NGR 6743: the seminar semester before your first FIU practicum
The Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Education Seminar, NGR 6743, is a semester 3 course in the nurse practitioner plans at Florida International University (FIU), the Summer right before your first practicum. Since FIU arranges each rotation one term ahead, the seminar semester is also when your first site, preceptor, contract and clearance have to come together.
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.
Where NGR 6743 sits in your plan of study
On FIU's current plan (revision 5-2026, applying from Spring 2027), the seminar belongs to semester 3 for both online primary care tracks, a Summer that follows two semesters of core and advanced practice courses. Post-BSN to DNP students who begin in a Fall term also meet it in semester 3, one term ahead of their first NP practicum.
| Track | Semester 3 (Summer) | The next semester |
|---|---|---|
| MSN Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP | NGR 6743; NGR 5064C Diagnostics & Therapeutics; NGR 6703 Role Development of the Advanced Practice Nurse | NGR 6201 with the NGR 6201L practicum |
| MSN Pediatric Primary Care NP | NGR 6743; NGR 5064C; NGR 5131 Culture in Advanced Nursing Practice; NGR 6703 | NGR 6301 with the NGR 6301L practicum |
| Post-BSN to DNP, Fall start | NGR 6743 | The first NP practicum, in the second Fall |
The 2026-2027 catalog counts the Clinical Education Seminar as a 1-credit requirement on the Pediatric Primary Care MSN. Beyond its title and its place in the sequence, FIU publishes nothing about the course, so its assignments and deadlines come from the syllabus on FIU SharePoint and from your course faculty. If you are in a post-graduate certificate, ask the Graduate Nursing Advisor whether the seminar appears on your own plan.
The pre-clinical course rules to clear first
FIU's graduate handbook puts a gate in front of every clinical course. NGR 6172 Pharmacological Concepts, NGR 5141 Pathophysiologic Concepts and NGR 6002C Advanced Health Assessment must each carry a B or higher, and no more than three years can separate that grade from the first day of the clinical course. A course older than that has to be repeated, and the department chair hears appeals, which are sent by email.
On the posted plan, all three are behind you by the end of semester 2. AGPCNP students take pathophysiology in semester 1 and health assessment with pharmacology in semester 2, while PNP students take pharmacology first and the other two in semester 2. The rule catches students who paused, brought in transfer credit or are returning after a leave, because the 3-year window is measured to the start of the practicum, not the seminar.
The catalog sets a floor for every required course as well, a B, which FIU defines as 85%, plus a 3.0 GPA across those courses. The grades and progression page covers repeats and what a second low grade means.
Check the completion dates of NGR 6002C, NGR 5141 and NGR 6172 against your first practicum's start date now. A retake discovered in the seminar Summer is hard to fit before the Fall.
Your first placement is set up during the seminar semester
FIU calls rotation planning a joint effort of faculty and students, carried out one term ahead of each clinical course, with faculty reviewing what you have done before when they pick a fitting site. For an online AGPCNP or PNP student, that makes the seminar Summer the working deadline for your first site. You identify it, FIU's clinical department works with you on the agreement, and no rotation begins until that agreement exists.
Count backward from the calendar. Fall 2027 classes begin August 23, 2027. A site new to FIU can need 6 to 8 weeks for a contract under the current handbook, and FIU's 2022 preceptor manual wants suggestions no less than 8 weeks ahead of the start date, so a new site should be on a Preceptor Request Form by about June 28, 2027, just past the middle of Summer Session C (May 10 to July 30). A practice FIU has already contracted with leaves more room, which is why its contract status is the first thing to ask about.
For a fuller timeline, the semester-before planning page works through the months one at a time.
Clearance, license and paperwork in the same Summer
Clinical clearance must be complete before your first rotation starts, and the graduate handbook names no fixed number of weeks ahead, which makes it easy to leave late. The handbooks describe clearance in Complio, with checks ordered from American Databank; on FIU's website the same step goes by FIU Express. Whatever the name, the fingerprints, the employment check, the 13-panel drug screen, your vaccine records, a current BLS card and the one-time forms belong on your seminar-semester list. The clearance guide names every item.
A current Florida RN license is needed as well; FIU asks for it at admission, and graduates of foreign BSN programs must hold it before any clinical nursing course. Finally, assemble your preceptor folder before day one. It holds the course's objectives, its competency list, blank evaluation forms and your faculty's contact details, along with the learning goals you set for yourself, and it goes to your preceptor at the first meeting.
One wording trap: which seminar?
FIU's 2022 preceptor manual wants your detailed clinical schedule in your clinical faculty's hands in week one of clinical seminar. The manual does not attach a course number to that phrase, and NGR 6743 runs a full semester before your first practicum, so ask your clinical faculty which week the deadline means. If your hours are already fixed with your preceptor before the practicum opens, you are ready either way.
Course names carry a similar trap. The graduate handbook lays out the primary care sequence differently from the 5-2026 plan, with two practicums followed by Clinical Decision Making and Role Synthesis instead of three practicums, so confirm which structure your cohort follows before you tell a preceptor how many semesters you may need them. The first adult-gerontology practicum page sets the two versions side by side.
How we use your seminar semester
FIU students choose us to turn the seminar semester into a finished placement. We start from your track, your county and the weekday hours FIU expects, then find primary care preceptors, adult-gerontology or pediatric, near where you live who fit the course and can take a student in the Fall. We tell you which practices FIU has already signed with, because that decides whether you have weeks of slack or none.
Then we collect every detail the Preceptor Request Form asks about the preceptor and practice, from license to clinic days, so your faculty can sign and the clinical education office can review on the first pass, and we keep clearance dates and Typhon's 7-day logging deadline on your calendar. Read how our placement process runs, then tell us your track and county in the form further down.
Questions FIU students ask
Can I take NGR 6743 in the same semester as my first practicum?
FIU's posted plans place the seminar one semester before the first practicum, and FIU publishes no part-time MSN plan that changes that order. Any change to your sequence would come through the Graduate Nursing Advisor and your track program leader, so ask them before you register rather than assuming the order can shift.
My pharmacology course was more than three years ago. What happens?
Under the graduate handbook, the three pre-clinical courses (NGR 6002C, NGR 5141, NGR 6172) need a B or higher earned inside the 3 years before a clinical course starts. An older course has to be repeated before the practicum, though an emailed appeal to the department chair is possible. Check the dates early, since a retake has to fit before the practicum semester.
Does NGR 6743 include clinical hours?
FIU lists it as a seminar, 1 credit in the Pediatric Primary Care catalog, and no FIU page assigns it clinical hours. Practicum hours begin in semester 4 with NGR 6201L or NGR 6301L. For what the seminar itself asks of you, go to its syllabus on FIU SharePoint and your course faculty.
Is NGR 6743 taught fully online?
FIU describes the AGPCNP and PNP tracks as predominantly online, with 1 to 3 campus visits a semester possibly required. FIU does not say whether the seminar itself meets on campus, so watch the syllabus and Canvas for visit dates. Our page on campus visits covers the Modesto A. Maidique Campus details.
Should I find my preceptor before the seminar starts?
Earlier is better. Placement work at FIU happens a term ahead of the clinical course, and a site new to FIU may need 6 to 8 weeks for a contract. Starting your search in the Spring of semester 2 leaves room to replace a preceptor who declines without running into the Fall start.
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
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