Clinical hours in each Post University nursing program
Post University's 2025-26 catalog sets 540 precepted clinical hours for the FNP and the AGPCNP and 630 for the PMHNP. Those are the hours your preceptors supervise and sign for. The same catalog page also prints two bigger NP totals, 585-675 and 630-720, that add practice hours from core courses; below is where each number comes from, plus the practice-hour counts for the DNP, the non-NP MSN specializations and the RN programs.
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N 581 and N 589, per the 2021-22 course descriptions
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Your clinical courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From Post's own catalog and program pages.
- Who precepts
- A licensed, nationally certified preceptor with a master's or doctorate; Post recommends an NP for at least half the courses
- Where
- Primary care only, near home, in a state where you are licensed and Post's disclosure says yes
- Start looking
- Start after the 3P exam; the Week 1 packet must be complete for each preceptorship term
- Who precepts
- Primary care preceptors for adolescents through older adults, approved by the Clinical Coordinator
- Where
- Primary care settings for every hour since the 2024-25 catalog, including an aging-focused course
- Start looking
- One course per 8-week term; line up the next preceptor while the current one is running
- Who precepts
- Psychiatric preceptors with a current license, national certification and at least a year of experience
- Where
- Mental and behavioral health sites serving patients across the lifespan, including adolescents
- Start looking
- Five preceptorships in a row: plan child, adult and substance-misuse settings early
- Who precepts
- A nurse with a doctoral degree who is employed at the practice site
- Where
- A healthcare site with an affiliation agreement for every precepted experience
- Start looking
- Secure site access at admission; 400 master's hours must be in place before the DNP project
- Who precepts
- A preceptor with a master's degree or higher and a current RN license, employed at the site
- Where
- Healthcare or academic sites that fit the specialization; an agreement if the site requires one
- Start looking
- Precepted practice experiences run inside the 8-week courses; line up the preceptor before the term
The hour figures, program by program
Every requirement below is taken from Additional Nursing Information in the 2025-26 catalog, which is the latest edition with readable nursing pages. The post.edu program pages give no hour counts at all; the NP pages say only "Individualized Precepted Clinicals." Post has published a 2026-27 catalog, so check its nursing section, or ask the Clinical Coordinator, before you treat any figure here as final.
| Program | Hours | What the hours are | Preceptor? |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | 540 | Precepted clinical hours, every one in primary care | Yes, approved by the Clinical Coordinator |
| MSN AGPCNP | 540 | Precepted clinical hours, every one in primary care | Yes, approved by the Clinical Coordinator |
| MSN PMHNP | 630 | Precepted clinical hours at mental and behavioral health sites | Yes, approved by the Clinical Coordinator |
| DNP (all four leadership tracks) | 600 in the program; 1,000 counting post-baccalaureate hours | Practice hours, DNP Project hours included | A doctorally prepared nurse for precepted experiences |
| MSN Education, Case Management, Informatics, Infection Prevention and Control, Management and Organizational Leadership | 400 | Practice experiences: learning experiences, precepted experiences and simulation | Only for the precepted experiences |
| RN to BSN/MSN | 490-500 | Practice hours across both degrees | In the MSN precepted courses |
| RN to BSN | 90-100 | Practice learning experiences and simulation | No |
The DNP gap between 600 and 1,000 is filled by 400 hours from your master's degree or, if those are missing, from Post's Practicum Workroom. The DNP practice hours guide covers that math.
Why the catalog shows 585-675 and also 630-720
Both larger numbers sit on the same catalog page, one in the table and one in the footnote under it. The table puts NP total practice hours at 585-675 and notes that N 522PE dropped its practice hours in August 2024. The footnote was never rewritten: it still adds 45 hours from N 515PE and 45 from N 522PE to the precepted hours for a total of 630-720.
The arithmetic explains the gap. Add one 45-hour block to 540 and 630 and you get 585 and 675; add two and you get 630 and 720. So the table appears to count only the N 515PE block, and the footnote still counts the N 522PE block that Post retired in August 2024.
Neither core course sits on the catalog's list of courses that require a preceptor, and those practice hours are not preceptor time. The list of which core courses still carry practice hours is itself unsettled: some 2024-25 program pages write N 515 with no PE suffix while the admissions page keeps it. For the total that applies to you, read the nursing section of the current catalog or ask the Clinical Coordinator.
Plan your preceptor search around 540 (FNP, AGPCNP) or 630 (PMHNP). The larger totals add core-course practice hours that no preceptor signs for.
How the hours divide into preceptorship courses
The planner near the top of this page lists each track's preceptorship courses. The FNP and the AGPCNP each spread 540 hours over four courses, and Post publishes a per-course figure for only two of them: 135 hours in N 581 and 135 in N 589, both from the 2021-22 course descriptions. For N 583, N 585 and N 599, 540 across four preceptorships implies 135 each, but Post prints no split per course.
