Practicum Information & Guidelines

Graduate students choose their own clinical sites and preceptors when able, although faculty assist when needed. All preceptors must be approved by the course coordinator and clinical faculty member. Preceptors for nurse practitioner students can be nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, physicians, or physician assistants but ideally, the graduate nurse practitioner student will spend more than 50% of their time with a nurse practitioner preceptor.

Students are encouraged to seek mentors who will provide a mentoring opportunity and are appropriately prepared academically. Examples of possible practicum mentors may include nurse administrators, organization administrators, licensed clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, coordinators of care, and licensed physicians. The mentor provides a curriculum vitae to the student and the mentor is approved by course faculty. Mentors who are educationally prepared at the doctoral level or hold an advanced degree in business such as a master's in business administration (MBA) are preferred. This mentor may not be a family member or close friend.

Students will need to evaluate the preferred practicum site for the requirement for an affiliation agreement. This is an agreement between the site and Penn State University/Penn State College of Nursing. Some sites require that an affiliation agreement be reached before any practicum hours, including the D.N.P. project, may be started. This also applies to students who are employees of the potential practicum site. Affiliation agreements may take up to 12 months to complete so identifying the site early in the academic plan of study is essential. Students will email the Clinical Placement Coordinator with the name of their preferred practicum site. If an affiliation agreement does not exist between the site and Penn State, the student will submit a Site Affiliation Agreement Request Form to the Clinical Placement Coordinator. Once the form is submitted, Penn State College of Nursing will initiate contact with the site to determine if an affiliation agreement is required. Students will be advised throughout the agreement process. In some instances, an agreement may not be reached between the site and Penn State. In that case, the student will be required to select another option for the practicum/clinical site. It is important to have a primary site choice identified for the practicum courses and alternate sites in mind. 

Below are examples beyond the core project objectives.  Please note that each of the items below must align with 1) a D.N.P. Essential and 2) a current D.N.P. class which has allotted practicum hours.

D.N.P. program practicum experiences are designed to provide (AACN, 2015):  

1. Systematic opportunities for feedback and reflection.  

2. In-depth work/mentorship with experts in nursing, as well as other disciplines.  

3. Opportunities for meaningful student engagement within practice environments.  

4. Opportunities for building and assimilating knowledge for advanced nursing practice at a high level of complexity.  

5. Opportunities for further application, synthesis, and expansion of learning.  

6. Experience in the context of advanced nursing practice within which the final D.N.P. Project is completed.  

7. Opportunities for integrating and synthesizing all of the D.N.P. Essentials and role requirements necessary to demonstrate achievement of defined outcomes in an area of advanced nursing practice.  

Topical areas for practicum may include: 

• Processes of care 

• Safety/Quality 

• Organizational leadership 

• Professional leadership 

• Health policy 

• Healthcare economics 

• Ethical issues 

• Population health 

• Interprofessional care  

The College of Nursing uses a third-party service known as Typhon to track student progress in real time in clinical settings. All clinical and practicum experiences will be logged in the Typhon system. You will receive information about Typhon in the Canvas onboarding site and orientation. There is a one-time fee for use of Typhon and students are expected to pay the fee upon registering. An email will be sent during your first year with the student’s unique Typhon login and temporary password, and a link to the platform. The link is only active for 7 days from the date it was sent; it is recommended to set up the Typhon account as soon as you receive the email. 

Several forms are found in Typhon that are used during clinical and practicum experiences. Forms include: 1) Preceptor Request, 2) Preceptor Agreement Form, and 3) Preceptor Evaluation of Student Performance. These forms and instructions can be found at https://www.nursing.psu.edu/ graduate-forms/. Be certain that the CURRENT course is used when completing the forms. 

• Nurse administrator 

• Organization administrator 

• Licensed Clinical Nurse Specialist, licensed Nurse Practitioner, Coordinator of Care 

• Licensed Physicians 

• Certified Nurse Midwife

Graduate students choose their own clinical sites and preceptors when able, although faculty assist when needed. All preceptors must be approved by the course coordinator and clinical faculty member. Preceptors for nurse practitioner students can be nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, physicians, or physician assistants but ideally, the graduate nurse practitioner student will spend more than 50% of their time with a nurse practitioner preceptor. 

• Health policy internship 

• State Nurses Association 

• American Nurses Association 

• State Coalition of Nurse Practitioners 

• American Association of Nurse Practitioners 

• Professional organization involvement 

• Department of Health 

• Ethics consultation/committee 

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiology program 

• Institute for Healthcare Improvement online courses on systems safety and quality 

Examples for practicum hours may include:  

• Key Informant/Stakeholder Interviews 

• Executives, non-profit leaders, committee chairs, community leaders.  

