Lewis University MSN Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP: courses, hours and practicums
Lewis's MSN Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP track is 46 credits with at least 540 clinical hours, split across three 16-week practicums of 180 hours each: NURS 61100, NURS 61800 and NURS 61500. All three are primary care or community placements, so every search starts from outpatient practices near you. Here is the complete curriculum, the order the practicums follow and a timeline for lining up each preceptor.
Line up your AGPCNP preceptors
Tell us your city and which of the three practicums comes next.
The AGPCNP track at a glance
Adult-Gerontology Primary Care is the NPAG concentration of Lewis's MSN. It shares its first two practicums with the Family Nurse Practitioner track, then swaps the FNP's four women's and pediatric courses for one special populations pair, the management course NURS 61400 and the practicum NURS 61500. That makes it 46 credits instead of 48, with a 540-hour minimum instead of 630.
Like the psychiatric track, the AGPCNP's printed hours line up with its total: three practicums at 180 clock hours each come to 540, the catalog minimum. That sum is our arithmetic; Lewis states the course hours and the program total separately.
Lewis runs the track at Oak Brook or online, pairing 8-week MSN core sessions with 16-week specialty semesters, and the degree has to be completed within 5 consecutive years. Entry follows the usual MSN criteria: an accredited BSN, an unencumbered RN license in Illinois or where you practice, a 3.0 GPA or provisional entry from 2.75, two recommendations, a resume and an essay. Lewis names no certification board and publishes no pass rate for AGPCNP graduates.
The full AGPCNP curriculum
This is the 2026-27 catalog curriculum. Where Lewis's course description gives clock hours, they are shown; the non-clinical courses carry none.
| Course | Title | Credits | Clinical hours Lewis prints | Placement in the program |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 51700 | Health in All Policy (HiAP) | 3 | None | MSN core, 8 weeks; first |
NURS 55900 | Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology | 3 | None | MSN core, 8 weeks; first |
NURS 53300 | Scholarly Inquiry | 3 | None | MSN core, 8 weeks |
NURS 53400 | Dynamics of Population Health | 3 | None | MSN core, 8 weeks |
NURS 53600 | Healthcare Informatics | 3 | None | MSN core, 8 weeks |
NURS 73500 | Transformational Leadership for Healthcare | 3 | None | MSN core, 8 weeks |
NURS 58800 | Role Transition and Development for the Advanced Practice Nurse | 1 | None | Before clinical courses |
NURS 60500 | Applied Physiology/Pathophysiology for Advanced Practice Nursing | 3 | None | Before clinical courses |
NURS 60400 | Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice Nursing | 3 | None | Before clinical courses |
NURS 60700 | Health Assessment for Advanced Practice Nursing | 3 | Lab only | Before clinical courses |
NURS 61000 | APN Management: Adults in Community/Primary Care | 3 | None | 16 weeks, with NURS 61100 |
NURS 61100 | NP Practicum: Adults in Community/Primary Care | 3 | 180 | 16 weeks, with NURS 61000 |
NURS 61200 | APN Management: Adult/Gerontology and Adolescents | 3 | None | 16 weeks, with NURS 61800 |
NURS 61800 | NP Practicum: Adult/Gerontology and Adolescents | 3 | 180 | 16 weeks, with NURS 61200 |
NURS 61400 | APN Management: Adult-Gerontology and Other Special Populations | 3 | None | 16 weeks, with NURS 61500 |
NURS 61500 | Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Practicum: Special Populations | 3 | 180 | 16 weeks, with NURS 61400 |
| Total | 46 | 540 minimum |
One catalog oddity: the NURS 61400 entry lists NURS 62500, an acute care practicum, as a corequisite, although AGPCNP students never take that course. Raise it with your advisor rather than assume it applies to you.
Practicum order and what each one needs
Lewis prints no semester-by-semester plan, but its prerequisites point one way. NURS 61100 is the first clinical course, NURS 61800 cannot be taken until NURS 61000 and NURS 61100 are done, and the special populations pair (NURS 61400 with NURS 61500) can run with the adult primary care pair or follow it. Your advisor fixes the actual semesters.
| Practicum | Paired course | Hours Lewis prints | Population | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 61100 | NURS 61000 | 180 | Adults in community and primary care | First clinical course |
NURS 61800 | NURS 61200 | 180 | Adult/gerontology and adolescents | After NURS 61100 |
NURS 61500 | NURS 61400 | 180 | Adult-gerontology and other special populations | After or alongside NURS 61100 |
The detail on settings and preceptor fit lives in our guides to NURS 61100, NURS 61800 and the special populations practicum. One point stands out for this track: NURS 61800 includes adolescents, so a practice that sees only adults may not cover the course's whole population.
