FIU's post-graduate PNP certificate: pediatric primary care clinicals
Florida International University (FIU) runs its post-graduate Pediatric Primary Care NP (PNP) certificate online, and like every online FIU track it leaves the clinical site to you: you identify the practice, and FIU's clinical department helps set up the contract before your first day. The certificate is easy to confuse with FIU's hybrid Pediatric Acute Care certificate, which works very differently. Here is how the primary care path runs and where we come in.
Line up your pediatric practicums
Tell us where you live and when your certificate began.
What FIU tells online PNP certificate students
FIU's post-graduate certificate page applies its online-track rule to the pediatric primary care certificate. The student identifies the clinical site and works with FIU's clinical department on the contract, and the rotation waits until that contract is signed. Sites may lie beyond the four South Florida counties FIU calls home.
FIU's 2021 certificate brochure, still posted, spoke of clinical placements arranged by the school. The current certificate page is the instruction to follow. Every site and preceptor you propose still passes through review by your faculty and the college's clinical education office, so a well-prepared proposal matters as much as a quick one.
The steps from first contact to first clinical day are laid out on the placement process page; this page covers what is particular to the pediatric certificate.
Pediatric primary care or pediatric acute care
FIU lists two pediatric certificates, and the choice between them changes almost everything about your clinical year.
| Item | Pediatric Primary Care NP | Pediatric Acute Care NP |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery | Online | Hybrid |
| Credits | 35 | 35 |
| Practicums | NGR 6301L, NGR 6302L, NGR 6303L | A first practicum listed as 6XXXL, then NGR 6332L and NGR 6333L |
| Hours stated | No total on the certificate pages | 280 per practicum |
| Before clinicals | Foundation courses in semesters 1-3 | A mandatory Clinical Placement Orientation in April-May |
| Rotation times | Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. expected | May include evenings, nights and weekends |
| Who identifies the site | The student, with the clinical department on the contract | No student-responsibility statement; the clinical department assists |
The acute care plan also adds NGR 5063C with 64 indirect clinical hours. If your goal is outpatient pediatrics, the online primary care certificate is the one this page covers; for the hybrid side of FIU, see online vs hybrid tracks.
The certificate plan up to the first practicum
The pediatric certificate follows FIU's primary care certificate plan, revised 5-2026 and effective Spring 2027. Semester 1 is NGR 5141; semester 2 brings NGR 6172 and NGR 5131; semester 3 is NGR 6002C Advanced Health Assessment. Semester 4, a Fall term, pairs NGR 6301 with the first practicum, NGR 6301L, for 4 credits.
Semester 5 is NGR 6302L (4 credits) and semester 6 is NGR 6303L (3 credits) together with NGR 6744. Because the certificate starts in Fall, your first practicum arrives a full year after your first term begins, and that year is an advantage: it gives you two terms to find a pediatric site and get it under contract.
Use the time. FIU arranges each rotation a term ahead of the course, and a practice with no FIU agreement needs 6-8 weeks for a new contract, according to the current handbook. For a month-by-month version, see planning the semester before.
How many hours the PNP certificate asks for
FIU's certificate pages give no clinical-hour total for the primary care certificates. They state 280 hours per practicum only for the acute care plan, which is a separate pediatric specialty.
The MSN pediatric track shares your practicum course numbers, and its own figures disagree: FIU's Clinical Education page says 770 clinical hours, while the graduate handbook revised April 30, 2026 sets a minimum of 630 for pediatric students. Neither document says it covers the certificate.
Get your number in writing before you sign up a preceptor, starting with your plan of study and then your clinical faculty, with the Office of Clinical Education as the tiebreaker. If the answer is slow to arrive, plan the preceptor's commitment around the larger MSN figure. The dispute itself is explained on 770 vs 630 hours.
Building a pediatric site proposal FIU can approve
The Preceptor Request Form is where your search becomes an FIU decision. It asks for the preceptor, facility, specialty, address and email, the course, the term with start and end dates, and your clinical days and times, and it needs a faculty signature. Once it arrives, FIU staff add when the site was last evaluated, along with the preceptor's license and its expiry date.
A pediatric proposal is strongest when:
- the preceptor's patients are children seen for primary care, matching the course
- the preceptor brings at least twelve months of specialty practice, with licensure and national certification that are both current
- the schedule covers your semester's weekdays and sits inside FIU's official term dates
- you already know whether the practice holds an FIU contract
- no family tie or close friendship links you to the preceptor, and the practice is not your own work unit
More on each field, and on who signs what, is on the Preceptor Request Form page.
After approval: the first weeks of a pediatric rotation
Approval is the start of the practicum, not the end of the preparation. At your first meeting you give the preceptor a folder with FIU's course objectives, competencies, evaluation forms and faculty contacts, plus your own learning objectives. Some practices will also want you trained on their electronic health record, and their own policies apply from the first day.
By the first week of clinical seminar, your clinical faculty expect a detailed schedule of your days at the practice. Encounters must reach Typhon NPST inside a week of each clinical day, and the Clinical Rotation Time-Sheet Log collects your preceptor's signature each day or each week. Your preceptor evaluates you twice, midway and at the close of the rotation, and faculty come out for a minimum of two clinical days while both of you are on site.
Clinical days belong inside FIU's official semester dates; to keep going through a campus break, email your faculty and get their approval first.
Why PNP certificate students choose us
If you are balancing a nursing job with coursework, a pediatric preceptor search squeezed into spare evenings tends to stall. We take that work off your plate. We handle the outreach to pediatric practices near you, walk each preceptor through what an FIU practicum involves (the evaluations, the time-sheet log, the faculty visits), and bring you a match whose patient mix and weekday schedule fit NGR 6301L.
The request details arrive ready for FIU's form, the contract question is answered early, and your clearance and Typhon deadlines stay tracked through all three practicums. If a preceptor leaves mid-semester, we source the replacement so your hours keep moving.
Your faculty and the Office of Clinical Education make the final call on each site and preceptor. We give them a proposal that is complete, correct and within FIU's rules from the start. Begin with the form below.
Questions FIU students ask
Which FIU pediatric certificate is online?
The Pediatric Primary Care NP certificate is online. FIU lists the Pediatric Acute Care NP certificate as hybrid, with a mandatory orientation in April-May before clinicals and rotations that may include nights and weekends. Both carry 35 credits, but only the online primary care certificate comes with FIU's instruction that you identify your own site.
What is the application deadline for FIU's PNP certificate?
The certificate page gives a Fall start with a February 1 deadline. An older 2021 certificate brochure listed December 1 to March 1, so go by the current page. Applying by February means your first pediatric practicum opens roughly eighteen months later, in the Fall of your second certificate year.
Who approves my pediatric preceptor?
Your clinical faculty sign the Preceptor Request Form, and the Office of Clinical Education confirms that each site and preceptor has all the contracts and documents FIU needs. The graduate handbook treats starting clinicals before that approval, or before a contract exists, as a conduct violation, so wait for written confirmation before your first day.
Can I use a pediatric preceptor outside Florida?
FIU lets online-track students train beyond its four South Florida counties but does not say whether other states qualify. Its licensure page covers Florida only and does not name the post-graduate certificates. Clear any out-of-state practice with the Office of Clinical Education first, and read clinicals outside South Florida.
Do I need clinical clearance before my pediatric practicum?
Yes. Before the rotation starts you complete FIU's clearance, which the handbooks run through a Complio account with American Databank and the web pages call FIU Express. It covers fingerprints, employment verification, a drug screen, immunizations, BLS and insurance, and the clinical clearance page lists each item.
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.