Clinical hours at Lewis, program by program
Lewis's 2026-27 catalog sets a floor of 630 clinical hours for the MSN Family Nurse Practitioner track and 540 for the acute care, adult-gerontology primary care and psychiatric tracks, while the post-master's DNP adds at least 504 residency hours on top of your MSN hours. Choose your track in the planner below, then open each practicum's page for the preceptor it calls for.
Plan a preceptor for every practicum
Tell us your Lewis track, your town and your next practicum term. We map a preceptor to each course that carries hours.
Pick your Lewis program
Your practicum courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From the 2026-27 Lewis catalog and program pages.
- Who precepts
- Primary care preceptors approved by Lewis for adults, women's health and pediatrics
- Where
- Family practice, internal medicine, women's health and pediatric offices near you
- Start looking
- From acceptance: Lewis asks NP students to start practicum planning then
- Who precepts
- An acute care NP or physician Lewis approves for adult and older adult patients
- Where
- Hospital units, hospitalist and intensivist teams, specialty inpatient services
- Start looking
- Early: hospital student processes often run on their own deadlines
- Who precepts
- Adult and older adult primary care preceptors Lewis approves
- Where
- Internal medicine, geriatrics, community clinics and special-population programs
- Start looking
- From acceptance, ahead of the first 16-week practicum
- Who precepts
- A psychiatric-mental health preceptor Lewis approves, across the lifespan
- Where
- Outpatient psychiatry, community mental health and behavioral health programs
- Start looking
- From acceptance: psychiatric preceptors book up early
- Who precepts
- A residency preceptor and a practice setting that fits your scholarly project
- Where
- The health system, clinic or organization where your DNP project runs
- Start looking
- Before NURS 79000 project planning, so the site is ready for implementation
Every Lewis program's clinical hours in one table
Each figure below comes from the place Lewis prints it: program minimums from the 2026-27 catalog, course hours from the graduate NURS course descriptions, and the certificate range plus several non-NP totals from the MSN FAQ. Where two Lewis sources give different numbers, both appear.
| Program | Credits | Clinical hours | Courses that carry the hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | 48 | 630 minimum | NURS 61100, NURS 61800, NURS 64100, NURS 64300 |
| MSN AGACNP | 46 | 540 minimum | NURS 61800, NURS 62500, NURS 62700 |
| MSN AGPCNP | 46 | 540 minimum | NURS 61100, NURS 61800, NURS 61500 |
| MSN PMHNP | 49 | 540 minimum | NURS 63300, NURS 63500, NURS 63700 |
| CAS NP certificates | FNP 30, AGACNP 28, AGPCNP 28, PMHNP 31 | 540-630 (FAQ range) | Same practicums as the MSN track |
| DNP, post-master's | 30 | 504 beyond MSN hours | NURS 79600, NURS 79200 |
| BSN to DNP | FNP 75, AGACNP 73, AGPCNP 73, PMHNP 76 | No combined total printed | NP practicums, then DNP courses |
| MSN Nursing Education | 40 | 450 (FAQ) | NURS 54700, NURS 57600, NURS 57700 |
| MSN Healthcare Systems Leadership | 36 (MSN/MBA 63) | 300 | NURS 59600 |
| MSN School Nurse | 34 (catalog) or 38 (FAQ) | 450 (FAQ); catalog prints 300 | NURS 56700, NURS 56800 |
| School Nurse, non-degree | 9 (catalog) or 38 (FAQ) | 300 (FAQ) | NURS 56700 |
| BSN | 129 traditional, 128 accelerated | No clock hours published | Clinical groups at affiliating agencies |
These are completion minimums for the whole program, not a weekly load. The planner above turns the MSN NP rows and the DNP into a route you can click through.
Where Lewis prints hours per course, and where it stays silent
Six NP practicums carry the same printed figure. NURS 61100, NURS 61800, NURS 61500, NURS 63300, NURS 63500 and NURS 63700 each list 180 clock hours of practicum. For the AGPCNP and the PMHNP, three of those courses add up to exactly 540, so the course descriptions and the program minimum agree.
Three practicums print nothing. The FNP's women's health and pediatric courses, NURS 64100 and NURS 64300, show credits but no hours, and the second AGACNP acute care course, NURS 62700, shows none either.
One description prints too much. NURS 62500 says 360 total clock hours, at 180 for every two credit hours. Add the 180 hours of NURS 61800 and the AGACNP's 540 is already reached, which would leave nothing for NURS 62700, a 3-credit practicum. Lewis has not reconciled the two; the acute care practicums page sets the conflict out in full.
The NP practicum pages, one per course
Each NP practicum has its own guide here, with the catalog facts, its paired course and the preceptor that suits it.
- NURS 61100 Adults in Community/Primary Care: 180 hours, the first clinical course for FNP and AGPCNP students.
- NURS 61800 Adult/Gerontology and Adolescents: 180 hours, shared by the FNP, AGPCNP and AGACNP tracks.
- NURS 64100 and NURS 64300, the FNP women's health and pediatric practicums: no hours printed; they replaced the 270-hour
NURS 61700. - NURS 61500 AGPCNP Special Populations: 180 hours, paired with
NURS 61400. NURS 62500andNURS 62700, the AGACNP acute care practicums: hospital preceptors and the hour conflict above.- NURS 63300, NURS 63500 and NURS 63700, the PMHNP practicums: 180 hours each, across the lifespan.
FNP students who want the full 630 laid out course by course, including the arithmetic behind the two courses with no printed hours, can start with the FNP hours breakdown.
