FIU's MSN Pediatric Primary Care NP: clinical sites and preceptors
Florida International University (FIU) teaches its MSN Pediatric Primary Care NP (PNP) track predominantly online and gives pediatric students the same instruction as the adult-gero track: you identify the clinical site, and FIU's clinical department helps secure the contract before any rotation starts. Your three practicums need preceptors who see children in primary care. Finding them is the work we do best.
Find your pediatric preceptor
Share your city and the term your first PNP practicum starts.
Who finds a PNP student's clinical site
You do, and FIU helps with the paperwork that follows. The MSN Clinical Education page names Pediatric Primary Care as one of its two online tracks and tells those students to identify their site, then partner with the clinical department to get an agreement signed with the practice. Until that contract is signed, the rotation cannot start.
The same page lets online-track students train beyond FIU's four home counties. For a PNP student living in Gainesville or Fort Myers, that opens local pediatric practices, provided FIU can contract with them and your faculty approve the fit.
FIU's 2021 MSN brochure, still hosted on its site, advertised clinical placements arranged by the school for the pediatric track. Treat the current Clinical Education page as the rule for your cohort, and read finding your own preceptor for a practical way to run the search.
The PNP plan of study, semester by semester
The pediatric sequence is not a copy of the adult-gero plan. PNP students take pharmacology in their first fall and pathophysiology in the spring, and the culture course moves to the summer before practicums begin.
| Semester | PNP courses | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Fall | NGR 5110; NGR 6172 Pharmacological Concepts; NGR 5810 | 9 |
| 2 Spring | NGR 5141 Pathophysiologic Concepts; NGR 6002C Advanced Health Assessment | 7 (printed as 10) |
| 3 Summer | NGR 6743; NGR 5064C; NGR 5131; NGR 6703 | 9 |
| 4 Fall | NGR 6301 Advanced Pediatrics I with NGR 6301L (4 cr) | 7 |
| 5 Spring | NGR 6302 with NGR 6302L (4 cr) | 7 |
| 6 Summer | NGR 6303 with NGR 6303L (3 cr); NGR 6744 | 8 |
FIU's page prints 10 credits for PNP in the second semester, yet the two pediatric courses that term add up to 7, and 7 is the number that brings the six semesters to the stated 47. Confirm your own registration with your Graduate Nursing Advisor.
Your first pediatric practicum lands in the fourth semester, the Fall of year two, one term after the NGR 6743 Clinical Education Seminar.
Credits and hours: the figures that disagree
Three FIU sources size the PNP track differently. The MSN overview says 47 credits. The 2026-2027 catalog, which files the Pediatric Primary Care NP under the code ACNP:MSN, groups the requirements (9 credits of graduate nursing core, 13 of advanced practice core, 1 for the clinical education seminar, 15 of advanced child health nursing and 4 of role development) and asks for 45-48 credits plus a thesis, master's paper or research project.
Clinical hours split in the same way. The Clinical Education page lists 770 hours for PNP, while the current graduate handbook, revised April 30, 2026, gives pediatric students a 630-hour minimum. Hours for each of NGR 6301L through NGR 6303L are not published at all.
Settle neither question on your own. What your record needs is settled by your plan of study and your faculty, with the Office of Clinical Education as the final reference. Until they do, ask any pediatric preceptor to hold space for the higher total. FIU clinical hours compares every program.
The pediatric practicums, and the handbook's older names
Under the 5-2026 plan you complete three pediatric primary care practicums, each attached to a theory course, and finish with NGR 6744 Professional Advanced Practice Seminar in your last summer. Course-level detail lives on the practicum pages for NGR 6301L, NGR 6302L and NGR 6303L.
The graduate handbook tells a different story for continuing students. It lists Advanced Child Health Nursing I and II (NGR 6301C/NGR 6301L and NGR 6302C/NGR 6302L), then NGR 6337C Clinical Decision Making in Child Health Nursing and NGR 6337L Role Synthesis in Advanced Child Practice.
If your cohort began before Spring 2027, confirm with your track program leader which list governs your final two semesters. Each semester's site request names the course, and a preceptor deserves to know whether they are hosting a practicum or a role synthesis term.
