Ball State DNP clinical hours, cognate by cognate
Ball State's 2026-27 graduate catalog requires 1,000 clinical and practicum hours in every DNP cognate, while the DNP program page still puts the two leadership cognates, Nurse Executive and Nurse Educator, at 750. FNP cognate hours sit in four of the primary care courses between NUR 781 and NUR 785, leadership hours sit in the NUR 787 and NUR 788 immersion practicums, and every student confirms a DNP Project site with the committee before NUR 792.
Planning DNP practicum or project sites?
Tell us your cognate, your entry point and your state. Your placement advisor maps each course that needs a preceptor or site.
NUR 785 for post-master's FNP studentsNUR 787 and NUR 788 for post-master's Executive and Educator students
1,000 or 750: two Ball State sources disagree
The 2026-27 catalog sets one figure for everyone: 1,000 hours of clinical and practicum work in each cognate for post-baccalaureate students, and 1,000 combined across master's and doctoral study for post-master's students. The program page matches that for the FNP cognate, but for Nurse Executive it counts 750 hours in NUR 618, NUR 787 and NUR 788, and for Nurse Educator 750 with NUR 634 added.
The program page mostly follows the 2025-26 catalog, in which NUR 618 was part of the leadership hours and the Educator total came to 810. NUR 618 is missing from the 2026-27 course lists, and Ball State has not published how the leadership cognates now reach 1,000. The revised DNP opened in fall 2025, so both documents describe a program in its first years.
Plan the Executive and Educator cognates around 1,000 hours, the current catalog figure, until your advisor confirms your own total in writing.
Hours by cognate and entry point
Ball State publishes DNP hours by cognate and entry point rather than course by course. The table puts every published figure in one place.
| Cognate | Post-baccalaureate | Post-master's | Courses that carry the hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FNP | 1,000 | 475 in NUR 785, plus 525 master's hours equivalent to NUR 781 to NUR 783 | NUR 781, NUR 782, NUR 783, NUR 785 |
| Nurse Executive | 1,000 in the catalog; 750 on the program page | 600 in NUR 787 and NUR 788 | NUR 787, NUR 788; the program page adds NUR 618 |
| Nurse Educator | 1,000 in the catalog; 750 on the program page | 600 in NUR 787 and NUR 788 | NUR 787, NUR 788; the program page adds NUR 618 and NUR 634 |
Per-course hours are not public beyond these totals. The post-master's figures imply that NUR 781 to NUR 783 hold 525 hours between them, but that split is our arithmetic, and Ball State does not divide the 525 among the three courses. NUR 760 Population Focused Care, NUR 764 Leadership in Health Policy and Advanced Practice and NUR 793 DNP Project 2 each mention clinical experience in the catalog with no hours attached.
The FNP cognate's clinical chain
The FNP cognate's 40 credits run in a fixed order after NUR 632, NUR 634 and NUR 638, and each course needs a B in the one before it. The table sets out the sequence and what Ball State publishes about each step's hours.
| Step | Course | Credits | Published hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NUR 781 Primary Care 1 (adults) | 5 | With steps 2 and 3: post-master's students show 525 equivalent master's hours |
| 2 | NUR 782 Primary Care 2 (infants through adolescents) | 5 | See step 1 |
| 3 | NUR 783 Primary Care 3 (adults) | 5 | See step 1 |
| 4 | NUR 784 Primary Care 4 (women's and behavioral health) | 4 | Not listed among the hour courses |
| 5 | NUR 785 Primary Care Immersion | 5 | 475 for post-master's students |
| 6 | NUR 786 Transition into Advanced Practice and Entrepreneurship | 4 | None listed |
Because each course waits on the last, the chain takes at least six terms, and each hour-bearing course needs a primary care preceptor who sees its population. The DNP program page leaves the women's and behavioral health course off its list of hour-bearing courses, so ask your advisor whether it carries clinical time in your plan.
Ball State's DNP pages do not say who arranges FNP cognate preceptors, and the DNP admissions page warns that some NP clinical courses may involve a campus visit. The master's FNP courses are the nearest published model for settings and hours; see the 690-hour FNP breakdown.
Nurse Executive and Nurse Educator practicums
Both leadership cognates share two immersion practicums: NUR 787 Leadership Immersion Practicum 1 (5 credits) and NUR 788 Leadership Immersion Practicum 2 (6 credits), which follows a B in NUR 787. For post-master's students the pair carries 600 hours. The catalog says the faculty and preceptor support and guide the student in NUR 787, and that NUR 788 practicum experiences are individually designed in coordination with the faculty.
