec. 7, and Aug. 23 to Dec. 10 in 2027. NAU also runs 5-week and 8-week fall sessions, and no public page says which one NUR 663 follows, so take your dates from course faculty.

300 hours across a fall term (our arithmetic)
Weeks you actually train	Hours per week	Roughly
16	18.75	Two 9.5-hour days
15, keeping one week spare	20	Two 10-hour days
14, keeping two weeks spare	21.4	Three 7-hour days

Weekends, holidays and university breaks are off limits without the FNP Program Coordinator's prior approval, so the hours come from weekdays, and a week lost to illness or a preceptor's vacation leaves fewer weekdays to recover it. The pacing guide works through schedules around a full-time job.

Choosing the NUR 663 preceptor

You have two sound options. Staying with your summer preceptor means a known workflow and a fast start, provided the FNP Program Coordinator approves them for the new course. Moving to a new site lets you fill gaps in the recommended hour mix, such as pediatric or women's health time that a summer placement did not cover.

Splitting the 300 hours between two sites is another route. The archived guidelines neither describe nor forbid it, but they do require every preceptor to be approved by the FNP Program Coordinator and every agency to have an affiliation agreement, so a second site doubles the paperwork. Ask course faculty before you commit to a split.

Whatever you choose, the preceptor still has to meet R4-19-502 as NAU applies it, which the preceptor requirements guide sets out.

Passing NUR 663 keeps spring on schedule

NUR 665 requires NUR 663, so this course is the gate to your final practicum. The AY 21-22 graduate handbook puts the passing line at 84%, requires a C or lower to be repeated, and allows the first C or F to be repeated with advisor approval; the progression rules guide covers dismissal thresholds and time limits.

Late paperwork is the other risk. Under the 2022-23 guidelines, documents missing at the two-month mark can lead to administrative withdrawal from the clinical course and its theory course, NUR 662, with a retake the following academic year. With NUR 665 waiting on both, that can move graduation by a full year, which the delayed graduation guide addresses.

How we plan NUR 663 for NAU students

We settle your fall preceptor in spring, alongside the summer one, so June is spent logging hours instead of searching. Your placement advisor looks for family practices with a real mix of acute and chronic visits near where you live, checks each preceptor against Arizona's rule, and gathers the CV, license and certification with the site's approval, so the fall Green Form is ready long before June 30.

If you want to change sites for fall to widen your patient mix, we find the new practice and flag early whether NAU needs an agreement with it. And if a fall preceptor steps back once the term is under way, we move at once on a replacement.

Questions NAU students ask

Is NUR 663 five units or three?

NAU's catalog and the 2022-23 FNP guidelines list NUR 663 at 5 units, which matches the 300 hours at 60 hours per unit. The AY 21-22 graduate handbook listed the practicum at 3 credits and put 5 credits on the theory course instead. The hours are 300 in every version, so check your plan of study for the units.

Do I need a new affiliation agreement if I stay at my NUR 661 site?

NAU's 2022-23 procedure starts an agreement only when none exists with the agency, so a site already under agreement from summer skips that step. The preceptor still needs approval for the new course. Confirm with the Clinical Placement Coordinator that the existing agreement is current for the fall term.

Do FNP certificate students take NUR 663 on the same schedule?

The post-master's FNP certificate uses the same three practicums and the same hours table as the MS, so NUR 663 is the 300-hour fall course for both. Which fall you take it in depends on your certificate plan of study, which runs about 25 months in NAU's degree listing.

What kinds of visits should my NUR 663 hours include?

The catalog points to acute and chronic conditions across the lifespan, and the 2022-23 guidelines add minimum visit counts for the program, such as 5 pelvic and 5 prostate exams, plus a recommended split by age group. Course faculty set how visits are logged, so ask early which counts they expect by the end of fall.

FNPNUR 661: Practicum INUR 661, Northern Arizona University's first FNP practicum: 180 summer clinical hours, its prerequisites, the spring paperwork dates and choosing a preceptor.FNPNUR 665: Practicum IIINUR 665, the last Northern Arizona University FNP practicum: 300 spring hours, the October paperwork, the spring break math and closing out all 780 hours.FNPFNP hour mix and visit countsHow Northern Arizona University's FNP guidelines split 780 clinical hours: 100 pediatric, 450 adult, 100 women's health, 75-150 specialty, and visit minimums.HoursPacing clinical hoursHow to spread 180 or 300 NAU practicum hours across a term: weekday math, break and weekend rules, late starts and how a preceptor's schedule sets your pace.AgreementsAffiliation agreementsWhy every NAU clinical site needs an affiliation agreement, your own employer included, how long a new one can take, and who at the site signs it.FNPMS Advanced Practice, FNP emphasisNorthern Arizona University's online MS Advanced Practice, FNP emphasis: 48 units, three family practicums, 780 clinical hours and how preceptors are approved.

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.

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

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