FIU MSN Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP): clinicals and preceptors
The Family NP track at Florida International University (FIU) is a hybrid, 49-credit MSN with 770 clinical hours spread over three practicums: NGR 6601L, NGR 6602L and NGR 6604L. FNP students get one-on-one placement help from FIU's designated clinical department, and the graduate nursing clinical coordinator is the person they deal with. We hand you a well-matched family practice site to suggest, with every detail the Preceptor Request Form needs, and remain your backup all semester if a preceptor leaves.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your FIU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your FIU course.
The FNP track at a glance
FIU lists Family NP among its hybrid MSN tracks, at 49 credits, two more than the Adult-Gerontology, Pediatric and Psychiatric tracks. Like the other MSN NP tracks it admits for Fall entry only, taking applications from November 1 to February 1, and it runs six semesters with no semester off unless you are granted a Leave of Absence.
FIU's newest plan of study (the 5-2026 revision, in force from Spring 2027) pairs each FNP practicum with its theory course. Patient care starts in semester 4, once the clinical education seminar in semester 3 is behind you.
| Semester | FNP course | Practicum credits |
|---|---|---|
| 3, Summer | NGR 6743 Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Education Seminar | None; it readies you for the first rotation |
| 4, Fall | NGR 6601 with NGR 6601L | 4 |
| 5, Spring | NGR 6602 with NGR 6602L | 4 |
| 6, Summer | NGR 6604 with NGR 6604L | 3 |
FIU publishes the 770-hour total for FNP but no figure for each practicum. Your syllabus and your clinical faculty set how the hours fall across the three courses, so ask for the split before you agree a weekly schedule with a preceptor.
770 hours, and the course list that differs
On hours, FNP is the steady track. FIU's Clinical Education page gives 770, and the graduate handbook for 2025-2026, last revised April 30, 2026, keeps Family at 770 while it lowers Adult-Gerontology, Pediatric and PMHNP to a 630-hour minimum. In the post-BSN to DNP, the Family specialty shows 1,310 on both the Fall and Spring plans. The 770 vs 630 explainer covers the gap the other tracks live with.
The course structure is where FNP students meet a conflict. The handbook lists NGR 6601C/NGR 6601L and NGR 6602C/NGR 6602L, then NGR 6748 Clinical Decision Making in Family Health Nursing and NGR 6619L Role Synthesis in Advanced Family Practice, where the 5-2026 plan has a third practicum, NGR 6604L.
The Preceptor Request Form still mirrors that older shape, with course boxes for Role Synthesis, Research, DNP Residency and two numbered clinical practicums. If you entered under an earlier plan, your own plan of study and your track program leader decide which structure you follow, so settle it before you line up a final-semester site.
Who arranges FNP placements at FIU
Per FIU's MSN Clinical Education page, a designated clinical department helps each student one-on-one with clinical placement. The line putting site-finding on the student covers only the two predominantly online primary care tracks, Adult-Gerontology and Pediatric, and FNP is not one of them. The online vs hybrid tracks page sets the two approaches side by side.
For FNP, your placement conversations run through the graduate nursing clinical coordinator, whom the handbook makes the hub for placements at selected sites and who writes to preceptors and sites at every stage. Each rotation is built a semester ahead of its course, by faculty and student together, with your prior experience weighed in the choice of site.
No FIU page promises in plain words that every FNP student is placed, so treat the clinical department as a partner and keep a second option in mind. FIU's 2022 preceptor manual also asks graduate students not to approach preceptors or sites on their own to request a rotation; it routes student ideas to the clinical faculty as suggestions. That suggestion route is exactly where a site we find for you fits.
Seeing patients early is a conduct matter at FIU: the handbook lists clinicals begun without approval or a signed contract as unprofessional conduct, however ready the preceptor is.
Why FNP students choose us
The clinical department's help goes furthest when you bring it a strong, complete suggestion. That is what we build: a family practice site FIU can review quickly, prepared well before the contract clock starts to matter.
What you get
- A family practice match. Preceptors whose patient panels suit the family course your faculty describe, close to where you live, with weekday availability confirmed before your name goes anywhere.
- A form-ready suggestion. Everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for, from the preceptor's license and its expiration to the practice address, specialty, email, term dates and clinic days, so your clinical faculty can sign without chasing details.
- An early contract check. We ask each practice up front whether an FIU agreement is already on file; where none exists, you and the coordinator can plan for the 6-8 weeks FIU's handbook gives a new one.
- A DNP mentor for post-BSN students. For the residency hours after your MSN, we find an organizational mentor who fits your project, ideally doctorally prepared and never your own work supervisor.
- Replacement help. If a preceptor leaves mid-semester, we line up another for your clinical faculty and the coordinator to review. What to do first is set out in preceptor dropped out.
Your clinical faculty, the clinical department and the Office of Clinical Education still decide on the site and the preceptor. Our part is to put a suggestion in front of them that is complete and already fits FIU's rules.