Certificates, the DNP and BSN to DNP
Lewis's MSN FAQ gives one range, 540 to 630 supervised hours, for the MSN and Certificate of Advanced Study NP tracks together. The certificate pages list only NP courses, with the same practicums as the MSN, so a CAS student's hours follow the track: 630 for the FNP certificate and 540 for the other three, by our reading of the course lists, since the certificate pages print no totals.
The post-master's DNP requires at least 504 residency hours beyond the hours of your MSN. They come from NURS 79600 DNP Residencies, where three credits equal 168 clocked hours and the course repeats under an individualized learning contract, and from the 168 clock hours of NURS 79200 project implementation. The DNP residency page shows how the 504 build up.
BSN to DNP students complete a full NP track first and the DNP block after it. Lewis prints no combined figure for those paths. Adding the NP minimum to the 504 gives 1,134 for the FNP track and 1,044 for the other three, which is our arithmetic, not a number Lewis states.
Education, leadership and school nurse hours
Nursing Education students owe 450 clinical hours, according to the FAQ. The catalog puts 150 of them in NURS 54700 Role Transition for the Nurse Educator, 75 clock hours in the educator role and 75 in advanced direct care, and says work in the NURS 57700 capstone counts toward 300 clinical hours. Healthcare Systems Leadership students, and MSN/MBA students, earn their 300 hours in one field experience, NURS 59600.
School Nurse figures conflict. The FAQ lists 450 clinical hours for the MSN and 300 for the non-degree route, while the catalog prints only the 300 clock hours of NURS 56700, a 16-week supervised internship in schools, community facilities and clinics, open after you pass ISBE test 236. The NURS 56800 capstone shows no hours.
BSN students follow another model: Lewis places them in clinical groups at affiliating agencies and publishes no clock hours for any BSN course.
What Lewis does not publish about hours
Several practical hour questions have no public Lewis answer. Your course syllabus, your track coordinator or the Clinical Placement Office holds each one.
- Which platform hours are logged in.
- Any split between direct patient care and indirect hours.
- A weekly or daily minimum for any practicum.
- A minimum count of pediatric or women's health hours for the FNP.
- Per-course hours for
NURS 64100,NURS 64300andNURS 62700. - What happens to a practicum that ends short, beyond the general rule: no In Progress grade, only an Incomplete with a fixed deadline.
Hours belong to an approved placement. Lewis's contract legend describes approval as clearing you to start at the specific site, with the preceptor or preceptors named, from the semester in your request. If your site or preceptor changes partway through a course, ask the Clinical Placement Office what the change requires before you count time anywhere new.
How we help Lewis students reach every hour
Lewis asks NP students to identify their own preceptors, and every course that carries hours needs one who fits it. Our placement desk takes that search on for you: we look for preceptors in your own community, match each one to the specific practicum, confirm the license and site details, and hand you everything the contract portal requests so the request goes in complete.
We plan the whole route at once. An FNP student has four practicums to cover, an AGPCNP, AGACNP or PMHNP student three, and a DNP student a residency setting that suits the project. Lining them up early leaves room for the two-week minimum review and any new affiliation agreement, and if a preceptor falls through mid-semester, your placement advisor goes straight to work on a replacement. Tell us your track and next practicum term in the form below.
Questions Lewis students ask
Do clinical hours from another nursing school transfer to Lewis?
Lewis's transfer rules are written around courses, not hours. Up to 12 credits can transfer with a grade of B or better from the last five years, reviewed after acceptance, and the courses named for certified APRNs are health assessment, pathophysiology, pharmacology, role transition and epidemiology. Practicums are not on that list, so plan on earning your practicum hours at Lewis. The Graduate Nursing Chairperson decides each transfer request.
Does RN work experience count toward Lewis clinical hours?
No public Lewis page says it does. The FAQ calls the NP hours supervised clinical experiences completed during the program, and the catalog attaches them to practicum courses with a preceptor and site approved for that course. Hours worked in your RN job sit outside that structure. If you hope to use your employer as a practicum site, raise it as a site question with your track coordinator.
Are the hour requirements the same online and at Oak Brook?
Yes. The catalog sets one minimum per track and does not vary it by delivery; Lewis offers the MSN NP tracks at Oak Brook or online. Practicum hours are earned at an approved clinical site near you. Oak Brook's exam rooms and simulation labs support health assessment and skills work, and no public source counts lab time there as practicum hours.
What if I cannot finish my practicum hours by the end of the semester?
Lewis has no In Progress grade, so the route is an Incomplete. You must be passing when you ask, and you request it after the withdrawal date and no later than the course's last day. Unfinished work must be done by the term's deadline or the grade becomes IF with zero credit. A single extension is possible, though an open Incomplete in your last term may move your graduation date.
Is the Lewis NP hour requirement 540 or 630?
It depends on the track. The FAQ describes all NP tracks with a single 540 to 630 range, which is where the confusion starts. The FNP sits at the top because it has four practicums, including women's health and pediatrics; the AGACNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP each require 540. Certificate students follow the same figures as their MSN track.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Lewis's own catalog, program pages and FAQ, its contract portal and Illinois law. Your course, your track coordinator and the Clinical Placement Office have the final word.
Lewis asks you to identify your preceptor. We do the searching.
Tell us your Lewis program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare every detail the contract portal asks for, so your request goes in complete.
- Preceptors matched to the practicum: primary care for
NURS 61100andNURS 61800, acute care forNURS 62500, psychiatric care forNURS 63300 - Preceptor, license and site details ready for your preceptor contract request
- In your own community, anywhere Lewis enrolls you and your RN license is valid
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.