• *This is a great way to network and determine problems within a practice setting. 

• Windshield Surveys 

• Complete a full analysis of a neighborhood, school, clinic, healthcare, legislative district  

• *Helpful early on to understand a setting, population, needs, and problems. 

• Professional Conferences 

• Present, help organize, serve on the board, or attend  

• *Provide your advisor with objectives.  If solely attending, please receive advisor permission to receive approval for practicum hours.  Complete a reflection of your experience.  Conferences are a great way to network, expand professional knowledge, and it’s a gateway to future service. 

• Professional Leadership 

• Serve on a professional organization, health department, school or service board. 

• Complete an internship 

• Sit on a board of directors meeting 

• Serve on a committee 

• Start being a peer reviewer for a journal 

• Book Group/Journal Club 

• Start or participate in a professional reading/journal club and discuss evidence-based practice and research findings 

• Complete a Fellowship 

• Certification  

• Attend/participate in review activities that are moderated 

• Earn a specialty certification 

• Certification Boards 

• Write items/review test questions for a certification board 

• Serve on the board for a certification  

• Knowledge Translation in Healthcare 

• Quality improvement pilot/small projects: physical, communication, culture, safety, medications, infection control, etc. 

Alternative Clinical Experiences that are identified by students may be approved and included as accepted hours for clinical courses. Students must complete The Alternative Clinical Experience Request Form the semester before the alternative experience to obtain the necessary approval. Alternative experiences may include, but are not limited to local, national or international service projects specific to health care that serve to meet the course objectives. To qualify for these experiences students must: a) be progressing satisfactorily in the clinical course; b) receive approval from the Course Coordinator and Director; c) have identified an appropriate preceptor; d) obtain a signed Preceptor Agreement Form or Penn State CON contract prior to beginning the experience. Upon completion of the alternative clinical practicum work, students will provide a report as directed by Course Coordinator. The total number of direct patient contact hours that may be accepted for alternative experiences will be determined in advance by Course Coordinator but may not exceed 25% of the direct clinical hours for the course. 

Approved by Graduate Affairs Committee 4/26/2010 

The student enrolled in NURS 834 typically uses the practicum hours to advance clinical practice, explore potential areas of project interest and/or gain practicum experience that supports coursework required in the D.N.P. curriculum.   

NURS 834 practicum experiences may include but are not limited to: 

• Clinical practice experience 

• Practice experience to determine where the project may be completed

• Practice experience internally within an organization for the purpose of networking (identifying key stakeholders) and planning a project

• Conference attendance (pre-approved by D.N.P. course faculty or D.N.P. adviser)

• Site visits

• Consultation with a national expert

• Participation on Boards, Professional Committees

• Participation in projects for professional organizations or other agencies 

The NURS 837 and 835 practicum hours support the project and are directly related to the implementation of the student's unique area of project interest and completion of the project (implementation through dissemination). 

The practicum hours are conducted in collaboration with a mentor. The mentor is located within the agency in which the project is to be carried out.  The mentor agrees to collaborate with the student to facilitate the identification, implementation, and completion of practicum hours that support the student's successful completion of practicum hours and the final project. 

NURS 837 and 835 practicum experiences may include but are not limited to: 

• Planning meetings internal and external to the organization where the project will be implemented

• Meetings with the mentor

• Implementation planning within the organization 

• Implementation of the project to include:

o Collecting project data

o Working directly with a biostatistician to interpret data

o Performing independent and/or collaborative quantitative data analysis using statistical programs

o Working directly with qualitative research experts to interpret data

o Qualitative data analysis

o Working directly with the IRB or leaders within the organization to achieve and/or maintain approvals to proceed with or carry out the project

o Providing the organization’s key stakeholders, administrators, IRB, etc. updates on project progress

There may be situations where the student is unable to complete the required clinical hours within the semester. If this occurs, the student can request a deferred grade (DF) in the course until the required hours are completed. The student must have the approval of their Clinical Faculty to extend clinical experiences and must arrange for supervision of these clinical rotations with a Clinical Faculty member. Approval of the Director of the program is also required.

For an NP student, it is important that the student inform the Clinical Faculty when the hours are completed and their Typhon log is updated, so that a completed grade can be processed for the student. Students have no later than 12 weeks after the course end date as noted on the Registrar's Schedule of Courses. These incomplete hours cannot be acquired during the break between fall and spring semesters and can only be acquired in the summer if the appropriate supervision can be arranged.

All nursing majors have clinical experiences in a variety of settings at Hershey Medical Center, University Park, and their local areas that will require travel to a clinical site. The Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing requires that students assume responsibility for providing their own transportation to and from the clinical site. The use of a car and/or carpooling is a necessity.