Ball State clinical hours, program by program
Ball State's online FNP concentration requires 690 supervised clinical hours, and NUR 610 adds 45 counted separately. The educator and leadership concentrations center on a 180-hour practicum, the FNP certificate runs from 390 to 690 hours, and the DNP lists 1,000 in the 2026-27 catalog. Find your track in the planner below, then see how Ball State records hours and when they stop counting.
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Tell us your Ball State program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Ball State course.
NUR 672, the educator and leadership course
Pick your Ball State program
Your clinical courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From the 2026-27 Ball State catalog, handbook and program pages.
- Who precepts
- Primary care NPs and physicians Ball State approves, adult, pediatric and women's health
- Where
- Family, internal medicine, pediatric and women's health practices where you live
- Start looking
- At least a year ahead, as Ball State's graduate handbook advises
- Who precepts
- The same primary care preceptors as the MSN FNP, fewer courses if you are already an adult NP
- Where
- Primary care practices in the states the certificate accepts
- Start looking
- Before your first clinical course, a year ahead where you can
- Who precepts
- A nurse educator or nurse leader who fits the practicum
- Where
- A school of nursing, staff development department or health care organization
- Start looking
- Before NUR 672, the last course in the concentration
- Who precepts
- FNP preceptors for the FNP cognate; practicum mentors and a project site for the other cognates
- Where
- A practice or organization where your DNP project can run
- Start looking
- Before the practicum courses, with your DNP Project Committee
Hours for every Ball State nursing program
Ball State states clinical hours in three places that do not always match: the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, the Ball State Online program pages and an older MS FAQ. The table follows the newer two and flags the conflicts.
| Program | Courses with hours | Hours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| MS in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner | NUR 634, NUR 681, NUR 682, NUR 683, NUR 684, NUR 673 | 690 | NUR 610 adds 45 outside the 690 |
| Post-Master's Certificate, FNP | Up to five FNP clinical courses, plus NUR 634 if your transcript review requires it | 390 to 690 | Set by your earlier master's |
| MS in Nursing, Nurse Educator | NUR 610, NUR 634, NUR 672 | 180 practicum; 285 with the other two (our sum) | The MS FAQ says 270 |
| MS in Nursing, Leadership and Management | NUR 610, NUR 672 | 180 practicum | The FAQ's 225 total implies 45 in NUR 610 |
| Post-Master's Certificate, Nurse Educator | NUR 672, with NUR 634 on the traditional track | 180, plus 60 when NUR 634 is required | In the catalog; no program page |
| RN-to-MS option | Bridge courses NUR 303, NUR 404, NUR 405 | 45 in each bridge course | Added before the master's courses |
| DNP, all cognates | FNP: NUR 781, NUR 782, NUR 783, NUR 785. Executive and Educator: NUR 787, NUR 788 | 1,000 in the catalog | The program page says 750 for Executive and Educator |
| BSN (on campus) | Clinicals arranged by the School | Not published by course | The School places BSN students |
The MS FAQ's totals match Ball State's 2018 curriculum, so where it disagrees, treat the catalog and program pages as current.
Why the FNP shows 690 on one page and 735 in practice
The FNP program page states 690 supervised clinical hours, and they come from six courses: NUR 634 (60), NUR 681 (120), NUR 682 (120), NUR 683 (120), NUR 684 (90) and NUR 673 (180). The same page also lists NUR 610, a course in the shared MS core, at 45 clinical hours. Ball State's 2018 information packet said outright that those 45 sit outside the FNP total, so by our count an FNP student logs 735 supervised hours across the degree.
Two more numbers on the FNP page shape your planning. Ball State allows 682 of the 690 in family practice primary care, and it requires 8 clinical hours on the Muncie campus, which fall inside NUR 681. The FNP 690 hours guide takes the six courses one by one.
Certificates, the DNP and role practicums
The Post-Master's Certificate FNP builds on your first master's. A non-NP master's leads to NUR 681 through NUR 684 plus NUR 673; an adult or adult-gerontology NP master's leads to NUR 682, NUR 684 and NUR 673 only. By our sums that is 630 or 390 hours, and a transcript review can add NUR 634's 60. The certificate page never mentions the Muncie day in NUR 681, so ask whether it applies to you.
The DNP is where Ball State's documents disagree most. The 2026-27 catalog gives every post-baccalaureate cognate 1,000 clinical and practicum hours, while the program page gives 1,000 for the FNP cognate and 750 for Nurse Executive and Nurse Educator, counting a NUR 618 course no longer in the catalog. Post-master's students count master's hours toward the 1,000. See the DNP clinical hours guide.
Educator and leadership students put most of their hours into NUR 672, the last course, which may run at your employer with a master's- or doctoral-prepared RN supervising; the NUR 672 guide weighs that against the FAQ's own-unit rule. RN-to-MS students first add up to three bridge courses of 45 clinical hours each: NUR 303 Health Assessment, NUR 404 Community Health and NUR 405 Management and Leadership.
