NUR 689: the rural community capstone in the MS PMHNP

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

NUR 689 Professional Project is the 4-unit capstone in Northern Arizona University's MS PMHNP emphasis. The catalog describes it as a project related to meeting an identified health need in a rural community, graded pass-fail. NAU publishes little else about it, so it pays to choose the community early and connect it to the psychiatric practicum you are already planning.

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Plan NUR 680 and NUR 689 together

Tell us where you live. We look for psychiatric practicum sites in communities that suit your capstone.

4units of NUR 689 in the MS PMHNP

51units in the MS PMHNP emphasis overall

What the catalog says about NUR 689

The published record is short. It comes from the course entry and the 2026-27 plan for the MS Nursing, Advanced Practice.

NUR 689 in NAU's catalog
Item	What NAU lists
Title	Professional Project
Description	A capstone project related to meeting an identified health need in a rural community
Units	1 to 6 in the course entry; 4 in the MS PMHNP emphasis
Grading	Pass-fail
Prerequisites	None listed
Clinical hours	Not stated
Programs	MS PMHNP emphasis only

No NAU handbook that can still be opened describes the project's format, timing, approvals or deliverables. The 2023-24 APRN Clinical Handbook, which may have, is offline with no archived copy, so course faculty are the source for everything beyond the table.

Where NUR 689 sits in your degree

The MS PMHNP emphasis adds 28 units to the shared core: NUR 654, NUR 655, NUR 656, NUR 657 and NUR 658 (11 units together), 13 units of NUR 680, and 4 units of NUR 689. The full MS runs 51 units over about two and a half years online.

The capstone belongs to the MS alone. The PMHNP graduate certificate lists NUR 653 through NUR 658 and NUR 680, with no project course, and the FNP emphasis takes NUR 660 through NUR 665 and NUR 676 instead. If you are weighing the MS against the certificate, the track comparison sets the two side by side.

NAU does not publish when NUR 689 falls in the sequence. Your plan of study shows the term, and it is worth checking whether the project overlaps your NUR 680 practicum, since that shapes how you choose a site.

Reading the description closely

The catalog's single sentence has three working parts, and each one raises a planning question.

An identified health need. The word identified suggests a need you can document, not a hunch. Local public health data, a hospital's or clinic's own needs assessments, and patterns you see in practice are all places to look; faculty decide what evidence is enough.
A rural community. None of the NAU sources define rural for this course, so ask which definition faculty use and whether your community qualifies before you invest in it.
Meeting the need. The project addresses the need rather than only describing it. In a psychiatric program that could mean a screening pathway, a referral process, a patient or staff education effort, or a care protocol, examples of ours rather than NAU's list.

The catalog says health need, not mental health need, but a PMHNP student will usually find the strongest project where psychiatric care is thin. Rural access to behavioral health is the obvious territory.

Questions to settle with course faculty early

Because so little is published, the first weeks of planning are mostly questions. Take these to course faculty before you approach a community partner:

Which definition of rural applies, and does a community outside Arizona count
Whether a partner agency is required, and whether it must agree in writing
Whether NAU's IRB has to review the project; NAU's DNP rules require IRB review and a Letter of Cooperation for every DNP project, but no source says what NUR 689 requires
Whether any project time counts toward NUR 680 or stays separate
Deliverables, deadlines and how the pass-fail grade is decided
Whether the project can be carried out at your NUR 680 practicum site

Do not collect patient information or survey anyone for NUR 689 until faculty confirm whether IRB review is needed. Starting data collection first can undo weeks of work.

Pairing the project with your practicum site

The simplest route is often to let NUR 680 and NUR 689 share a community. A psychiatric practicum in or near a rural town gives you first-hand sight of the need, and leaders who already know you are easier to approach about a project. Whether the practicum's affiliation agreement also covers project work is a question for faculty, and the affiliation agreements guide explains how those agreements work.

NAU's own nursing pages describe clinical work in rural clinics and tribal health organizations across Arizona, and the rural and tribal clinicals guide covers those settings, travel and each system's own process. Choosing the community first and the practicum site second can leave you with a project in one town and a clinic in another.

How we help MS PMHNP students

We plan the practicum with the capstone in mind. Your placement advisor looks for NUR 680 preceptors in psychiatric settings that serve rural communities near where you live, checks each against Arizona's rule R4-19-502, and asks the site at the outset whether it would welcome a student project. That way the clinic that hosts your hours can also be the community partner for NUR 689.

We gather the preceptor's CV, license and certification with the site's approval so your request reaches NAU complete. Should the preceptor change partway through, we look for a replacement in the same community so the project keeps its footing. If you already have a community in mind, tell us in the form below and we will search around it.

Questions NAU students ask

Is NUR 689 a clinical course with a preceptor?

The catalog lists it as a professional project and capstone, graded pass-fail, with no clinical hours stated and no preceptor requirement published. Your precepted psychiatric time sits in NUR 680. Course faculty will say whether the project needs a site mentor or a partner agency, so ask before you approach one.

Do PMHNP certificate students take NUR 689?

No. Both certificate paths in the 2025-26 catalog, the 23-unit path for nurse practitioners and the 36-unit path for non-NP MSN graduates, consist of PMHNP coursework (plus three core courses on the non-NP path) and NUR 680, with no project course. The capstone is part of the MS PMHNP emphasis only; see the certificate guide for that program.

Can my NUR 689 rural community be outside Arizona?

NAU does not say. Its licensure rules expect some online MS students to live in other states, and the catalog's wording names a rural community without naming a state, but no source rules on it. Ask course faculty before you build a project around a community outside Arizona, and get the answer in writing.

How many hours does NUR 689 take?

NAU does not state any. The 60-hours-per-unit pattern in NAU's graduate programs describes clinical practicums, not projects, so it would be a mistake to assume 240 hours for 4 units. Ask course faculty what the workload looks like and when the milestones fall, then plan it around your NUR 680 schedule.

PMHNPMS Advanced Practice, PMHNP emphasisNorthern Arizona University's MS Advanced Practice, PMHNP emphasis: 51 units, the 13-unit in-person NUR 680 practicum, the rural NUR 689 project and preceptors.PMHNPNUR 680: PMHNP practicumNUR 680, Northern Arizona University's PMHNP clinical practicum: in-person engagement, 13 or 9 units, what NAU publishes about hours, and planning preceptors.RuralRural and tribal clinicalsRural and tribal clinicals for NAU NP students: the travel and overnight rules, Tuba City and IHS routes, federal preceptors and the rural NUR 689 project.CompareFNP vs PMHNP at NAUFNP or PMHNP at Northern Arizona University: units, clinical courses, published and unpublished hours, in-person time and the preceptors each track needs.CertificatePMHNP graduate certificateNorthern Arizona University's PMHNP graduate certificate: the 23-unit NP track, the 36-unit MSN track, in-person NUR 680 and the Kansas licensure-table answer.HoursClinical hours by programClinical hours in each Northern Arizona University NP program: 780 for FNP, units for the PMHNP practicum, 1,000 for the DNP, and what makes an hour count.

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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