NRS 840 Primary Care of Children and Adolescent at Clarkson College
NRS 840 Primary Care of Children and Adolescent is the pediatric clinical in Clarkson College's FNP track, running from birth through adolescence and young adulthood. MSN and certificate students log 160 hours; BSN to DNP students log 200. Clarkson's November 2023 FNP sheet required 110 or more of them beside a pediatric primary care provider and let no more than 50 go to a pediatric specialist, a split that lands exactly on 160.
Find a pediatric preceptor
Send your city and term. Your placement advisor looks for pediatric primary care providers who fit Clarkson's NRS 840 rules.
NRS 840 in the catalog
Nothing in the prerequisites ties NRS 840 to NRS 842, so your advisor decides which comes first on your degree plan. In either order, only one clinical course runs per term, and the search for the other one should be moving while this one is under way.
The course's age range runs past childhood into young adulthood, but the preceptor rule is about the provider, not the patient's birthday. Hours with an adult-focused clinician who happens to see a few young adults do not meet the pediatric minimum set out below.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Credits | 3 |
| Clinical hours | 160 (MSN and certificate); 200 (BSN to DNP, effective Spring 2024) |
| Population | Birth through adolescence, including young adults |
| Prerequisite | NRS 832 |
| Leads to | NRS 844, once NRS 842 is also complete |
| Registration | Preceptor and clinical site approval first |
Who counts as a pediatric primary care provider
The FNP sheet listed an MD, DO, APRN or PA who provides pediatric primary care. In practice that means pediatricians, pediatric nurse practitioners and PAs working in pediatric practices. Clarkson's usual conditions still apply on top: two years in practice, licensure in your clinical state, no relatives, and for PAs, a clinic outside the four states where Clarkson's sheets refused them (see who cannot precept you).
The open question is a family practice clinician with a large pediatric panel. The sheet's wording points to a provider whose practice is pediatric primary care, and it does not say whether a family physician or FNP who sees many children qualifies for the 110. Put that question to course faculty before you file the agreement, not after the hours are logged.
The site rules for the rest of the track are on the FNP clinical sites guide; this course is the one place where the preceptor's specialty, not just the clinic's age range, decides whether an hour counts.
Splitting the hours: 110 plus up to 50
In the MSN version the numbers close exactly: 110 or more hours in pediatric primary care and at most 50 with a specialty provider who sees pediatric patients add up to 160. You can spend all 160 in pediatric primary care; what you cannot do is trade more than 50 of them for specialty time.
| Version | Course total | Pediatric primary care | Specialty (cap) | Left to confirm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSN and certificate | 160 | 110 or more | Up to 50 | None |
| BSN to DNP | 200 | 110 or more (the sheet predates DNP-level hours) | Up to 50 | 40 hours: ask course faculty |
Faculty sign off on specialty time ahead of it, and the specialist is filed on a separate agreement. The sheet also anticipated a mismatch: specialist paperwork done by the first day of class while the main preceptor's still lags. In that case, check with course faculty before logging a single hour.
For BSN to DNP students, the sheet was revised in November 2023, before the 200-hour figure took effect in Spring 2024. Applied as written, 110 plus 50 leaves 40 hours unassigned (our arithmetic), so ask course faculty whether the minimum or the cap moves with the larger total.
Well-child visits and the age span
The catalog frames NRS 840 around birth through adolescence, and the FNP sheet set a required count of well-child exams for the course, each logged in Typhon. The count sits in the current sheet or course materials, so ask course faculty for it in the first week.
That count shapes the site. A practice with newborn and infant visits, school-age checkups and adolescent care gives you the full span. A clinic that sees mostly teenagers, or mostly sick visits, can leave the well-child count short even when the hours add up.
Ask the practice how its schedule divides between wellness visits and acute visits, and which age groups fill it. Two short questions before filing save a scramble at the end of the term.
Pediatric sites in and around Omaha
Children's Nebraska runs its own process for advanced practice students, and the programs named on its page are CRNA, NNP, PNP-AC, PNP and PMHNP. Family nurse practitioner students are missing from that roster, so an Omaha-area FNP pediatric rotation usually comes from a community pediatric or family practice.
