NUR 634 Advanced Health Assessment: the 60 hours before primary care
NUR 634 carries 3 credits and 60 clinical hours at about one clinical day a week, and a B in it is one of the keys to Ball State's primary care courses. FNP and Nurse Educator students take it, as do some certificate and DNP students, so its preceptor search starts earlier than most students expect.
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NUR 634NUR 632 and taken before NUR 681
NUR 634 at a glance
What Ball State publishes for NUR 634 comes from the 2026-27 catalog and its program pages. The course description, objectives and weekly work live on the catalog's course page and in your clinical packet, and this guide leaves them to those sources.
| Item | What Ball State publishes |
|---|---|
| Credits | 3 |
| Clinical hours | 60, averaging about one clinical day a week |
| Prerequisite | NUR 632 Advanced Pathophysiology, completed first or taken in the same term |
| Grade to move on | B or better, the minimum passing grade for NUR courses, before NUR 681 to NUR 684 |
| Programs that include it | MS FNP, MS Nurse Educator, the DNP's FNP and Nurse Educator cognates, and certificate students when a transcript review calls for it |
| Where course detail lives | The catalog course page and your concentration's clinical packet in Canvas |
Where it sits in your plan of study
NUR 634 belongs to the group Ball State's Nurse Educator page calls the 3 P's: NUR 632 Advanced Pathophysiology, NUR 634 and NUR 638 Advanced Clinical Pharmacology. Pathophysiology comes first or alongside the other two, and all three must be passed before the first primary care course, NUR 681. For an FNP student, a delay in NUR 634 therefore delays the whole primary care sequence behind it.
Your exact term is set by your individual plan of study, which arrives by email after admission. Educator students take NUR 634 among their concentration courses before the NUR 672 practicum, and its 60 hours count toward their clinical total. Post-master's certificate students take it only when the transcript review requires it, which adds 60 hours to the certificate total. If NUR 634 is your first clinical course, it is also the semester Ball State directs you to link your American Data Bank and CORE accounts.
Which setting and preceptor fit
Ball State publishes setting rules for FNP clinicals as a whole rather than a separate list for NUR 634. The MS FAQ describes a primary care or clinic setting instead of acute care, in your own area, with a preceptor you choose to match the course requirements, and it excludes your own unit or clinic. The qualifications a NUR 634 preceptor must hold are in the preceptor section of the clinical packet, which only enrolled students can read; the preceptor requirements guide collects what is public.
Practical fit counts as much as the rules. The site has to be in a state where Ball State's program is authorized, and the agency has to sign an affiliation agreement Ball State accepts, ideally the standard one. A practice that could also host NUR 681 later is worth favoring, since it may spare you a fresh search next term; ask your course faculty whether they would approve it for both. Educator students should confirm what setting suits their NUR 634 hours, because Ball State's public pages describe only the FNP setting. See clinicals where you work for the workplace rules.
Why a 60-hour course needs a long runway
Sixty hours is the smallest FNP clinical course, but it needs the same groundwork as a 180-hour one. The agency still signs an affiliation agreement, Ball State still accepts only original signed copies, and your American Data Bank clearance still has to be current before the first hour counts. Ball State's graduate handbook advises beginning clinical planning a full year ahead because students compete for placements.
Large health systems set their own clocks. IU Health's Office of Clinical Education, for one, takes fall NP applications from March 1 to April 1 and spring applications from July 1 to September 1, matches students to its providers itself, and takes only Indiana residents who are licensed as nurses in Indiana. Other systems publish their own windows, often four to six months before the term. The affiliation agreements guide explains the contract side.
Incompletes, grades and your next clinical course
Ball State's graduate handbook names NUR 634 in its Incomplete rule: a student holding an Incomplete in NUR 634, or in any primary care course from NUR 681 to NUR 684, must finish the work with a passing grade before taking another NP clinical course. An Incomplete is granted only for extenuating circumstances, when the instructor, consulting the School Director, finds a valid reason, and it requires a written agreement you and the instructor both sign.
The Graduate School gives you at most a year to finish an I before it converts to an F, though its dean can approve one more year. The School of Nursing sets B as the passing grade for NUR courses, allows one failed course and dismisses a student after a second, and an unsatisfactory clinical evaluation is an F. More in grades and time limits.
Unfinished NUR 634 hours stop more than one course. Until the Incomplete is cleared, NUR 681 cannot begin, and every primary care course behind it waits as well.
How we prepare your NUR 634 placement
Because NUR 634 opens the FNP clinical sequence, we plan it as the first link in a chain. We line up a preceptor close to home whose practice suits the course and Ball State's rules, confirm the practice will sign the standard affiliation agreement well before the semester, and look for a site that could carry you into NUR 681 if your faculty agree. You get what the clinical packet and agreement call for, organized, plus a backup agency.
During the course we watch your ADB renewal dates with you so none of your 60 hours fall in a noncompliant week, and we stay on call if the preceptor's schedule shifts. Your course faculty and the School of Nursing's placement staff approve the site; we make the package they review complete. Share your start term on the request form.
Questions Ball State students ask
Is NUR 634 the same course for FNP and Nurse Educator students?
It is one course number, listed at 60 clinical hours on both concentration pages, and Ball State's DNP uses it in the FNP and Nurse Educator cognates as well. Each concentration has its own clinical packet, though, so the setting and preceptor your faculty expect can differ by track. Read your own concentration's packet in the Canvas Community.
Can I take NUR 634 before NUR 632?
No. The catalog lists NUR 632 Advanced Pathophysiology as a prerequisite or parallel course for NUR 634, so it comes first or in the same term. NUR 638 Advanced Clinical Pharmacology has the same tie to NUR 632. Your emailed plan of study sets the actual order, and registration is by permission based on that plan.
Does NUR 634 include a campus visit?
Ball State ties its one required 8-hour on-campus clinical day to NUR 681 Primary Care of the Adult 1, not to NUR 634. The catalog does warn that some NP clinical courses can call for a campus visit, so watch your course announcements. The NUR 681 guide covers the Muncie day.
Do certificate students have to take NUR 634?
Only when the transcript review asks for it. Ball State's certificate page and catalog list NUR 630, NUR 632, NUR 634 and NUR 638 as courses that may be required after that review. If NUR 634 is added, its 60 clinical hours sit on top of the certificate's primary care hours, which helps explain why the certificate total ranges from 390 to 690.
Can my NUR 634 preceptor work in the same health system as I do?
Ball State's FAQ excludes your own unit or clinic but says nothing public about a different site within your employer's system. The educator and leadership pages allow the workplace for their practicum, which suggests the line falls at your own unit. Ask your course faculty before you build a plan around another site in your system.
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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