How Clarkson College's clinical hours grew

The timeline in one table

Each row comes from the Clarkson catalog or archived Clarkson document named in the first column. "Policy total" is the NP figure in Policy AA-55, the credit hour definition. "Course pattern" is what the NRS course pages printed for the five clinical courses in order, from the physical assessment course to the last course of the track.

975 for the BSN to DNP, and the 225 hours that moved

From Spring 2024 each NP course page gained a second, DNP-level figure. Course by course the increases are 25, 50, 40, 40 and 70 hours, which lifts a BSN to DNP track from 750 clinical hours to 975. AA-55 has named 975 for the BSN to DNP since the 2024-25 catalog.

DNP hours moved the other way. An addendum to the DNP Hours Guide, dated Spring 2024, cut DNP hours to 125 for NP students entering that term or later; the earlier plan had asked for 350. The 225 hours that left the DNP column are the same 225 that joined the clinical column, so the 1,100 total did not move (our arithmetic). The addendum credited the shift to ACEN expectations and to the National Task Force's 2022 standards.

AA-55 still prints the 350-hour figure, which is why the current clinical hours page treats it as an open conflict to settle with your advisor.

Practicums: 135 to 150

Clarkson's 2014 MSN FAQ gave the Nursing Education and Nursing Healthcare Administration practicums 135 hours each, and the catalogs kept that number through 2022-23. That figure matched the credit formula exactly: three credits at 45 hours each. Beginning with the 2023-24 catalog, both practicum course pages print 150.

AA-55 kept its 45-per-credit wording, so policy and course pages now point at different totals. Ask course faculty which one your log is measured against, and see the practicum guide for who can precept each course.

The practicum preceptor rule shifted in the same years. In 2020-21 the handbook wanted an NP preceptor with two years of NP practice even for these practicums; a year later it wanted an MSN-prepared educator or nurse administrator with two years in that role, a far better match for the work.

Which figures apply to you

Your clinical hours are the ones on your degree plan, set by your catalog year and start term. Two groups should double-check: BSN to DNP students who began before Spring 2024, who started on the 750-plus-350 plan, and anyone coming back from a leave of absence, who should confirm which plan now applies. Your Graduate Nursing advisor has the answer.

When our placement desk builds your plan, we work from the hours on your current degree plan, course by course, and size each preceptor's schedule to that number rather than to figures handed down from earlier cohorts. Clarkson students count on us for that precision because a preceptor who agreed to 120 hours will not stretch to 150 without a new conversation. Send your program and start term through the form below.