How Ball State records and signs off your hours
Your hours are tracked on forms from your concentration's clinical packet, which Ball State keeps in the Nursing Grad Students Canvas Community. The graduate handbook lists what a packet holds: a clinical time sheet, a student evaluation form, a preceptor evaluation form, preceptor qualifications and the deadlines for submitting clinical paperwork. Only enrolled students can open the packets; the clinical packets guide explains what is public.
Ball State names no hour-logging software in its public documents, and they do not say whether hours are entered in CORE or on the packet's time sheet. Questions about clinical hours go to your course faculty, and clinical paperwork is submitted through the SON Graduate Program and Compliance Coordinator.
Course faculty and preceptors evaluate you, and in certain states a clinical supervisor does too. An unsatisfactory clinical rating means an F for the course, and all final practicum documentation must be in before you graduate.
Hours that will not count
Compliance is the usual way hours are lost. While American Data Bank lists you as noncompliant in a clinical course, the handbook bars you from accumulating clinical hours, and anything logged in that window must be done again. More than four noncompliant weeks in one semester, even partial ones, bring an automatic clinical failure, and each noncompliant week takes 4 of the 20 Compliance Expectations points a course starts with.
ADB may need 3 to 5 business days to review a document, and the School of Nursing does not rush it, so upload renewals early. Registration in nursing courses is by permission, issued only to students who are current on health clearance. Location counts as well: every clinical hour must take place in a state where your program is authorized. More in American Data Bank and CORE.
The rule students most often get wrong: hours completed while ADB shows you noncompliant have to be repeated, whoever signed for them. Check your ADB dashboard before every clinical day, not just at the start of the term.
Fitting clinical hours into a working week
Ball State's certificate page averages one clinical day a week for most FNP courses and 1.5 to 2 for the final practicum. The MS in Nursing page budgets 8-12 weekly hours per clinical course, plus 6-10 for online coursework, and the handbook treats two classes a semester as the norm.
From Fall 2026 Ball State runs 15-week semesters and a 10-week summer, and it does not publish whether each graduate NUR course uses the full term or a 7-week block. As our own rough arithmetic, 120 hours over 15 weeks is 8 hours a week, and the same 120 over a 10-week summer is 12. Settling a fixed clinical day with your employer before the term opens protects those hours better than squeezing them between shifts.
How we keep your hours on schedule
Every number on this page depends on a preceptor who is ready before the course begins. We find preceptors near you who fit each Ball State course, screen each site for the authorized-state and own-unit rules, and get the agency working on Ball State's standard agreement roughly a term early, as Ball State advises. The packet and agreement paperwork comes to you organized, and a backup agency stays lined up each semester.
Once the course is running, we help you keep ADB and CORE current so no hours land in a noncompliant week, and if a preceptor drops out we start on a replacement right away. Every site is cleared by Ball State's faculty and placement staff, and the file they receive from you is complete. Start on the placement request form.
Questions Ball State students ask
Do my hours working as an RN count toward Ball State's clinical hours?
Not toward the course totals. The catalog may ask you to prove at least 500 hours of RN work before your first clinical course, but that is an entry requirement. Clinical hours are supervised hours inside a NUR course with an approved preceptor, never in an FNP student's own unit or clinic.
Does simulation count toward Ball State NP clinical hours?
Ball State's graduate documents describe no simulation substitute for FNP hours. Indiana's rule allowing simulation for up to half of clinical hours covers LPN, associate, diploma and baccalaureate programs, not graduate NP programs. The one Ball State course documented with a virtual clinical is the NUR 303 bridge course, which the baccalaureate handbook pairs with a surrogate patient assessment.
Which MS core course has clinical hours at Ball State?
NUR 610, Nursing Concepts in Health Promotion/Disease and Injury Prevention in Populations. The FNP and Nurse Educator pages list 45 clinical hours for it, and the catalog says its clinical experiences focus on population health promotion. The Leadership and Management page shows the course without hours, though the MS FAQ's total for that concentration implies the same 45.
How does an Incomplete affect my next clinical course?
Ball State gives an I only in extenuating circumstances, under a written contract signed by you and your instructor. In NUR 634 and NUR 681 through NUR 684, it blocks any further NP clinical course until the work is finished with a passing grade. An I left unresolved for a year turns into an F unless the Graduate School's dean extends it.
What if my preceptor stops taking me partway through a course?
Tell your course faculty right away, since they handle preceptor and clinical-hour questions. Ball State already advises keeping a backup clinical agency for every semester, and any replacement site still needs an affiliation agreement Ball State accepts. Students who work with us get a replacement search started at once, aimed at a practice that fits the same course.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against Ball State's own catalog, graduate handbook, program pages and State Authorization Map, and Indiana rules. Your course faculty, your advisor and the Graduate Clinical Placement Coordinator have the final word.
Ball State asks you to find your preceptor. We find one near you.
Tell us your Ball State track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course, confirm the practice will sign Ball State's affiliation agreement, and line up a backup, so the School of Nursing can clear the site before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NUR 682, women's health forNUR 684, adult primary care forNUR 681andNUR 683 - Outside your own unit or clinic, in a state where Ball State's program is authorized
- Across Indiana, from Muncie to Evansville, and in the other states Ball State accepts
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Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.