Kent State AGACNP practicums: the four acute care courses, one by one
The acute care NP concentration at Kent State (AGACNP) runs four practicum courses: NURS 61092, NURS 61392, NURS 62392 and NURS 63392. Each carries 2 credits and 150 hours in a hospital-based setting with a CNP, MD or DO preceptor, and the last one splits your hours among two or three specialties you have never practiced in.
Plan all four acute care practicums
Tell us your start term and where you live. We line up hospital preceptors course by course.
How the four AGACNP practicums fit together
Every AGACNP practicum runs beside its own lecture, and the catalog lists each as a 2-credit, 150-hour course meeting for 10 contact hours weekly. Kent State converts credits to practicum time at 75 hours apiece, as the hours-per-credit guide shows. Summed, the four reach 600 hours, which puts acute care at the ceiling of the catalog's MSN range, 300 up to 600 set by concentration.
The catalog has no semester roadmap for the MSN itself. The AGACNP certificate roadmap shows the usual rhythm: a fall of foundation courses with no clinical time, then one practicum per term for four terms in a row, summer included. Your own order sits in your Graduate Planning System (GPS) plan, so read the terms there before asking any hospital for dates.
| Course | Credits | Hours | Paired lecture | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 61092 AGACNP I Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60129 AGACNP I (3 credits), co-requisite | First acute care practicum |
NURS 61392 AGACNP II Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60126 FNP/AG NP Role and Procedures (2 credits), pre- or co-requisite | Role and procedures |
NURS 62392 AGACNP III Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60230 AGACNP III (4 credits), co-requisite | Critically ill adults |
NURS 63392 AGACNP IV Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60330 AGACNP IV (2 credits), co-requisite | Specialty care |
NURS 61092 AGACNP I: the first hospital rotation
NURS 61092 opens the acute care sequence alongside NURS 60129 AGACNP I. Registration takes special approval, and Kent State expects you to be fully compliant under its Clinical Compliance Policy before you enroll. On the certificate roadmap it comes right after a fall of four foundation courses (health assessment, pathophysiology, pharmacology and clinical diagnostics), so the hunt for this preceptor runs while you sit in them.
Two supports attach to this first course. Your concentration coordinator works with you on the site and preceptor search in the term before it, and a required orientation for first-practicum students meets four to six months out; the orientation page has a month-by-month plan. Whoever precepts you here must be a CNP, MD or DO working in a hospital-based setting.
The catalog frames the concentration around moderate- to high-acuity care and names critical care, emergency, specialty practice and general medical services. Ask your practicum faculty which of those suits a first rotation before you approach a service.
NURS 61392 AGACNP II: role and procedures
The second practicum pairs with NURS 60126, the 2-credit role and procedures course, which you may take first or at the same time. Read the syllabus objectives before settling on a service, and ask your practicum faculty how much procedure exposure these 150 hours should include.
One catalog detail needs checking. Kent State's course list includes a second candidate, NURS 60130 AGACNP II, a 1-credit lecture listed as a co-requisite of NURS 61392, while the concentration requirements name NURS 60126. Your GPS plan, confirmed by your concentration coordinator, decides which one you register for.
The certificate roadmap slots this course into summer. Kent State schedules graduate practicums as Practical Experience courses, and the summer 2026 Practical Experience session was a 13-week block from May 11 to August 9, so the same 150 hours fit into two fewer weeks than in fall or spring. The semester rules page covers start and finish dates.
NURS 62392 AGACNP III: critically ill adults
NURS 62392 pairs with NURS 60230 AGACNP III. At 4 credits that lecture is the heaviest in the concentration, and the course focus is the critically ill. Kent State's rotation page names critical care among the hospital settings where CNP, MD and DO preceptors take AGACNP students, making this the natural course for an intensive care placement if your practicum faculty agree.
Hospitals set their own onboarding: charting or record-access training, badge rules, dress codes. Kent State's handbook allows the introductions and the agency onboarding to happen before term starts, yet counted hours still begin on day one unless your coordinator signs off on an earlier start.
NURS 63392 AGACNP IV: specialties new to you
The final practicum pairs with NURS 60330 AGACNP IV (2 credits) and turns to specialty care. The rotation page wants this course spent in two or three unfamiliar specialties, each getting 50 hours or more. Across 150 hours that means three blocks of 50 or two longer blocks, and each block may need its own preceptor and site.
