Samford clinical hours by program and course
Samford's plans of study set 750 clinical hours for the FNP and PMHNP MSN, certificate and MSN to DNP tracks and 1,050 for the FNP BSN to DNP. Those hours sit in three or four clinical courses, one per semester. Pick your track in the planner below, then open the guide for each course you will take.
Plan every clinical course
Tell us your Samford track and your next clinical term. A placement advisor maps preceptor options near you for each course and its hours.
Pick your Samford program
Your clinical courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From Samford's catalog, plans of study and program pages.
- Who precepts
- Primary care preceptors Samford approves, adult patients first, then across the lifespan
- Where
- Family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics and women's health near where you live
- Start looking
- Early: Samford calls your own connections essential to placements close to home
- Who precepts
- Primary care preceptors Samford approves, across four clinical semesters
- Where
- Primary care practices and clinics near home, sometimes across two or three sites
- Start looking
- A semester or more before NURG 716, then one step ahead of each course
- Who precepts
- A psychiatric-mental health preceptor Samford approves, and a therapy preceptor for NURG 767
- Where
- Outpatient psychiatry, community mental health and behavioral health programs
- Start looking
- Before NURG 767 in the first spring, then ahead of each clinical course
Hours in every Samford nursing program
Samford prints clinical hours per course in one place: the plan of study PDF for each track, most dated December 2025. The catalog lists the same courses and credits but rarely the hours, and the NP program pages give one shared minimum. The table takes each open program's total from its plan, and for nurse anesthesia and the BSN from the handbook and plan Samford publishes for those programs.
| Program | Clinical courses | Clinical hours | How the site is found |
|---|---|---|---|
| FNP: BSN to MSN, ADN to MSN, post-graduate certificate, MSN to DNP | NURG 723, NURG 724, NURG 730 | 750 | Your connections; Samford holds agreements and approves |
| FNP: BSN to DNP | NURG 716, NURG 717, NURG 718, NURG 730 | 1,050 in the plan; the web page says a minimum of 750 | Your connections; Samford holds agreements and approves |
| PMHNP: BSN to MSN, ADN to MSN, MSN to DNP, post-graduate certificate | NURG 767, NURG 788, NURG 789, NURG 790 | 750 | Your connections; Samford holds agreements and approves |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | NUNA 790 to NUNA 793 | Handbook minimum of 2,000, plus 650 cases | Assigned by Samford |
| BSN and second-degree BSN | NURS clinical courses in Birmingham | 932 clinical and lab hours in the plan | Chosen by the school |
| RN to BSN (online) | Practicum within the ECRN courses | Not published | Encouraged in your current health community |
Two programs Samford lists as not accepting applications are left out: the Emergency NP (its DNP plan shows 540 hours and its certificate 360) and the Nurse Leader DNP, with 500 practicum hours.
FNP clinical courses and their hours
The FNP BSN to MSN, ADN to MSN, certificate and MSN to DNP all run the same three clinical courses: summer, then fall, then spring. The BSN to DNP swaps the first two for three clinical courses of its own and finishes with the same practicum, which is how its total reaches 1,050. Each course has its own guide with the term, the preceptor it calls for and the planning steps.
| Course | Name in the plan | Credits | Hours | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURG 723 | FNP Clinical: Adult | 3 | 150 | NURG 723 guide |
NURG 724 | FNP Clinical: Across the Lifespan | 4 | 300 | NURG 724 guide |
NURG 730 | NP Practicum | 6 | 300 | NURG 730 guide |
NURG 716 | FNP Clinical I (BSN to DNP) | 3 in the plan, 4 in the catalog | 225 | BSN to DNP clinicals |
NURG 717 | FNP Clinical II (BSN to DNP) | 3 in the plan, 4 in the catalog | 225 | BSN to DNP clinicals |
NURG 718 | FNP Clinical III (BSN to DNP) | 4 | 300 | BSN to DNP clinicals |
In the catalog, NURG 723 and NURG 724 carry the names Advanced Practice Clinical I FNP and Advanced Practice Clinical II FNP. They are the same courses under different labels, so a syllabus and a plan of study that disagree on the title are not describing two separate requirements.
PMHNP clinical courses and their hours
All four PMHNP tracks share one sequence. It opens with a therapy course, NURG 767 Psychotherapeutic Frameworks and Modalities, then moves through two advanced practice clinicals to the practicum. The three psychiatric clinicals share one guide; the therapy course gets its own because Samford gives two figures for it.
| Course | Name | Credits | Hours | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURG 767 | Psychotherapeutic Frameworks and Modalities | 2 | 75 in the plans; the catalog says a minimum of 60 | NURG 767 guide |
NURG 788 | Advanced Practice Clinical I - PMHNP | 2 | 150 | PMHNP clinicals |
NURG 789 | Advanced Practice Clinical II - PMHNP | 3 | 225 | PMHNP clinicals |
NURG 790 | PMHNP Practicum | 6 | 300 | PMHNP clinicals |
The plan figure of 75 for NURG 767 is what brings the sequence to 750. The catalog sets a floor of 60 for the same course and pairs it with a Samford approved preceptor, which is reason enough to ask your course faculty which number your section uses.