Where AGPCNP preceptors come from
Outpatient care is where the largest share of Illinois's advanced practice nurses work. In IDFPR's 2024 APRN survey, 53% of respondents worked in ambulatory, non-acute outpatient settings, against 32% in hospital acute care. Internal medicine groups, community health centers and adult primary care clinics are therefore the first places to look for all three AGPCNP searches.
The Lewis side of each search is the same. You file a request in the college's contract portal naming the site and preceptor; administration takes two weeks at the least to review it; and a practice without a current Lewis affiliation agreement receives a newly drafted one, with your request on hold until it is signed. A small private practice that has never hosted a Lewis student may be starting from that blank agreement, so its search deserves the earliest start.
Location matters as much as specialty, because 180 hours means many trips to the same practice. Our Illinois region guides take the search county by county, starting with Will County, Lewis's home.
A timeline for three primary care searches
- First semesterWhile you work through the MSN core, list primary care practices within your driving range and note which ones also see adolescents and older adults.
- Before
NURS 61100Secure the adult primary care preceptor and file a complete contract request, with time left over in case a new affiliation agreement is needed. - Before
NURS 61800This may be the same practice if its panel runs from adolescents to older adults, but the placement still needs approval for the designated course. - Before
NURS 61500Nothing public defines which settings count as special populations, so ask your track coordinator what the course accepts before you start calling practices. - Each termKeep your CastleBranch record current and send agency-requested documents to the agency and the Clinical Placement Office both.
The mistake to avoid: assuming one primary care practice will carry you through all three courses. It might, but Lewis approves each placement for its own course, and NURS 61500 asks for a population focus that a general adult practice may not offer.
Lewis rules every AGPCNP student works within
- The preceptor contract request is mandatory for every clinical practicum; our portal guide explains the form and statuses.
- Lewis pays for student clinical insurance, while background checks and health and clinical documentation are at the student's expense. Falling out of compliance with CastleBranch requirements is a listed reason for contract denial.
- A preceptor with IDFPR discipline can be turned down, so run the license lookup before you commit to anyone.
- Your RN license has to be current and unencumbered, either in Illinois or where you practice, and a placement beyond Illinois may need added permission.
- Online enrollment is open from 18 jurisdictions only, and for four of them (Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi) the AGPCNP MSN table answers No on licensure. See state authorization.
- An unfinished practicum can only take an Incomplete, since Lewis has no In Progress grade, and the deadlines to clear it are March 1, July 1 and October 15.
How we work with Lewis AGPCNP students
Three primary care searches can blur together, and that is how a special populations placement ends up rushed. We plan all three from the start: adult primary care for NURS 61100, a practice that reaches adolescents and older adults for NURS 61800, and a setting that fits Lewis's special populations course for NURS 61500, each close to where you live.
For every match, we prepare the preceptor, license and site details your contract request needs, then follow CastleBranch and practice onboarding until you are cleared. If a preceptor withdraws, we find a replacement. Lewis's coordinators and track faculty make every approval, and our work is getting them a complete request that fits the course. The form below starts the process.
Questions Lewis students ask
What is the difference between Lewis's AGPCNP and FNP tracks?
Both begin with the same two practicums, NURS 61100 and NURS 61800. The FNP then adds women's and pediatric practicums (NURS 64100, NURS 64300) for 48 credits and 630 hours, while the AGPCNP adds one special populations practicum, NURS 61500, for 46 credits and 540 hours. The FNP page lays out that track's four practicums.
Does Lewis publish AGPCNP certification pass rates?
Lewis has not published any. Its MSN page lists 2023 results for FNP and AGACNP alone, and no Lewis page ties a certifying board to the AGPCNP track. Read the boards' own eligibility pages for the adult-gerontology primary care population, and your track coordinator can tell you what recent Lewis AGPCNP graduates chose.
Is there a post-master's AGPCNP certificate at Lewis?
Yes. The AGPCNP Certificate of Advanced Study is 28 credits and uses the same three practicums, NURS 61100, NURS 61800 and NURS 61500, without the MSN core. One practical note: on Lewis's post-master's page, the AGPCNP certificate link in the sidebar opens the MSN AGPCNP page instead, so use the catalog for the certificate's details. See post-master's certificates.
Can I take NURS 61500 before NURS 61100?
Not according to the catalog. NURS 61400, the management course that runs with NURS 61500, comes after or alongside NURS 61000 and NURS 61100, so the special populations practicum cannot come first. It can share a semester with adult primary care, which some students may want for scheduling, but that means two preceptor searches and two contract requests landing at once.
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.