Ball State's Leadership and Management concentration and its 180-hour practicum
Ball State's Nurse Leadership and Management concentration is a fully online MS in Nursing track that the 2026-27 catalog sets at 40 credits, though its web pages still say 40-48. Its one long practicum, NUR 672, runs 180 hours under a master's- or doctoral-prepared RN and may take place at your own employer. Until the 2026-27 catalog it was called Nurse Administrator, and several Ball State documents still use that name.
Plan your leadership practicum
Tell us your state, the kind of leadership work you want and when NUR 672 starts. A placement advisor replies with preceptor options that fit.
NUR 672 Practicum of Role Expectations
The concentration at a glance
Leadership and Management is the business-facing concentration of Ball State's online MS in Nursing. The catalog builds it from the 18-credit core shared by every MS student and 22 concentration credits: three nursing administration courses, three MBA courses and the NUR 672 practicum. Admission opens every fall, spring and summer term, and the next MS cohort begins January 11, 2027.
| Course | Title | Credits | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|---|
NUR 640 | Nursing Administration in Complex Organizations | 3 | None |
NUR 642 | Administrative Management for Nurses | 3 | None |
NUR 643 | Financial Management for Nurses | 3 | None |
MBA 640 | Introduction to Healthcare Administration | 3 | None |
MBA 647 | Financial Management and Performance Evaluation | 3 | None |
MBA 649 | Health Care Policy and Strategy | 3 | None |
NUR 672 | Practicum of Role Expectations | 4 | 180, taken last |
NUR 642 follows NUR 640, and NUR 643 needs a B in both. The three MBA courses plus one more make up a Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Administration, and a dual MSN/MBA requires the seven core MBA courses.
40 credits or 40-48: the published conflict
The 2026-27 Graduate Catalog lists Leadership and Management at 40 credits, level with Nurse Educator. Ball State's Leadership and Management page and the MS landing page both say 40-48, and neither explains what would take a plan to 48. The MS program FAQ offers a third figure, 36, under the older concentration name.
The catalog is the formal record of each year's degree requirements, so 40 is the number to plan around. If your plan of study shows more, ask your advisor which courses account for the difference.
Length is also unclear. The leadership page gives none, and the FAQ puts the old Nurse Administrator track at no fewer than seven semesters. The master's itself has a six-year limit.
From Nurse Administrator to Leadership and Management
The 2025-26 catalog called this concentration Nurse Administrator; the 2026-27 catalog renamed it Nurse Leadership and Management. The coursework carries over, but older Ball State documents keep the former name.
- The MS program FAQ lists Nurse Administrator at 36 credits and 225 total clinical hours.
- The 2025-26 graduate handbook, still the edition Ball State links, names three clinical packets (Nurse Practitioner, Educator and Administrator) in the Canvas community for nursing graduate students, so look for the leadership packet under Administrator.
- Ball State's archived 2018 information packet and older MS pages describe the same track as Administrator.
When you search Canvas or talk with School of Nursing staff, use both names so nothing slips past you.
The hours: NUR 672 plus NUR 610
The leadership page names a 180-hour practicum and lists NUR 610 with no clinical hours at all. The FNP and Nurse Educator pages give NUR 610 45 hours, and the FAQ's 225-hour total for the old Nurse Administrator track equals 180 plus 45. The catalog describes population-focused clinical experiences in NUR 610, so plan a site for it as well.
Ball State does not publish how the 180 hours spread across the term. The MS landing page estimates a weekly clinical load in the 8-to-12-hour range, a rough guide for early talks with a preceptor. Time at the site while American Data Bank shows you noncompliant does not count and has to be made up.
In the catalog, NUR 672 opens only once you have finished the rest of the concentration. The clinical hours planner sets the leadership total beside the other Ball State programs.
Who supervises the practicum
Ball State's leadership page allows the 180 hours at the organization that employs you, with an RN from your area who holds a master's or doctorate as preceptor. It calls the practicum leadership-focused, not bedside clinical care. The catalog's course entry covers educational and administrative settings alike, and leadership students take the administrative side.
Against that permission stands the MS FAQ's line barring clinical time on your own unit or in your own clinic. The workable reading is a different department of your organization, but Ball State has not confirmed that in writing, so clear it with your course faculty first. Clinicals where you work sets the two rules side by side.
In certain states a clinical supervisor also evaluates you, per the graduate handbook, and the packet sets out who qualifies to precept.
Settings that fit a leadership practicum
Ball State describes the practicum only as leadership-focused and administrative. Within that, the strongest sites hand you a real project and a preceptor who manages people, budgets or quality. These are the settings we look at first.
- Hospital nursing administration: a chief nursing officer's office, a director of nursing or a service line leader
- Quality, patient safety or nursing informatics departments led by a master's-prepared nurse
- Ambulatory and clinic networks where one nurse manager oversees several sites
- Long-term care, home health or hospice agencies, under the director of nursing
- Public health departments with a nurse in a leadership post
Whatever the setting, the preceptor must be a registered nurse with a master's or doctorate, so an administrator without an RN license falls outside the page's wording. The organization also has to accept Ball State's standard affiliation agreement, and Ball State excludes a few health systems in particular states, as clinical agencies by state explains.
What we do for leadership students
The School of Nursing looks to each MS student to drive the placement search, with faculty stepping in when trouble arises. We take on the search and the groundwork.
- Match the projectWe learn what you want to lead, from staffing to quality, and look for a setting where that work is under way.
- Find a qualified preceptorAn RN leader with a graduate degree, close to home, inside an authorized state and away from your own unit.
- Prepare the agreementWe check the organization's willingness to use Ball State's standard agreement and assemble the packet items one semester early.
- Keep a backupA second leader stays lined up in case the first changes roles mid-semester.
Approval rests with your course faculty. We see that the plan reaching them is finished and on time; send us your details to start.
Questions Ball State students ask
Can I earn an MBA alongside Ball State's leadership MSN?
Yes. Ball State offers a dual MSN/MBA that adds the seven core MBA courses, and the concentration's MBA 640, MBA 647 and MBA 649 plus one more course earn a Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Administration. Ask your advisor how either option changes your plan of study and your total credits.
Is Ball State's Leadership and Management concentration fully online?
Yes, 100% online. No clinical visit to Muncie applies to this concentration; that requirement is specific to FNP students in NUR 681. Orientation is a campus day or a Zoom session according to the application page, and virtual according to the graduate handbook.
Does the leadership practicum involve patient care?
No. Ball State's page describes the NUR 672 practicum as leadership-focused rather than bedside clinical care, so your hours go to management work under a master's- or doctoral-prepared RN. The shared core course NUR 610 does include population-focused clinical experiences, so budget a site for that course too.
Which states can leadership students live in?
The 26 jurisdictions where Ball State's MS in Nursing is authorized: Indiana, 24 more states and the District of Columbia. Residence and every practicum hour both have to fall inside that list, and relocating somewhere unlisted halts your progress in the program. The handbook gives you seven days to notify the Clinical Placement Coordinator after a move.
Do I need RN experience before the leadership practicum?
Possibly. Ball State's catalog lets the School request documentation of 500 RN work hours ahead of a first clinical course, and admission already requires an active, unencumbered RN license. Clearance through American Data Bank and CORE must also be current before practicum hours count.
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
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.