NUR 788 is also where the DNP Project is put into practice, so your practicum site and your project site have to work together. Executive students suit settings such as nursing administration or system operations, and Educator students suit academic or clinical education settings; those examples are ours, and faculty shape the actual experience. The Educator cognate also includes NUR 610 and NUR 634, which carry 45 and 60 clinical hours in the master's program; how those count toward the DNP total is not published. The master's-level counterpart is the NUR 672 role practicum.
The DNP Project site and its mentors
Every cognate completes a scholarly DNP Project rather than a dissertation. The Graduate Nursing Handbook 2025-26 asks you and your DNP Project Committee to have the project's setting, clinical or community, confirmed by the beginning of the term in which you take NUR 792 DNP Project 1. The meeting with your project advisor comes earlier, in NUR 744, and by the close of NUR 792 the proposal and IRB approval should be done.
The project is carried out during NUR 788 and the two later project courses, and it cannot begin until four things are ready: every IRB approval, your clinical clearance documents, a practicum mentor agreement and an agency agreement, and final sign-off from your project faculty advisor.
Who does what on the project
- Project preceptor mentor: a member of your committee based at the site, who introduces you to agency policy and procedure and writes an evaluation of your work for your project faculty advisor.
- Content expert mentor: an external member of the DNP Project Committee.
- Project faculty advisor: briefs both mentors on program requirements in writing, and interviews the project preceptor mentor by phone as
NUR 793closes and again asNUR 794closes. - You: complete an evaluation of the practicum site and mentor when the practicum ends.
States and accreditation to check first
On Ball State's State Authorization Map, the DNP is open in six states only: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia and Indiana. Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky are authorized for the MS in Nursing but not for the DNP, while Delaware and Georgia work the other way. The DNP page's residency line reuses the master's wording, so confirm your state with Ball State's Office of State Authorizations before you line up any site. Our state authorization guide compares the programs.
The revised DNP does not appear in CCNE's directory, unlike Ball State's BSN, MS in Nursing and post-graduate APRN certificate, which CCNE accredits through June 30, 2031. The School's Section I handbook for 2026-27 still carries a DNP accreditation date of June 30, 2027, a term that belonged to the earlier DNP, which graduated its last cohort in 2018. The accreditation page explains the difference.
How we support Ball State DNP students
DNP placements come in two kinds: primary care preceptors for each step of the FNP chain, and leadership organizations that can host an immersion practicum and a project. For the FNP cognate, we find preceptors matched to each course's population in a DNP-authorized state, checked against Ball State's rules and backed by a second option. For the Executive and Educator cognates, we look for organizations with a nurse leader willing to serve as project preceptor mentor, and we gather what the practicum mentor agreement and agency agreement need so your committee can confirm the site ahead of NUR 792.
Your faculty and your DNP Project Committee approve every site. Start with the request form.
Questions Ball State students ask
When does Ball State's DNP start?
Fall only. Ball State lists the next start as August 23, 2027, with a July 19 priority deadline. The program is fully online, and its credit total ranges from 74 to 78 in the current catalog. A post-master's student completes at least 48 credits at Ball State and may bring in up to 30 master's credits.
Do my master's clinical hours count toward the DNP's 1,000?
For post-master's students, yes. The catalog counts hours from your master's program and the DNP together toward 1,000. FNP-cognate students document 525 master's hours equivalent to the first three primary care courses and complete 475 in the immersion; Executive and Educator students complete 600 in the two leadership practicums.
What is the time limit for finishing Ball State's DNP?
The graduate catalog gives doctoral students seven calendar years, with limited one-year extensions. The practicums, the DNP Project and the FNP cognate's six-course chain all have to fit inside that window, and a term lost to a missing preceptor pushes back every course that follows it.
Can my employer be my DNP Project site?
Nothing in Ball State's public DNP guidance rules it out. What the handbook requires is that the site be confirmed with your DNP Project Committee before NUR 792, that a project preceptor mentor there join the committee, and that both the practicum mentor agreement and the agency agreement be in place before the project starts. Ask your committee how Ball State's own-unit rule applies to project work.
Does the DNP FNP cognate include a campus day?
Ball State's DNP admissions page says campus visits may be required in certain NP clinical courses. In the master's program the one campus clinical day belongs to NUR 681, and no DNP course is named for a campus visit, so ask your advisor whether your plan includes one.
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 2026-27 Graduate Catalog: Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
- Ball State Online: Doctor of Nursing Practice
- Ball State 2026-27 Graduate Catalog: NUR 788 Leadership Immersion Practicum 2
- Ball State School of Nursing: Current Student Resources (Graduate Student Handbook)
- Ball State Office of State Authorizations: Doctorate of Nursing Practice
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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