Clarkson College post-graduate certificates: credits, clinicals and preceptors
Clarkson College's Post-Graduate Certificate in Nursing lets a nurse who already holds a master's degree add an NP specialty (FNP or AGACNP at 33 credits, PMHNP at 35) or an Educator or Healthcare Administration option. The NP options run the same NRS clinical courses as the MSN, so budget for the full 750 hours and an approved preceptor in each of five courses.
Find preceptors for your certificate
Tell us your option and your first clinical term.
Five options and what each asks of you clinically
The certificate splits into two families. The three NP options are mostly clinical: five precepted courses in sequence. The Educator and Healthcare Administration options have a single practicum at the end. The credits below are the 2026-27 catalog's.
| Option | Credits | Precepted courses | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Nurse Practitioner | 33 | NRS 830, NRS 832, NRS 840, NRS 842, NRS 844 | 750, following the MSN figures |
| Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP | 33 | NRS 830, then NRS 861 to NRS 864 | 750, following the MSN figures |
| Psychiatric-Mental Health NP | 35 | NRS 830, then NRS 856 to NRS 859 | 750, following the MSN figures |
| Nurse Educator | 23 | NRS 894 Nursing Education Practicum | 150 |
| Nursing Healthcare Administration | 20 (the Fall 2025 plan says 26) | NRS 898 Nursing Healthcare Leadership Practicum | 150 |
Every NP and Educator option opens with NRS 807. The administration option instead begins with six health care administration courses in the HCA 800 series, then closes with its practicum. One oddity: the catalog introduces "The six options" and then lists five.
Admission and the credits you bring
Applicants bring a master's or doctoral nursing degree from a school accredited by ACEN, CCNE or NLN CNEA, a graduate GPA of at least 3.0, a written essay, a CV and two references (Policy AD-1). Your RN license, and your APRN license if you hold one, must be effective in the state where your clinicals will take place.
Clarkson's Fall 2025 certificate plans say every course is taken at Clarkson, with one exception: if your earlier graduate degree came from Clarkson, as many as nine of those credits can count. The catalog publishes no gap analysis and no hour reduction for applicants who are already certified nurse practitioners adding a second population. If that is you, ask the Graduate Nursing office for a written course plan before you apply, and check which clinical courses it expects you to complete.
Program length on the website runs four to seven semesters full time and seven to ten or more part time.
Why 750 hours is the safe number
Clarkson's course pages print two hour figures for each NP clinical: one labeled MSN and one labeled DNP. Neither mentions certificate students. Because certificate students register for the very same courses as MSN students, the MSN figures are the reasonable reading, which means 100 hours to start and between 150 and 180 in each of the four specialty courses that follow. That is our inference from the catalog, so confirm it with your advisor.
Two prerequisite quirks are worth raising early. NRS 830 lists NRS 803 and NRS 805 as prerequisites, yet the certificate plans include neither, and NRS 898 lists NRS 813, which the administration certificate does not include. Those lists were written for MSN students; your advisor can tell you how they apply to you.
The clinical hours guide sets these figures beside the other programs, and the NRS 830 guide covers the first clinical in detail.
The sequence also sets the calendar. With a limit of one clinical per term, an NP certificate needs at least five terms with a clinical in each, which is why most of the program feels clinical. A gap term without an approved preceptor pushes every later course back by one term.
The campus visit and the handbook
The certificate is delivered online, and clinicals happen "in or near their home communities," in Clarkson's words. The NP options include what the website calls "minimal on-campus visits"; in practice that is the Graduate Weekend attached to NRS 830, which the certificate page prints by its current code. The Educator and Administration options publish no campus requirement.
For the details, the certificate page now says: "Request to view the Graduate Student Handbook for current details." The newest handbook anyone can read publicly is the 2021-22 edition, so treat its specifics as history and ask for the current copy. The Graduate Weekend page lists every published date through June 2028.
Clarkson holds one weekend each fall, spring and summer, always Saturday and Sunday. Plan on the one in the term you register for NRS 830, and ask your employer for those two days as soon as your course plan is set.
Preceptors for a certificate student
Being an experienced nurse does not change the preceptor rules. An NP-option preceptor still needs a license in your clinical state and two years of experience, still cannot be a relative, and still needs a new agreement for every course and term. If you already practice as an APRN, your own colleagues can be excellent candidates, but hours at your workplace must fall in a department other than your own, logged apart from your paid hours.
Educator and Administration practicum preceptors followed a different standard in Clarkson's 2021-22 handbook: a master's degree at minimum, two years of experience in the role you are learning (teaching nursing or leading nursing services), and a single preceptor for the course. The practicums guide explains the settings and the 150 or 135 hour question.
Certificate students carry the same five-course clinical load as MSN students; start the first preceptor search as soon as you are admitted.
Why certificate students choose us
Clarkson expects its graduate students to keep working as nurses, so certificate students fit a mostly clinical program around a full job. We take the search off your plate. For NP options, we find preceptors in your track's settings near home, check each one against Clarkson's rules, and plan all five courses so the next preceptor is lined up before the current course ends. For the Educator and Administration options, we look for experienced MSN-prepared educators and nursing leaders who fit the practicum.
Everything the DocuSign form needs about the preceptor and the site, we assemble for you, so the paperwork reaches Clarkson complete and early, and we flag any site likely to need a new affiliation agreement. Send your option and first clinical term through the form on this page.
Questions Clarkson students ask
Does Clarkson shorten the certificate for NPs adding a second specialty?
Clarkson publishes no gap analysis or credit reduction for applicants who are already certified nurse practitioners. The certificate plans list the full course set for each option, and none of the NP course pages offers a reduced hour figure for certificate students. Ask the Graduate Nursing office for a written plan based on your transcript before you enroll.
Is Clarkson's post-graduate certificate online?
Yes. The coursework is online and clinicals happen near your home, with preceptors you identify and Clarkson approves. The NP options add one campus weekend in Omaha, tied to the first clinical course. Clarkson's workbook marks Graduate Nursing as not meeting requirements in 12 states, so check the state authorization guide before choosing a site.
How many credits is the Clarkson PMHNP certificate?
Thirty-five credits in the 2026-27 catalog, two more than the FNP and AGACNP certificates at 33 each. The PMHNP option runs NRS 830 and then NRS 856 through NRS 859, and its preceptors after NRS 830 must be psychiatrists or PMHNPs. NRS 856 also needs 50 hours with a licensed master's-prepared therapist.
Can I transfer credits into a Clarkson certificate?
Only in a narrow case. Clarkson's Fall 2025 certificate plans require every course to be taken at Clarkson, with a single carve-out for Clarkson's own graduate alumni, who can bring up to nine credits across. Anything beyond that is a question for the Director of Graduate Nursing through your advisor.
Which Clarkson certificate options have no clinical hours?
None of the five is without precepted work. The three NP options carry 750 hours across five courses, and the Nurse Educator and Nursing Healthcare Administration options each end with a 150-hour practicum, NRS 894 or NRS 898, under an approved preceptor at a site you propose.
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.