Ball State's Nurse Educator concentration: the NUR 672 practicum and every clinical hour
Ball State's Nurse Educator concentration is a 40-credit, fully online track in the MS in Nursing, built around a 180-hour teaching practicum in NUR 672. Two more courses carry supervised time, NUR 634 with 60 hours and NUR 610 with 45, and the practicum may take place in your workplace under a master's- or doctoral-prepared RN. Ball State's FAQ still prints older figures, laid out below as the conflicts they are.
Plan your educator practicum
Tell us your state, your employer's setting 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
Nurse Educator is one of three concentrations in Ball State's online MS in Nursing and, unlike the FNP, it has no campus clinical day. The 2026-27 Graduate Catalog sets it at 40 credits: the 18-credit core every MS student takes plus 22 concentration credits. Ball State's program page describes seven semesters. The MS admits three times a year, and the next cohort begins January 11, 2027.
The program page splits those 22 credits into 13 credits of teaching role courses and 9 credits of the 3 P's: advanced pathophysiology, advanced health assessment and advanced pharmacology.
| Course | Title | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|
NUR 620 | Curricular Designs in Nursing | None |
NUR 622 | Teaching in Nursing | None |
NUR 626 | Program Evaluation | None |
NUR 632 | Advanced Pathophysiology | None |
NUR 634 | Advanced Health Assessment | 60 |
NUR 638 | Advanced Clinical Pharmacology | None |
NUR 672 | Practicum of Role Expectations | 180, taken last |
Three courses with supervised hours
Add the program page's per-course figures and the concentration holds 285 supervised hours: 45 in NUR 610 from the shared core, 60 in NUR 634 and 180 in NUR 672. Ball State headlines only the 180 practicum hours, and the clinical hours planner lines all three up against the other Ball State programs.
NUR 610 centers its clinical time on population health promotion and disease and injury prevention, so its site needs that population focus. NUR 634 is the same Advanced Health Assessment course FNP students take, with 60 clinical hours of its own.
NUR 672 is the final course: the catalog holds it until everything else in the concentration is done. Its catalog entry allows either an educational or an administrative setting, and for this concentration the program page narrows it to teaching.
Where the practicum can happen
Ball State's Nurse Educator page lets the 180 NUR 672 hours happen at your own employer, with an RN from your area who holds a master's or doctorate as supervisor. The same page calls the setting an approved healthcare environment, so the site still passes through Ball State's review.
The MS FAQ, which speaks to every concentration, rules out clinical time on your own unit or in your own clinic. Taken together, the likely reading is that your employer can host the practicum outside your own unit, but Ball State has not put that in one sentence anywhere. Confirm your exact setting with your course faculty, and see clinicals where you work for how the two rules fit.
Depending on your state, the graduate handbook says a clinical supervisor may evaluate you alongside the preceptor. Preceptor qualifications and practicum forms sit in the Educator clinical packet, posted to Ball State's Canvas community for nursing graduate students.
The Nurse Educator page has a copy slip: one heading calls the practicum a real-world administration practicum focused on nursing administration, while the same page calls it education-focused and prints the assessment course as NURS 634. Plan for an education-focused practicum.
The FAQ's figures versus the current program
Ball State's MS program FAQ still carries numbers from an earlier curriculum. They match the School's 2018 information packet, so treat the catalog and the Nurse Educator page as current.
| Item | MS program FAQ | 2026-27 catalog and Nurse Educator page |
|---|---|---|
| Credits | 36 | 40 |
| Total clinical hours | 270 | 285 by the page's own course figures (45 + 60 + 180) |
| Why the hours differ | Fits the 2018 plan, where NUR 609 carried 45 hours | NUR 634 now carries 60 hours |
| Campus visits | Optional | None for Nurse Educator; the only campus day belongs to the FNP |
| Leadership track name | Nurse Administrator | Leadership and Management |
The gap that matters for planning is 15 hours. Budget for 285 supervised hours, not 270, and let the plan of study Ball State emails you after admission settle the details.
The post-master's Nurse Educator certificate
Ball State's 2026-27 Graduate Catalog lists a Post-Master's Certificate in Nursing, Nurse Educator, of 13 to 25 credits for nurses who already hold a master's. It has no marketing page, no admissions page and no entry on the State Authorization Map, so Ball State publishes no start terms and no state list for it. Ask the School of Nursing directly before you plan around it.
The two catalog tracks
- Traditional, 22 to 25 credits, for a master's outside advanced practice:
NUR 620,NUR 622,NUR 626andNUR 672, plusNUR 632,NUR 634andNUR 638if not already taken. - Advanced practice, 13 to 16 credits, for an NP, CNS, CRNA or CNM master's: the four education courses without the 3 P's.
- Either track adds
NUR 605when the master's came from another school.
The catalog lists no hours for NUR 672 in the certificate; the MS Nurse Educator page sets that course at 180, and the Traditional track adds 60 in NUR 634 when required. No Ball State source says who arranges the certificate's practicum, though it is the same course MS students arrange themselves. Certificate requirements must be met within five years.
Securing the practicum preceptor, and what we do
Ball State asks MS students to be active partners in securing each placement and offers faculty help when problems surface. The handbook's advice to begin a year early applies to NUR 672 as much as to any FNP course. Because the practicum comes last, the search runs alongside your final didactic terms. Ball State's wording is on finding your own preceptor.
- Define the settingWe pin down what your course calls for, education-focused and outside your own unit, and where your employer can fit.
- Find a qualified educatorWe locate an RN with a master's or doctorate who teaches, in a school of nursing or a hospital education department, in a state on Ball State's authorized list.
- Cover the earlier hoursThe same search covers a population health site for
NUR 610and an assessment preceptor forNUR 634. - Prepare the fileWe check that the host is willing to use Ball State's standard agency agreement, collect the packet details and line up a second option.
Your course faculty sign off on the setting, and our part is getting a complete file to them ahead of time. Request a placement to begin.
Questions Ball State students ask
Is Ball State's Nurse Educator program fully online?
Yes. Ball State lists the Nurse Educator concentration as 100% online, and the one required campus day in the MS in Nursing belongs to the FNP. Orientation is the one event that might bring you to Muncie; the application page offers a campus day or Zoom, while the current handbook describes it as virtual.
Which states can Nurse Educator students live in?
The same 26 jurisdictions as the rest of the MS in Nursing: 25 states, Indiana among them, plus Washington, D.C., on Ball State's State Authorization Map. Your home and every practicum hour both have to sit inside that list. The post-master's educator certificate has no map entry, so Ball State publishes no state list for it.
How long does the Nurse Educator concentration take?
Ball State's Nurse Educator page says seven semesters. Most students carry two courses per term, the handbook's default pace, following a plan of study sent after admission. Leaving that plan can mean waiting two or three semesters for a course to come around again, and the degree has a six-year limit.
Do Nurse Educator students need RN work experience before clinical courses?
Possibly. Ball State's catalog reserves the right to ask for evidence of 500 or more hours of RN employment before a student's first clinical course, which for educators would come before NUR 610 or NUR 634, not just the practicum. Admission separately requires a current RN license with no restrictions, held where you practice.
Is the Nurse Educator concentration accredited?
The concentration sits inside Ball State's master's degree in nursing, which CCNE's directory shows as accredited until June 30, 2031. CCNE's next on-site review of the master's is planned for fall 2030. Ball State's accreditation page names the master's degree, the baccalaureate and the post-graduate APRN certificate.
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.