How many clinical hours is Kent State's FNP program?

675 by course sum, 300-600 by the catalog rule

FNP students meet two numbers. The first is a sum you can check yourself: the 2026-2027 catalog prints an hour count in the description of each FNP practicum course, and the five courses total 675. The second is Kent State's own sentence on the MSN degree page, which requires a "Minimum 300-600 clinical hours, depending on concentration".

Both come from official Kent State pages, so neither is a rumor passed around a cohort. The course sum simply lands above the top of the stated range, which is why this question comes up more often from FNP students than from anyone else in the College of Nursing. The clinical hours hub compares every other concentration the same way.

Until someone with authority tells you otherwise, plan around the higher figure. The syllabus for each practicum, your practicum faculty and your concentration coordinator confirm what your own program plan requires. A preceptor booked for 150 hours is easy to release early. A preceptor booked for 75 when the course needed 150 leaves you searching again in the middle of the term.

Why Kent State's FNP figures conflict

The 300-600 range is a single line on the MSN degree page, meant to cover nine concentrations from Nurse Educator to acute care. The FNP is the biggest of them at 47 credits, and it is the only one whose course descriptions total more than 600. A general rule and a detailed course list drifting apart happens in large catalogs; it still leaves you with a number to pin down.

Certificate students have a second wrinkle. The post-master's FNP certificate lists the pediatrics practicum as a 1-to-2-credit course, which lets a certificate plan hold either 75 or 150 pediatric hours. By course sum, a certificate total therefore lands anywhere from 600 to 675, depending on the load your gap analysis sets.

The MSN Student Handbook also says the college will email affected students about curricular changes such as new practicum-hour requirements. If your cohort received that kind of notice, it outranks anything on a public page, this one included.

Questions worth asking your concentration coordinator

• What practicum hour total does my GPS program plan require?
• Am I registered for NURS 61692 at 1 or 2 credits, and how many pediatric hours does that mean for me?
• Does any syllabus set a minimum for one population, such as children or older adults, inside a course?
• If I finish a course's hours early, can extra hours move to the next practicum?

Planning 675 hours across your semesters

Kent State counts 75 practicum hours per credit, so a 2-credit FNP practicum is 150 hours, listed as 10 contact hours a week over a 15-week term. The 1-credit role practicum is half that. The hours-per-credit guide turns each load into a working week.

Every hour has to fall inside semester dates. Meeting the preceptor and completing agency onboarding can happen before the term; patient hours, though, begin on day one unless your coordinator approves an early start, and they finish by the semester's last day. Each practicum day then goes into Typhon within 15 days, as the Typhon page explains.

Five practicums mean five placements to arrange, and more once a pediatric preceptor or a second lifespan site joins the plan. Kent State describes the FNP as taking as few as two years full time or roughly three years while working, so most FNP students are lining up a preceptor for nearly every term. That rhythm, more than any single number, is what makes the FNP demanding to plan.