NUR 681 Primary Care of the Adult 1: 120 hours and a day in Muncie
NUR 681 is the first primary care course in Ball State's FNP sequence: 4 credits and 120 clinical hours, 8 of them on one required clinical day at the Muncie campus. The rest you complete with an adult primary care preceptor near home, at about one clinical day a week.
Get your placement plan
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 681
NUR 681 at a glance
These points come from Ball State's FNP and certificate pages, the MS FAQ and the 2026-27 catalog. The catalog's NUR 681 page carries the course description, and assignments and forms arrive through the course and its clinical packet.
| Item | What Ball State publishes |
|---|---|
| Credits | 4 |
| Clinical hours | 120, with 8 completed on campus in Muncie |
| Pace | About one clinical day a week on average |
| Before it | A B in NUR 632, NUR 634 and NUR 638 (or equivalents for certificate students) |
| After it | A B in NUR 681 is required for NUR 683 Primary Care of the Adult 2 |
| Can share a term with | NUR 682 or NUR 684, which follow the same three courses |
| Setting | Primary care or clinic, not acute care, and outside your own unit or clinic |
The required campus day
Ball State's MS in Nursing page says every course is online except in the FNP concentration, which requires one 8-hour clinical day at the Muncie campus, and the FNP page places those 8 hours inside NUR 681. The graduate catalog adds a general note that certain NP clinical courses may require campus visits. The 8 hours count toward the course's 120 and toward the concentration's 690.
Ball State has not published the date, the format or the content of the day. Expect the details through the course itself, your course faculty or announcements in the Nursing Grad Students Canvas Community, and ask early in the term if nothing has come. The MS FAQ still tells applicants that campus visits are optional, which conflicts with the FNP page; that FAQ carries other outdated figures, so go by the FNP page.
Certificate students should check separately. Ball State's Post-Master's Certificate page lists NUR 681 at 120 hours without mentioning the campus day, so ask your advisor or course faculty whether it applies to you.
Planning the trip to Muncie
The graduate catalog makes clinical travel costs the student's responsibility, and the campus day is part of that. Approximate driving distances to Muncie: about 57 miles from Indianapolis, 80 from Fort Wayne, 140 from South Bend and 225 from Evansville. Students in other authorized states, from Ohio to Washington or Alaska, may need a flight and a hotel night.
- Ask for the date earlyOnce you register, ask your course faculty when the campus day falls and watch the Canvas Community for announcements.
- Clear it at work and with your preceptorBook the time off and let your preceptor know which week you will be in Muncie, so your regular clinical days can be planned around it.
- Keep compliance currentCampus hours are clinical hours, so American Data Bank has to show you compliant that day like any other.
- Budget the travelMileage, airfare or a hotel night are yours to cover, so price them when you plan the term.
Adult primary care preceptors for NUR 681
The other 112 hours happen with your preceptor close to home. Ball State asks for a primary care or clinic setting, not acute care, outside your own unit or clinic, and it notes that nearly all FNP hours can be completed in family practice primary care. A family practice or an adult primary care office fits that description; your course faculty approve the specific site, and the clinical packet sets who may precept.
In Indiana, primary care preceptors are in steady demand. IU Health's Office of Clinical Education lists family and primary care among the specialties NP students request most, runs all NP placements centrally, and accepts only students whose residence and nursing license are in Indiana. Community Health Network lists Ball State nursing among its affiliated schools and sets a May 1 deadline for fall NP students who want its help finding a preceptor. The Indiana regions guide leads to region pages on the health systems in each part of the state, and who can precept covers what Ball State says about preceptors.
Why NUR 681 sets your pace
NUR 681 is the hinge of the FNP plan. A B here is the only way into NUR 683, and NUR 673 waits for every other course, so a missed or delayed NUR 681 pushes back at least two later courses, NUR 683 and NUR 673. An Incomplete has the same effect, since Ball State's handbook bars any further NP clinical course until the Incomplete is cleared with a passing grade.
The graduate handbook's advice to begin clinical planning a year ahead matters most here, because the NUR 681 preceptor usually has to be found while you are still finishing NUR 632, NUR 634 and NUR 638. Ball State's Current Student Resources page adds that tentative arrangements with the agency should begin roughly one term ahead, keeping a second agency in reserve. The FNP 690 hours guide shows the full sequence.
How we set up NUR 681 for you
We find an adult primary care preceptor close to where you live, check the practice against Ball State's rules, and start the standard Ball State affiliation agreement a semester out, with a backup practice ready. You receive what your clinical packet and the agreement ask for, assembled and ready to submit. Where a health system routes students through its own application, as IU Health does, we work through that process and its deadlines.
We also plan around the campus day: once your faculty share the date, we help you fit it into your preceptor's schedule so your weekly clinical rhythm keeps moving. If the preceptor's availability changes mid-term, we find a replacement. Ball State's course faculty and placement staff approve the site. Request an adult primary care preceptor.
Questions Ball State students ask
Is the NUR 681 campus day the same as orientation?
No. Ball State's graduate handbook requires a virtual School of Nursing graduate orientation for every student, and the MS application page offers orientation in person or by Zoom. The campus day is separate: 8 clinical hours inside NUR 681, counted toward your 690 FNP hours.
Can I skip the Muncie day if I live in another state?
Ball State describes the day as required for the FNP concentration and publishes no exemption for distance. Students in any authorized state, from Ohio to Alaska, should plan and budget for the trip. If a real conflict comes up, raise it with your course faculty early rather than assuming another arrangement will be made.
Does my NUR 681 preceptor have to be a nurse practitioner?
Ball State does not say publicly. Preceptor qualifications for FNP courses are part of the clinical packet that enrolled students open in Canvas, and the public pages never say whether physicians or physician assistants may precept. Read the packet's preceptor qualification section before you approach anyone, or ask your course faculty.
Can I take NUR 681 in the summer?
Ball State does not publish which terms each graduate NUR course runs, and the handbook warns that not every course is offered every semester. Your emailed plan of study decides. By our arithmetic, if it did run in the 10-week summer term, 120 hours would average 12 hours a week, against 8 across a 15-week semester.
What grade do I need in NUR 681 to move on?
A B. It is the lowest passing grade in any NUR course and the catalog's requirement for NUR 683 Primary Care of the Adult 2. Clinical performance also gets a satisfactory or unsatisfactory rating, and an unsatisfactory one fails the whole course with an F, whatever your other grades.
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.