Where Samford's hour figures disagree
Samford reuses one clinical block on every NP program page, and it sets a minimum of 750 hours for each pathway. For most tracks the plan of study agrees. Where it does not, plan for the larger number and ask your program coordinator which document governs your cohort.
- FNP BSN to DNP: the plan of study totals 1,050 hours, while the program page repeats the 750 minimum. The handbook's DNP rule of 1,000 post-baccalaureate hours sides with the plan.
NURG 767: 75 hours in every PMHNP plan, a minimum of 60 in the catalog.- DNP degree hours: under the handbook a DNP needs 1,000 supervised hours after the bachelor's, and as many as 500 can carry over from a master's or certificate, but NP students must still log each direct clinical hour in their own plan.
- Older figures: an archived 2016 FNP page listed 720 hours, and the PMHNP page showed 660 as late as June 2025. Neither applies to students enrolled now.
How the hours fit Samford's semesters
Each graduate clinical course takes a whole semester, and Samford's NP pages set the weekly load somewhere between 10 and 20 hours, varying with the rotation. The 2026-27 College of Health Sciences graduate calendar runs fall classes from August 24 to December 3, spring from January 11 to April 22, and a 12-week summer term from May 17 to August 5.
By our own arithmetic, 300 hours across a 15-week fall or spring is about 20 hours a week, the top of Samford's range, and 150 hours in the 12-week summer comes to 12 or 13. Holidays, spring break and your preceptor's clinic days raise the load in the weeks you do attend. The 750-hour breakdown works through every course and term.
The hour count rarely trips Samford students up. The preceptor does: one who fits each course, practices near home and is approved before the term begins.
Why Samford students bring us in for their hours
Samford's NP pages tell students that who they know, professionally and personally, is key to landing a clinical site near home. We are those connections, course by course. Your placement advisor finds a preceptor in your community for each clinical course, checks the site and its patient mix against the course, and prepares the details Samford reviews, early enough for a new affiliation agreement when your site needs one.
We map every clinical term at once, so the fall and spring preceptors are settled while you are still in the course before them. If a preceptor drops partway through, we find a replacement near you and keep your weekly hours moving. Use the request form to send your track and the term your next clinical starts.
Questions Samford students ask
How many clinical hours is Samford's FNP program?
Samford's FNP plans of study list 750 clinical hours for the BSN to MSN, ADN to MSN, post-graduate certificate and MSN to DNP: 150 in NURG 723, then 300 each in NURG 724 and NURG 730. The FNP BSN to DNP plan lists 1,050 across four courses, though its program page repeats the 750 minimum shared by every NP page.
Does simulation count toward Samford NP clinical hours?
Samford's plans attach clinical hours only to the clinical courses. The BSN to DNP includes NURG 709 Advanced Clinical Reasoning, which the plan marks as simulated and which carries no clinical hours. Whether simulation can count inside a clinical course is a question for the NP Clinical Manual, so read it before you plan on it.
Do hours at my RN job count as Samford clinical hours?
Samford's plans count hours earned inside an NP clinical course with a preceptor Samford approves, and the DNP rule speaks of supervised advanced clinical practice. Nothing public treats regular RN shifts as NP clinical time. Doing an NP rotation at the organization where you already work is a separate question, and Samford publishes little on it.
Where do Samford NP students log clinical hours?
Samford's public documents leave the NP hour-logging tool unnamed. Recording rules are part of the NP Clinical Manual, posted in the Canvas course called Nurse Practitioner Homeroom, and each clinical course shows you where to enter hours. Nurse anesthesia students work differently: their handbook has them record cases and hours in Typhon at least once a week.
Can I finish clinical hours after the semester ends at Samford?
Sometimes. The graduate catalog allows an Incomplete when you have passing work on most of the course and an emergency kept you from finishing, and the rest must be done in the following term or the grade becomes an F. Under the nursing handbook, a student holding an Incomplete moves on to the next course only with approval from the program coordinator or the associate dean for graduate nursing.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Samford's own program pages, plans of study, the 2026-27 Graduate Nursing Student Handbook and Alabama rules. Your course, your program coordinator and Graduate Student Services have the final word.
Samford says connections are essential. We are the connection.
Tell us your Samford track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare the details Samford needs to approve the rotation, including a new affiliation agreement where one is needed.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult primary care for
NURG 723, family practice across the lifespan forNURG 724, psychiatric care forNURG 788 - Preceptor, license and site details ready for your clinical rotation request
- In your own community, anywhere Samford accepts you and your RN license is valid
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.