NRS 842 Primary Care of Women at Clarkson College
NRS 842 Primary Care of Women is the women's health clinical in Clarkson College's FNP track, set in common ambulatory women's health. It runs 160 hours for MSN and certificate students and 200 for BSN to DNP students. Clarkson's November 2023 FNP sheet put 120 or more of those hours with a women's health provider and required ten pelvic and ten breast exams, so the preceptor's credential and the practice's visit mix both decide whether a site works.
Find a women's health preceptor
Send your city and term. Your placement advisor checks each provider against Clarkson's NRS 842 conditions before proposing them.
NRS 842 in the 2026-27 catalog
The word ambulatory carries weight. The catalog frames the course around outpatient women's health, the care delivered in gynecology offices and women's health clinics. An inpatient labor and delivery unit is a different kind of setting, so check with course faculty before building any hours around one.
Like every NP clinical at Clarkson, the course needs its preceptor and site approved before you can register, and the hours count only after the agreement is fully approved. The women's health conditions below are the extra tests this course adds on top of those general rules.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Credits | 3 |
| Clinical hours | 160 (MSN and certificate); 200 (BSN to DNP, effective Spring 2024) |
| Focus | Common ambulatory women's health |
| Prerequisite | NRS 832 |
| Leads to | NRS 844, once NRS 840 is also complete |
| Registration | Preceptor and clinical site approval first |
Four routes to a qualifying preceptor
For the 120-hour minimum, the FNP sheet accepted four kinds of women's health provider, each with its own condition. Whichever route you use, Clarkson's general floor still applies: two years or more in practice and licensure in your clinical state.
| Provider | Counts toward the 120? | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| OB/GYN physician (MD or DO) | Yes | The general rules only |
| Certified Nurse Midwife | Yes | Gynecologic care is 50% or more of the practice |
| FNP practicing in women's health | Yes | Women's health is the practice focus |
| PA in women's health | With instructor approval | Approval first; no PA preceptors in Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona or Maryland |
The midwife condition calls for a direct question. A certified nurse midwife whose days are mostly prenatal visits and deliveries may fall short of the 50% gynecologic share, even in a busy women's clinic, so ask how the schedule splits before you file.
For a PA, secure the instructor's approval before the agreement goes in. Filing for a PA preceptor and hoping for approval afterward puts the start of your hours at risk.
The 120 and the 40
The sheet capped specialty time in NS 842 at 40 hours. Add that to the 120-hour women's health minimum and you reach 160, the MSN total (our arithmetic), much as the pediatric course pairs 110 with 50. You can spend every hour with a women's health provider; course faculty decide how any hours beyond the 120 may be used.
The BSN to DNP version totals 200, and the November 2023 sheet predates the DNP-level hours that took effect in Spring 2024. Confirm with course faculty whether the 120 minimum and the 40-hour cap stay fixed at 200 hours or scale with them.
Each added preceptor needs an agreement of its own, and more than two preceptors in the course needs written faculty approval. Specialty time needs faculty approval as well, before the hours happen.
Exams you need to log
The FNP sheet set required experiences for this course, including 10 pelvic exams and 10 breast exams, each logged in Typhon for credit. Those counts, as much as the hours, decide whether a site is workable.
A practice built on annual gynecologic visits, contraception care and common women's health concerns produces those exams steadily. A practice centered on prenatal care, or one where you mostly watch, can leave you with the hours logged and the exams missing. When you talk with a practice, ask how often a student performs the exams, with the patient's consent.
Get the full, current list of required experiences from course faculty at the start of the term, since the 2023 sheet is no longer posted, and log as you go so any shortfall shows up early.
Planning NRS 842 next to NRS 840
Both middle courses list only NRS 832 as a prerequisite, and NRS 844 needs both done, so women's health and pediatrics normally fall in back-to-back terms. With one clinical course per term, the search for whichever comes second should run while the first is under way.
If your home clinic has a women's health FNP or a gynecology-focused provider, the same site might host NRS 832, NRS 842 and NRS 844, with a separate agreement each term. Otherwise, a gynecology or women's health practice for this one term is the cleaner choice.
Agreements for either course are due by the term's paperwork deadline, and a practice new to Clarkson may need an affiliation agreement that takes up to two months, so settle both middle courses early. The clinical deadlines page has the dates.
Before registration
- Pick the provider routeAn OB/GYN physician, a midwife whose practice is at least half gynecologic, a women's health FNP, or a women's health PA with instructor approval.
- Confirm the credential testExperience of two years or more and licensure in your state; for a PA, approval in hand and a state that allows PA preceptors.
- Ask about exam volumeHow many pelvic and breast exams a student typically performs in a term at the practice.
- Plan any specialty timeInside the 40-hour cap, with faculty approval and an agreement of its own.
- File the agreementList the practice under its exact legal name, include each clinician whose patients you will see, and submit before the term's deadline.
Why FNP students bring NRS 842 to us
Women's health is the rotation where a preceptor can look right on paper and still miss one of Clarkson's conditions. We check the credential route first: whether the provider is an OB/GYN, a women's health FNP, a midwife whose practice is at least half gynecologic, or a PA who needs instructor approval, and whether your state allows that PA at all.
Then we look at the practice's visit mix for pelvic and breast exams, prepare the preceptor and site details for the DocuSign agreement, and line up your next preceptor so the move to NRS 844 is ready when this term ends. The form below takes your city and start term.
Questions Clarkson students ask
Can a certified nurse midwife precept NRS 842?
Yes, when gynecologic care makes up at least half of the midwife's practice, according to Clarkson's November 2023 FNP sheet. The midwife also needs two years in practice and a license valid where you train. Ask about the gynecologic share before you file.
Can a PA precept Clarkson's women's health course?
A PA practicing in women's health can precept NRS 842 with instructor approval, under the November 2023 FNP sheet. Get that approval before filing, and remember that Clarkson's sheets ruled out PA preceptors altogether in Arizona, Florida, Maryland and Oklahoma. Two years in practice and licensure where you train apply as for any preceptor.
How many pelvic and breast exams does NRS 842 require?
The November 2023 FNP sheet set 10 pelvic exams and 10 breast exams for NS 842, each logged in Typhon. That sheet is no longer posted, so ask course faculty for the current counts in week one and choose a practice where those exams are routine.
Can labor and delivery hours count toward NRS 842?
The catalog describes the course as common ambulatory women's health, which is outpatient care. Inpatient labor and delivery is a different setting, so ask course faculty before counting on it. The dependable plan keeps your 120 women's health hours in an outpatient gynecology or women's health practice.
Can an FNP precept NRS 842?
Yes, if the FNP practices in women's health. The November 2023 FNP sheet listed an FNP in women's health among the providers who count toward the 120-hour minimum, alongside OB/GYN physicians and qualifying certified nurse midwives. Two years in practice and a license in your clinical state still apply.
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
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