The PMHNP's 630 hours run through five preceptorships. Two have published figures, 135 in N 565 and 90 in N 567, and the remaining 405 hours imply 135 for each of the other three. Post never prints the course-to-track pairings outright; they are worked out from prerequisites, so check your own sequence with your Student Success Advisor.
What those hours mean inside an 8-week term
Post limits NP students to a single course in each eight-week term, which means every preceptorship's hours must fit inside its own eight weeks. A 135-hour course works out to about 17 clinical hours a week and a 90-hour course to about 11 (our arithmetic, not a Post rule). For a working RN, that is roughly two long clinic days every week of the term, agreed with the preceptor before Week 1 and written into the NP Clinical Schedule.
Hours count only when they are logged, and Post blocks clinical hour logging for any student whose CastleBranch account is out of compliance. Logging happens in the student tracking system, Typhon, where preceptors also complete their evaluations of you. For ways to lay out 17 hours a week around a job, read pacing clinical hours.
Where the hours have to happen
An hour counts only at a site and with a preceptor the Clinical Coordinator has approved, and only where Post holds a fully executed affiliation agreement with that site. The setting rule differs by track. FNP and AGPCNP hours are all primary care; the primary care sites guide covers what that means in practice. PMHNP hours belong in mental and behavioral health settings whose patients span every age group.
Geography limits the hours too. Post requires NP students to reside in a state its NP disclosure marks yes and to keep an active, unencumbered RN license there, and hours can be earned only in approved states where the student is also licensed. Training in a state other than your primary residence calls for prior specialization approval; the RN license guide explains the rule.
If the hours run short at the end of a term
The catalog routes any extension involving clinical hours through the Clinical Coordinator. To qualify for Post's two-week extension you need half the course work finished, and an NP student still holding an open extension is barred from starting the following course, so a shortfall in one preceptorship pushes back every course after it. Work still unfinished after the extension means repeating the course, clinical hours and all, and once the 3P exam is behind you, Post permits a repeat of just one NP-specific course.
An incomplete is a separate route with its own conditions, including 60% of the course work done and participation after week 4. The extensions and incompletes guide sets the two side by side. If you are mid-term and already behind, talk to the Clinical Coordinator before the last week, not after it.
Why Post students plan their hours with us
We build your placement around the hours, course by course. For each preceptorship we look for a preceptor near you who works in the right setting and has room for roughly 17 student hours in every week of the term. Then we gather the documents the Clinical Coordinator reviews, from license report to CV, and return a signed preceptor agreement letter.
The site's affiliation agreement request goes in early, so the site is cleared before your Week 1 deadline, and we line up the next preceptorship while the current one is still running. Should a preceptor leave in the middle of a term, we move straight to a replacement who fits the same course, so the hour count keeps climbing. Send us your track and your next preceptorship through the form below.
Questions Post students ask
Do the practice hours in my 3P core courses count toward the 540?
No. The 540 (or 630 for the PMHNP) are precepted clinical hours earned in the preceptorship courses. Practice hours from core courses such as N 515PE show up only in the larger total-practice-hour figures, which is why the catalog's totals run higher than the precepted requirement.
Why can't I find clinical hours on Post's NP program pages?
Post's website describes the NP clinicals only as "Individualized Precepted Clinicals" and leaves the numbers to the catalog. The figures live in the catalog's Additional Nursing Information section, which is also where the preceptor rules and the Week 1 requirements are published.
Can extra hours from one preceptorship carry over to the next?
Post's published rules do not describe moving hours between courses. Each preceptorship has its own hours and its own Week 1 packet, and each is graded on its own. If you expect to finish a course's hours early or need to balance a heavy term, ask the Clinical Coordinator how your hours will be counted.
Did the 540 and 630 requirements change for students who started earlier?
The precepted totals have stayed at 540 and 630 in every catalog from 2021-22 through 2025-26. What changed was the larger total: N 522PE stopped carrying practice hours in August 2024. The hours history page walks through each catalog year.
Are all 600 DNP practice hours spent with a preceptor?
Not necessarily. Post counts DNP Project hours inside the 600, and its practice experiences include several types. Where a DNP experience is precepted, the preceptor must be a nurse with a doctoral degree and Post needs an affiliation agreement with the site. The Practicum Coordinator can confirm which hours in a given course are precepted.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Post University's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and the Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
Post asks you to select your own preceptor. We make the search the easy part.
Tell us your Post track, your city and your next preceptorship course. We line up preceptors who fit the course, collect the license report, certification and CV the Clinical Coordinator reviews, and start the affiliation agreement early so your Week 1 packet is complete before the term opens.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP and AGPCNP, mental and behavioral health for PMHNP, doctoral nurse leaders for DNP hours
- Preceptor agreement letter, license report, certification and CV ready for Post's approval
- Every preceptorship planned together, close to home in a state where you hold your license and Post's disclosure says yes
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Track, city and next preceptorship course is all we need to begin.