Kent State's AGACNP web page also reaches past the hospital floor, naming rehabilitation, urgent care, specialty clinics, and sub-acute or post-acute units. Each block has to sit at an agency already covered by an active College of Nursing affiliation agreement, and a new agency waits on the college to arrange one; the affiliation agreements page explains why that takes planning.
The final practicum is really two or three placements in one term. Start lining up those specialty preceptors while you are still in NURS 62392.
Weekly hours and the rules every AGACNP preceptor meets
Two Kent State figures describe the weekly load. The catalog schedules each practicum at 10 contact hours weekly. The acute care rotation page asks for more: a minimum somewhere between 16 and 20 clinical hours each week, grouped on consecutive days when the unit can manage it. Your syllabus and practicum faculty decide which governs, and a hospital preceptor should hear that answer before you agree on shifts.
Acute care preceptors meet the college's standard bar: a year or more of experience in the population-focused area and in the role, a current license and certification with no restrictions, and a green light from their employer. Kent State's recommended ratio lets a preceptor take two students when they are not carrying a patient load of their own, but just one when they are. The preceptor requirements page has the full list.
The rotation page lags the catalog in one place: it calls the first practicum NURS 61292, a number the 2026-2027 catalog uses for the primary care course. Register for NURS 61092, as the catalog and your GPS plan show.
Why AGACNP students choose us for hospital placements
We plan all four acute care practicums together, starting with a CNP, MD or DO in a hospital-based service for NURS 61092 and working forward to the specialty blocks in NURS 63392. Each preceptor reaches you with license, certification, years in role and employer details set out the way your practicum faculty and coordinator review them.
We tell you early when a hospital will need a new affiliation agreement, so the college has time to arrange it, and we respect the contact rules your GSN Canvas course lists for agencies that bar direct outreach. When a hospital preceptor drops out partway through a term, a new search starts immediately.
Send us your start term and the hospital systems near you. The request form sits just below, and how it works lays out each step.
Questions Kent State students ask
Can my Kent State AGACNP practicum be on the unit where I work as a nurse?
For acute care students Kent State publishes no general workplace ban; its only published ban applies to psychiatric NP students. The final practicum does rule out your usual specialty, since NURS 63392 asks for specialties new to you. For the earlier courses, ask your practicum faculty whether your employer's unit meets the course objectives, and read practicum at your workplace before approaching your manager.
Are Kent State AGACNP practicums repeatable?
Three of the four, NURS 61092, NURS 61392 and NURS 62392, carry a repeatable-for-credit flag in the catalog. Stop-outs bring a separate rule: once a practicum and its lecture partner pass the three-year mark, both are retaken, as the practicum time limits page explains. Talk with your concentration coordinator before planning any repeat, because it reshapes your GPS plan.
What if a hospital system says I cannot contact its preceptors?
Some agencies bar Kent State students from reaching preceptors directly. Their instructions sit in the GSN Canvas course, and you follow those steps rather than calling or emailing clinicians yourself. Check that list before any outreach to a hospital, and see the no-direct-contact guide for how to work within it.
Which certification exam do the AGACNP practicums prepare me for?
Kent State says AGACNP graduates are educationally eligible to sit the adult-gerontology acute care NP exams from either ANCC or AACN, and the four practicums supply the clinical side of that eligibility. Graduates of its APRN tracks meet Ohio's educational bar for APRN licensure, while other states may add conditions; the paperwork for certification and licensure is handled by your concentration coordinator.
Can I do AGACNP practicums outside Ohio?
The AGACNP is a mostly online concentration listed at the Kent Campus, and it is missing from the college's online approved-states list, so public sources leave out-of-state eligibility open. Put the question to Academic Advising and Student Services before you plan a practicum in another state; approved states shows the lists that do exist.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against Kent State's own catalog, handbooks and program pages. Your MSN or DNP handbook, your syllabus, your practicum faculty and your concentration coordinator have the final word.
Kent State says the preceptor search is yours. We make it the fastest part of your practicum.
Tell us your Kent State concentration, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare everything your practicum faculty and coordinator review before they approve.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for
NURS 61292, acute care forNURS 61092, psychiatric care forNURS 61592, women's health forNURS 66192 - Credentials, license and site details ready for your practicum faculty and coordinator
- In your own community, in Ohio or wherever you live and hold your RN license
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