NUR 684 Primary Care of Women: getting a women's health preceptor in time

Q: Why does NUR 684 carry fewer hours than the other primary care courses?

Ball State sets NUR 684 at 90 clinical hours, against 120 for each of the two adult courses and the pediatric course, and does not publish its reasoning. The 90 hours still count toward the FNP's 690, and certificate students on either track complete them. Fewer hours do not make the preceptor easier to find.

Updated September 26, 2026 · Reviewed by the Ball State Preceptor placement team

Ball State's NUR 684 Primary Care of Women carries 4 credits and 90 supervised clinical hours, making it the shortest of the primary care rotations and, going by what Indiana health systems publish, one of the hardest to staff. Start planning it before any other clinical course, and hold a second women's health site in reserve.

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90clinical hours in NUR 684

4credits in the 2026-27 graduate catalog

Numbered steps. Plan NUR 684 first: 1 Find the term; 2 Start about 12 months out; 3 Work to each system's calendar; 4 Get the paperwork moving; 5 Keep a women's health backup. — Plan NUR 684 first: 1 Find the term; 2 Start about 12 months out; 3 Work to each system's calendar; 4 Get the paperwork moving; 5 Keep a women's health backup.

What Ball State publishes about `NUR 684`

The 2026-27 graduate catalog opens NUR 684 once you have taken NUR 632 Advanced Pathophysiology, NUR 634 Advanced Health Assessment and NUR 638 Advanced Clinical Pharmacology. It does not wait on either adult course, and NUR 683 lists it as a prerequisite or parallel course, so the women's rotation must be finished by the time you take Adult 2, or taken with it.

`NUR 684` in Ball State's published sources
Item	What Ball State says	Source
Credits	4	2026-27 graduate catalog
Clinical hours	90	FNP page and post-master's certificate page
Before you enroll	`NUR 632`, `NUR 634` and `NUR 638`	2026-27 catalog prerequisites
Latest point in the sequence	Before or alongside `NUR 683`	2026-27 catalog prerequisites for `NUR 683`
Days per week	Not stated; the certificate page gives about 1 day for `NUR 681` to `NUR 683`	Post-master's certificate page
Who takes it	MS in Nursing FNP and both post-master's FNP certificate tracks	FNP and certificate pages

Objectives, the clinical expectations for women's health and the evaluation forms are in the syllabus and the NP clinical packet on Canvas, not on Ball State's public site.

Which preceptors fit a women's health rotation

Ball State limits FNP clinical hours to clinics and primary care settings, never acute care, and never your own unit or clinic. For NUR 684 that points to outpatient women's care: an OB-GYN office, a women's health clinic, or a family practice where one clinician sees a steady stream of gynecologic, prenatal and well-woman visits. A hospital labor and delivery unit is acute care and falls outside the setting Ball State describes.

Whether a physician, a certified nurse-midwife or an NP may precept this course is a packet question. The preceptor qualifications for Ball State's NP courses sit in the Canvas clinical packet, so run the preceptor's credentials past your course faculty before any paperwork is signed.

Settings worth putting on your list

OB-GYN practices, including physician groups with NPs or midwives on staff
Women's health clinics run by a health system or a community health center
Family practices where one clinician carries a large share of women's visits
Community health centers that offer prenatal and gynecologic care alongside primary care

Why women's health placements are scarce in Indiana

Indiana's larger health systems say so on their own student pages. IU Health's Office of Clinical Education puts the lack of an available preceptor first among its top reasons for declining NP requests, and lists women's health among its most requested areas along with family and primary care, pediatrics and behavioral health. Franciscan Health's NP application form for its central Indiana sites warns that preceptor availability is very limited for women's health and pediatric placements, and gives priority to Franciscan employees.

Closer to Muncie, Reid Health's Medical Education page, as archived in December 2025, said Reid could not provide APP student hours in women's health or pediatrics. IU Health also limits its placements to students who live in Indiana and hold an Indiana nursing license, and forbids students from reaching out to its providers themselves, because its own office does the matching on a fixed calendar.

Taken together, the big systems either ration women's health spots, fill them with their own staff first, or run them through application windows months ahead. That makes independent OB-GYN offices, community health centers and family practices with a women's health focus worth a close look. Our Indianapolis metro and east-central Indiana guides list the systems near you.

Plan `NUR 684` first

Ball State's graduate handbook advises planning every clinical experience at least a year ahead because of competition for placements, and this is the course where that advice matters most. Health system deadlines fall months before the term: IU Health takes fall applications from March 1 to April 1, Franciscan's form asks for fall requests by March 31, and Reid's interest form asks for at least six months' notice.

