Post's MSN in Nursing Education, course by course
Post University's online MSN in Nursing Education carries 36 credits and, per the 2025-26 catalog, 400 practice hours. Six of its courses appear on Post's list of courses that require a preceptor, the last being the N 555PE capstone. Each of those calls for a preceptor with a master's degree or higher who works at the site and holds an RN license in that state, and our placement desk runs that search around your course plan.
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The program at a glance
Of the five MSN specializations outside the NP tracks at the American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences at Post University, Nursing Education is the one built around teaching. To get in you need an RN license plus a BSN, or an MSN, at a 3.0 GPA or better. The post.edu program page prints no hour figure; the 400 practice hours come from the catalog.
Two formats are on offer. The term-based track runs 8-week terms with monthly starts, one class at a time. SIMPath, Post's competency-based option for non-NP programs, runs 16-week semesters that also start monthly, and SIMPath students must join the weekly faculty sessions to count as active. Post advertises 16 to 24 months; the catalog's graduate limit is five years, with one more year available by petition.
Grades shape the pace as well. Post's graduate nursing courses pass at B (83%); a B- is a fail and means taking the course again, practice work and all.
Education courses that carry practice hours
Six Nursing Education courses appear on Post's 2025-26 preceptor list. The course descriptions we could read date from 2021-22 and cover only two of them, so the other hours are left blank here instead of guessed.
| Course | Title | Hours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
N 531PE | Not retrieved | Not retrieved | Joined the preceptor list in 2024-25 |
N 532PE | Not retrieved | Not retrieved | Comes before N 537PE |
N 533PE | Not retrieved | Not retrieved | On the preceptor list |
N 534PE | Not retrieved | Not retrieved | On the preceptor list |
N 537PE | Organizational Dynamics of Higher Education | 15 | Requires N 532PE |
N 555PE | MSN Capstone | 130 | After the core and specialization courses |
The MSN core has practice hours of its own: N 505PE Theoretical Foundations carried 45 in 2021-22. Post's 2024-25 program pages drop the PE from N 505, N 532 and N 537, yet the preceptor table still carries it, and the current non-NP core could not be confirmed. Before you plan, check your course list against the current catalog with your Student Success Advisor.
Where education practice hours take place
In Post's catalog, a precepted practice experience happens at a healthcare site, and the preceptor is on that site's staff. For a nurse educator, that points first to a hospital or health system's clinical education or professional development department, where nurses run orientation, teach staff and build competency programs.
N 537PE, with its focus on higher education, raises a fair question: can those hours happen in a school of nursing? Post's published rules do not answer it, so ask the Practicum Coordinator before you approach a faculty member. The answer changes who you ask, which is why it is worth settling a term or two early.
Hours at your own employer are possible when the preceptor works there and is not your direct supervisor. Our workplace practicum guide covers where that line falls, including the case of an education department inside the hospital that employs you.
Who can precept a nursing education student
Post's rule for a non-NP MSN preceptor has three parts: a degree at or above yours, meaning a master's or a doctorate; an active RN license in their own practice state; and a job at the site. A master's-prepared nurse educator, a clinical nurse specialist in a teaching role or a nursing professional development specialist can all qualify when they hold the degree and the license.
Post also bars three people outright: your direct supervisor, a family member, and anyone enrolled in your program. If the educator you want misses one requirement, the Exception to Preceptor Requirements form asks Post to approve them anyway. The four kinds of practice experience and the preceptor rules are compared in our practice experiences guide.
A staff educator with a BSN, however skilled, falls below Post's degree rule for an MSN student: file the exception form or ask a colleague who holds a master's.
Planning six precepted courses
Six precepted courses across 16 to 24 months means a preceptor decision every few terms. On the term-based track each course fills its own 8-week term, because you take one class at a time. The order matters as well: N 537PE waits for N 532PE, and the capstone comes last.
Two habits make the plan easier. Ask whether one master's-prepared educator at your site can precept more than one course, and confirm with Post that the same preceptor may be approved again. And open the capstone search during the specialization courses: at 130 hours, N 555PE equals about two eight-hour days in every week of an 8-week term, by our arithmetic, and the preceptor must suit your project as well as the site.
If the site wants an affiliation agreement, file the request on Post's Affiliation Agreement Tracker the week it agrees to host you; the affiliation agreement guide covers the timing. You also keep a compliant CastleBranch account, which Post requires of MSN students.
Five questions to settle with Post first
Post's 2026-27 catalog is published, but its nursing pages could not be read, so a few details on this page rest on the 2025-26 edition and older course descriptions. Put these to your Student Success Advisor or the Practicum Coordinator before your first precepted course.
- Which courses on your current plan carry precepted hours, given the PE-suffix differences between Post's pages.
- The practice hours for
N 531PEthroughN 534PE, which no description we could read supplied. - Whether a school of nursing counts as a site for
N 537PEand its higher-education focus. - Whether one preceptor may be approved for more than one of your courses.
- How far ahead of the term your preceptor and site must be approved.
Why nurse educators choose our placement desk
Future nurse educators usually know plenty of nurses and only a few master's-prepared ones with room to take a student. Our desk handles the search and the paperwork so your time goes to the coursework.
We find master's-prepared educators employed in education departments near you, check their degree and RN license against Post's rule, collect what the approval needs, and send the affiliation agreement request the moment a site says yes. We plan all six precepted courses together, capstone included, so the next preceptor is ready before the current course ends; should a preceptor pull out partway through a course, the replacement search begins immediately.
Approval of each preceptor and site stays with Post's coordinators, and the file in front of them arrives complete. See how it works, then tell us your next precepted course in the form below.
Questions Post students ask
How many practice hours are in Post's MSN Nursing Education?
Four hundred, according to Post's 2025-26 catalog, the figure every non-NP MSN specialization shares; the post.edu program page gives none. Those hours mix practice learning experiences, precepted practice and simulation, so not all 400 need a preceptor; the preceptor list shows which courses do.
Does my nursing education preceptor need a doctorate?
No. For an MSN student, Post asks for a degree at or above your program, which a master's satisfies. They also need an RN license that is current where they practice, and a position at the site. The doctorate requirement applies to preceptors of DNP students.
Can I take the Nursing Education MSN through SIMPath?
Yes. SIMPath, Post's competency-based format, is open to the non-NP MSN specializations and runs 16-week semesters that start monthly. You must join the weekly faculty sessions to stay active. A course that runs the full 16 weeks gives its practice hours more room than an 8-week term does, depending on how many courses you carry at once.
Is Post's Nursing Education MSN open in every state?
Post's state disclosure table covers only the nurse practitioner specializations. Post describes the non-NP MSN tracks as post-licensure programs not designed to lead to a license, so they carry no state table. Your precepted hours still hinge on a preceptor licensed as an RN in the state where the hours happen.
What can follow Post's MSN in Nursing Education?
Post's DNP includes an Educational Leadership track, open to nurses with a nursing master's. Of the doctorate's 1,000 post-bachelor's practice hours, 400 are meant to arrive with you from your master's, and this MSN supplies exactly 400. The DNP guide covers its tracks and preceptors.
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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