The semester before NGR 6601L
- Check the pre-clinical rule
NGR 6002C,NGR 5141andNGR 6172need a B or better and must fall within 3 years of your first clinical course. - Start clearanceSet up Complio, which FIU's website refers to as FIU Express, and work through the packages. The clearance guide lists every item and renewal.
- Talk to the coordinator earlyTell the graduate nursing clinical coordinator and your clinical faculty where you live, when you can train and which practice you would like considered.
- Submit the suggestionThe site goes on the Preceptor Request Form. Faculty sign it, and FIU staff record the preceptor's license and the date of the last site evaluation.
- Allow for the contractA practice without an FIU agreement needs one before you start; the current handbook allows 6-8 weeks. Keep a backup in view until approval arrives, as the site contracts page explains.
- Prepare for day oneHand over the preceptor folder, settle your hours, and get the schedule to your clinical faculty in seminar week one. Expect weekday, business-hours rotations, the pattern FIU sets for primary care.
Who can precept an FIU FNP student
Florida sets the floor. Its rule 64B9-4.001(13) accepts certified, practicing APRNs, MDs, DOs and dentists as qualified preceptors; at a Florida practice your preceptor needs a Florida license, and you need your RN license under chapter 464.
FIU layers its own standards on top: a year or more in practice, a current license and board certification, and a look at each candidate's training, background, philosophy of nursing and interest in teaching. Its handbook asks for a nursing master's while also accepting physicians, a pairing FIU leaves unreconciled, and it expects NPs to supervise the bulk of your hours. Relatives and close friends are ruled out.
The rules matter after graduation as well. Family medicine is one of the primary care fields where Florida allows autonomous APRN practice under s. 464.0123, once you have 3,000 physician-supervised clinical hours inside a five-year window. The Florida APRN practice page explains protocols and that path.
The FNP certificate and the post-BSN DNP Family track
FIU's post-graduate FNP certificate is a hybrid, 37-credit plan built for MSN-prepared nurses moving into a new specialty. It uses the same practicum numbers, with the first in semester 4 in the Fall, and applications close February 1. Like the MSN, the hybrid certificate carries no student-responsibility statement.
In the post-BSN to DNP, Family is a hybrid specialty of 80 credits. The MSN is conferred at the end of semester six, which lets you certify before the doctoral phase continues with NGR 7892L (40 hours) and the DNP Projects NGR 7940C, NGR 7941C and NGR 7942C. The residency needs at least 540 supervised hours, and more if you finish with under 1,000 post-baccalaureate practice hours. You identify the organizational mentor, and FIU approves the rotation and holds the contract. The post-BSN DNP guide covers both start plans.
Questions FIU students ask
Does FIU assign FNP clinical sites?
FIU's pages say its designated clinical department assists students with one-on-one placements, and they reserve the find-your-own-site sentence for the online primary care tracks. No FIU page states outright that every FNP student is placed. Stay in close touch with the graduate nursing clinical coordinator, and have a practice ready to suggest in case the first option falls through.
Is FIU's FNP program online?
It is hybrid. FIU groups Family with Psychiatric-Mental Health as hybrid tracks, in contrast to the two primary care tracks it runs mostly online. Clinical hours are always in person at a site FIU has approved. The Graduate Nursing Advisor can confirm the campus schedule for your cohort.
Can a physician precept an FIU FNP student?
Yes. FIU's web page and handbook name both nurse practitioners and physicians as preceptors, though the handbook expects most of your rotations to be with NPs. Florida's definition of a qualified preceptor includes MDs and DOs too. For a site in Florida, the physician must hold a Florida license, and the usual FIU review of experience and certification still applies.
How many hours is each FIU FNP practicum?
FIU publishes the 770-hour total but no figure for each course. On the 5-2026 plan, NGR 6601L and NGR 6602L carry 4 credits each and NGR 6604L carries 3. Your syllabus and clinical faculty give the working number for each semester, and your Typhon logs show what you have completed toward it.
Can I do FNP clinicals where I work as a nurse?
Not on your own unit. At a large institution, a different unit can work once FIU approves the preceptor and site. Health systems may add limits: Baptist Health South Florida, for one, tells students that employees may not log clinical hours in the facility that employs them. More on the working where you work page.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against FIU's own graduate handbook, preceptor manual, plans of study, catalog and licensure pages. Your plan of study, your course faculty, your clinical faculty and FIU's Office of Clinical Education have the final word.
FIU asks you to identify your clinical site. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your FIU track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, check early whether the site already holds an FIU contract, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NGR 6201L, pediatric primary care forNGR 6301L, an organizational mentor forNGR 7940C - Preceptor, facility, license and schedule details ready for the Preceptor Request Form, weeks ahead of the contract clock
- Across Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe, or beyond them where FIU approves your site
Start your placement plan
Track, city and semester is all we need to begin.