Find the termCheck where NUR 684 sits on your plan of study and whether it pairs with NUR 681 or NUR 683.
Start about 12 months outList OB-GYN and women's health practices in your authorized state near home and begin reaching out, before other students book the same offices.
Work to each system's calendarWhere a site belongs to a system with a student office, apply inside its window. IU Health, for one, keeps no waitlist for late applicants.
Get the paperwork movingOnce a practice says yes, give it Ball State's standard agreement to sign about a semester out, in original form. Our agreement guide has the details.
Keep a women's health backupBall State suggests a backup agency every semester. For this course, make the backup a second women's health site, not a general practice with few women's visits.

Certificate and DNP students

NUR 684 appears in both post-master's FNP certificate tracks. Students coming from a non-NP master's take it with both adult courses and the pediatric course; graduates of Adult or Adult-Gerontology NP programs pair it with children's primary care and the final practicum, 390 hours altogether. See the certificate guide for both tracks and the certificate's state limits.

In the DNP's FNP cognate, NUR 784 Primary Care 4 covers women's and behavioral health, yet the DNP page leaves it out of the courses it credits with clinical hours. Ask your advisor whether NUR 784 carries clinical time in your plan; the DNP clinical hours guide sets out what Ball State publishes.

How we find a women's health preceptor for you

Women's health is where our search goes deepest. We work through OB-GYN offices, women's health clinics and family practices with a strong women's caseload near your home, check each one against Ball State's rules and the health system's own student policy, and bring you a preceptor plus a backup early enough for the affiliation agreement to clear.

Where a system matches students itself, as IU Health does, we help you prepare its application inside its window and point our own outreach at independent practices. We hand over everything the NP packet needs about the preceptor, name the person at the practice who signs agreements, and keep your American Data Bank and CORE items on track. Ball State's course faculty and placement staff review and approve every site. Start on the request form.

Questions Ball State students ask

Can a certified nurse-midwife precept NUR 684?

Ball State keeps its NP preceptor qualifications in the clinical packet on Canvas, so its public pages do not answer this. Take the preceptor's credentials to your course faculty before the agency signs the affiliation agreement. If the answer is no, a midwife-led practice may still employ an NP or physician who can serve as your preceptor while you see the same patients.

Can I split NUR 684 hours between two sites?

Ball State's public pages do not say. Each agency needs its own affiliation agreement and each preceptor goes into your clinical paperwork, so a second site doubles that work. If one women's health preceptor cannot cover 90 hours in your term, ask your course faculty early whether a split is acceptable and start both agreements at once.

Does Community Health Network take Ball State nursing students?

Community Health Network's clinical placement page includes Ball State nursing in its list of affiliated schools. Its advanced practice rules still apply: fall requests are due by May 1, late applications are refused, its own caregivers get priority and it discourages cold calling. The listing does not reserve a women's health preceptor for anyone, so apply through Community's process like every other student.

Is it too late to find a NUR 684 preceptor for next term?

Not always, but hospital-system windows for the next term may already be shut. Focus on independent OB-GYN and women's health offices, which set their own timing, and start the affiliation agreement the moment a preceptor agrees, since Ball State accepts only original signed copies. Tell your course faculty and advisor early if nothing is confirmed.

Why does NUR 684 carry fewer hours than the other primary care courses?

Ball State sets NUR 684 at 90 clinical hours, against 120 for each of the two adult courses and the pediatric course, and does not publish its reasoning. The 90 hours still count toward the FNP's 690, and certificate students on either track complete them. Fewer hours do not make the preceptor easier to find.

120 hoursNUR 683 Adult 2Ball State's NUR 683 needs 120 adult primary care hours after a B in NUR 681: prerequisites, timing, the right preceptor and how we find one for you.Ball State systemNUR 682 ChildrenNUR 682 Primary Care of Children at Ball State: 120 clinical hours with a pediatric or family practice preceptor, why those are scarce, and when to start.Ball State systemFNP 690 hoursHow Ball State's MS FNP reaches 690 clinical hours: six NUR courses from 60 to 180 hours, NUR 610's extra 45, the 682 family practice hours and days per week.Ball State systemAffiliation agreementsHow Ball State's standard affiliation agreement works for clinical sites: why agencies should sign it, originals only, a semester of lead time, a backup agency.Placement helpNo preceptor yetBall State clinical course close and no preceptor? This week: tell faculty early, know the faculty-site rule, widen the search and get the agreement moving.Indiana regionEast Central IndianaFinding an FNP preceptor near Muncie, Anderson, Kokomo, Richmond or Marion: what IU Health, Community, Reid and Marion Health publish for NP students.

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 for NUR 684, adult primary care for NUR 681 and NUR 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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