What a pediatric primary care site needs to clear FIU
The site has to match the course before anything else: children seen for primary care, on a weekday schedule. The handbook sets primary care expectations at weekday daytime rotations, roughly 9 to 5. Acute care pediatric rotations can run evenings, nights and weekends, but that belongs to a different FIU specialty.
Before you commit to a pediatric preceptor, check that:
- they have practiced in the specialty for a year or longer and hold a current license plus national certification
- they are neither family nor a close friend, and the clinic is not your own work unit
- they can offer steady weekdays across the whole semester, inside FIU's official term dates
- an FIU contract is either already in place or can be signed at least 6-8 weeks ahead
- they will complete a mid-rotation and a final evaluation and sign your time-sheet log as you go
Nurse practitioners precept the majority of FIU rotations, though physicians are allowed as well. For the contract step, see clinical site contracts.
A pediatric search timeline for the 2027 practicum year
Counting backward from a Fall 2027 start for NGR 6301L shows how early the work begins. FIU's 2026-2027 calendar and the handbook's semester-before rule set the pace.
- Spring 2027 (January 11 to May 1)Build a list of pediatric primary care practices within reach, ask which already host FIU students, and speak with the most promising preceptors while your second-semester courses run.
- Summer 2027, May 10 through July 30During the Clinical Education Seminar, submit the chosen preceptor on the Preceptor Request Form for your faculty's signature, and let the clinical department start any new contract right away.
- Before Fall 2027 begins on August 23Finish clearance, prepare the preceptor folder with course objectives and evaluation forms, and agree your weekly days with the preceptor.
- First week of clinical seminarSend your detailed rotation schedule to your clinical faculty, then start logging every encounter in Typhon within 7 days.
Because FIU permits a new site and preceptor each term, run the same cycle during every practicum for the one that follows.
Why PNP students choose us
Pediatric primary care preceptors are a narrower pool than adult practices, so the search rewards persistence and local knowledge. We contact pediatric practices near you, confirm the preceptor sees the patients NGR 6301L expects, and line their schedule up with your semester dates.
We prepare the details FIU's Preceptor Request Form asks for, check whether the practice already has an FIU contract, and flag any new contract early so the 6-8 week clock starts on time. Your Complio or FIU Express clearance, your Typhon entries and your time-sheet signatures stay in view through all three practicums, and if a preceptor steps away mid-term, we move straight to a replacement.
Site and preceptor approval rests with FIU's Office of Clinical Education and your faculty; our part is to send them requests that are whole, accurate and inside FIU's rules. Start with the form below, or read how it works.
Questions FIU students ask
Is FIU's PNP the same as a pediatric acute care NP?
No. The MSN Pediatric Primary Care NP trains you for primary care, with weekday clinic rotations and a site you identify. FIU's certificate page and handbook also name a Pediatric Acute Care NP, a hybrid program whose rotations may include evenings, nights and weekends. Check the track name on your admission letter before you start contacting preceptors.
When does the first FIU pediatric practicum start?
On the full-time plan, NGR 6301L begins in the fourth semester, the Fall of your second year, after the Clinical Education Seminar in the summer. For students whose practicum year opens in Fall 2027, classes begin August 23, 2027, so the preceptor and any new contract need to be settled across the spring and summer before that date.
Can a pediatrician be my FIU preceptor?
FIU's web page names both nurse practitioners and physicians as preceptors, and the handbook allows physician preceptors, yet that handbook elsewhere requires a nursing master's degree. FIU does not reconcile the two, and most rotations are with NPs. Ask your clinical faculty before you commit to a site where only physicians could precept you.
Do FIU PNP students need a Florida RN license?
Yes. FIU's MSN admissions page requires a current Florida RN license, and out-of-state applicants must hold one before admission. Florida's Board rule on NP preceptorships in the state also expects the student to hold an RN license under chapter 464 and the preceptor to be licensed in Florida.
Where do FIU PNP students log clinical hours?
In Typhon NPST. Each entry is due within 7 days, or FIU does not accept those hours and they must be done again. Your preceptor approves documentation at the site, faculty approve the Typhon entries, and a Clinical Rotation Time-Sheet Log is signed daily or weekly, never in advance.
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.