Nebraska Medicine routes NP students through an online application with a fixed window for each term, closing roughly three to four months before the term starts, and prefers that students leave its clinicians to that process. The health-system requests guide lists each system's dates, and the Omaha preceptors page covers the metro as a whole.
Outside Nebraska the same Clarkson rules travel with you: the practice has to be in a state marked "Meets Requirements" on Clarkson's 2026-27 graduate nursing workbook, with the preceptor licensed in that state.
Checklist before registration
- A pediatric primary care preceptor with room for 110 or more of your hours this term
- Any specialty preceptor identified, approved by faculty and on a separate agreement, inside the 50-hour cap
- The practice's age mix confirmed: infants through adolescents, with regular well-child visits
- Faculty's answer on whether a family practice clinician counts toward the 110, if that is your plan
- Agreements filed by the term's paperwork deadline; see clinical deadlines
- For BSN to DNP students, faculty guidance on the 40 hours the sheet leaves open
Every provider you will see patients with in the practice needs an agreement, and the sheets asked for written faculty approval before a third preceptor joins a course. Settle the roster with the practice before the paperwork goes in.
How we place Clarkson FNP students in pediatrics
Pediatric primary care is a separate search from your family practice network, and we run it that way. We look at pediatric practices and pediatric-heavy clinics near you, confirm the provider's practice matches what Clarkson's sheet calls pediatric primary care, and check the practice's well-child volume before we propose it.
When a specialty block makes sense, we size it inside the 50-hour cap and prepare its paperwork alongside the main preceptor's, so both agreements are ready together, with the practice's exact legal name and each provider's license details in place. Then we turn to your NRS 842 or NRS 844 preceptor so the next term is covered. Use the form below to tell us where you live and when the course starts.
Questions Clarkson students ask
Can a family practice provider count toward the 110 pediatric hours in NRS 840?
The November 2023 FNP sheet set the 110-hour floor for pediatric primary care providers without saying whether a family physician or FNP with many young patients qualifies. Ask course faculty before you file the agreement, so the answer shapes your plan rather than your final hour count.
Can a PA precept Clarkson's pediatric FNP course?
Yes. The FNP sheet listed pediatric primary care providers of four kinds for NS 840: MD, DO, APRN or PA. A PA preceptor still needs two years in practice and licensure where you train, and the practice cannot be in Arizona, Florida, Maryland or Oklahoma, the four states where Clarkson's sheets excluded PA preceptors.
Does Children's Nebraska take FNP students?
Not through its published advanced practice route: the program types it names leave out family nurse practitioners. For the programs it does support, students apply through myClinicalExchange by fixed deadlines, and Children's own team members get priority. For NRS 840, plan around community pediatric or family practices.
How many NRS 840 hours can be with a pediatric specialist?
Up to 50 of the 160 in the MSN version, under the November 2023 FNP sheet, once faculty approve the block and the specialist has signed paperwork of their own. The other 110 or more belong with a pediatric primary care provider. BSN to DNP students should confirm how the cap applies at 200 hours.
Do I have to take NRS 840 before NRS 842?
The catalog fixes no order between them: each lists only NRS 832 as its prerequisite. Your advisor sets the sequence on your degree plan, and you take one clinical course per term. NRS 844 needs both finished before you can register for it.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Clarkson College's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and Graduate Nursing advisor have the final word.
Clarkson asks you to find your preceptor. We make the search the easy part.
Tell us your Clarkson track, your city and your next clinical course. We line up preceptors who fit the NRS course and Clarkson's rules, gather the details the site and preceptor agreement asks for, and flag early whether the site needs a new affiliation agreement.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages primary care for FNP, acute care units for AGACNP, psychiatric providers for PMHNP
- License, experience and site details checked against Clarkson's rules before the agreement is filed
- Every clinical course planned in sequence, close to home in a state where Clarkson's graduate nursing meets requirements
Start your placement plan
Track, city and next clinical course is all we need to begin.