Kent State MSN AGACNP: a 43-credit degree built on four hospital practicums
Kent State's Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP concentration runs 43 credits, mostly online, with four practicums of 150 hours each in hospital-based care. That adds up to 600 hours by course sum, all with a CNP, MD or DO preceptor, ending in a practicum spread across two or three specialties that are new to you.
Find your hospital-based AGACNP preceptors
Tell us your county and which acute care practicum is next. We search hospital teams for a CNP, MD or DO who fits the course.
The acute care degree in outline
Of the AGACNP's 43 credits, 31 sit in the concentration and 12 in the MSN core. It prepares nurse practitioners for moderate- to high-acuity adult and older-adult care: general medical, emergency, critical care and specialty practice, in the catalog's words. Kent State's AGACNP page lists fall and spring starts.
Delivery is mostly online from the Kent Campus: by Kent State's definition, half or more of the program is online and certain courses need you in person. Dates and counts for those campus courses are not published, so ask your graduate advisor when you build your plan. Any course you take on campus, and any practicum in Ohio, calls for an active Ohio RN license.
Beyond the core, the concentration holds the four APRN foundation courses, three AGACNP lectures, a role and procedures course and the four practicums. Your personal sequence lives in GPS, the Graduate Planning System, once you are admitted.
When the first acute care practicum comes
The one published AGACNP schedule is the certificate roadmap. It opens with a fall of foundation courses, NURS 60015, NURS 60045, NURS 60441 and NURS 60506, then places the first practicum, NURS 61092, in the spring with the NURS 60129 lecture. From there the practicums run in four consecutive terms, summer included. Your MSN plan in GPS may space them differently, so check it.
NURS 61092 can be registered for only with special approval and a complete compliance record. Four to six months before it, you attend the mandatory orientation for first practicums, and in the preceding semester your concentration coordinator assists with that first hospital placement. For a first practicum in spring, that puts the start of your search in late summer of the year before.
A four-term run with no gap leaves little slack. Line up each next hospital preceptor while the current practicum is still going, because semester rules require hours to end by the last day of each term.
On the certificate roadmap, the four AGACNP practicums run back to back, summer included. Plan the next preceptor before the current term ends.
Four hospital practicums, 600 hours
Every AGACNP practicum carries 2 credits, 150 hours and 10 contact hours a week in the catalog. The AGACNP practicum guide takes each course in turn; here is the whole run.
| Practicum | Credits | Hours | Paired course | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 61092 AGACNP I Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60129 AGACNP I | First hospital-based acute care rotation |
NURS 61392 AGACNP II Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60126 FNP/AG NP Role and Procedures | Role and procedures |
NURS 62392 AGACNP III Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60230 AGACNP III | Critically ill adults |
NURS 63392 AGACNP IV Practicum | 2 | 150 | NURS 60330 AGACNP IV | Specialty care, two or three new specialties |
| Total by course sum | 8 | 600 |
The 600 figure is our addition of the four course descriptions, and it sits at the top of the catalog's 300 to 600 range for MSN clinical hours. Two Kent State sources disagree on details: the course inventory also carries NURS 60130 AGACNP II alongside NURS 61392, while the concentration list uses NURS 60126, and the preceptor rotation page still gives the first practicum an old course number. Go by your syllabus and GPS plan.
Who precepts AGACNP students
Kent State's AGACNP rotation page asks for hospital-based settings, critical care among them, with a certified nurse practitioner, an MD or a DO as preceptor. That person brings a minimum of one year in adult-gerontology acute care and in the role, plus an active, unrestricted license and the employer's approval.
The final practicum changes the pattern. Instead of one preceptor, you spread its hours across two or three specialties that are unfamiliar to you, at least 50 hours in each, so plan two or three preceptors for that term. A home unit you already know well works against that rule.
The rotation page also wants 16 to 20 clinical hours a week at minimum, on consecutive days where the setting allows, while the catalog lists 10 contact hours a week for each practicum. Ask your practicum faculty how your syllabus reconciles the two before you promise a schedule to a preceptor or to your employer.
Hospitals, agreements and contact rules
Kent State names general medical, emergency, critical care and specialty practice for AGACNP work, and its program page adds specialty clinics, sub-acute and post-acute care, urgent care and rehabilitation. The college cites more than 750 clinical partners, mostly in Northeast Ohio, among them Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth, Summa, Aultman, Bon Secours Mercy and Trumbull Regional. Being a partner says nothing about whether a given unit will take a given student.
A hospital's hours count for you only under a current affiliation agreement with the College of Nursing, negotiated by the college with the facility itself. Certain agencies also forbid students from reaching out to preceptors on their own and run requests through an internal process, explained in the GSN Canvas course. Read no direct contact agencies before you email anyone at a hospital.
States, licensure and certification
Because the AGACNP is mostly online rather than fully online, it has no entry on Kent State's approved-states list, and the college publishes no out-of-state enrollment rule for it. Your hospital hours are always in person, and your RN license must be active and unrestricted in the state where the hospital sits. If you may seek licensure outside Ohio, note that Kent State's disclosure names California, New York and American Samoa as places its NP master's education does not meet; see licensure disclosures for the full picture.
Graduates are educationally eligible for the adult-gerontology acute care NP certification exams from the ANCC or the AACN, and the degree leads to APRN licensure in Ohio, according to Kent State. The catalog flags NURS 61092, NURS 61392 and NURS 62392 as repeatable for credit, and after a stop-out, any practicum that reaches three years old goes back on your plan together with its lecture.
Why AGACNP students choose us
Acute care placements have more moving parts than most: agency onboarding, agencies that bar direct contact with preceptors, and a final term that needs two or three new specialties. We plan all four practicums as one hospital map, so the critical care rotation and the specialty blocks are lined up before the terms that need them.
Each preceptor we bring you is a CNP, MD or DO in hospital-based care near your home, screened for an unrestricted license, current certification and at least a year in acute care practice. We gather the approval file for your practicum faculty and coordinator, flag early when a hospital lacks a College of Nursing affiliation agreement, and follow each system's student-contact rules from the first message.
When a unit or preceptor falls through mid-term, we are on call to find the next one. Send your county and upcoming acute care course through the form below.
Questions Kent State students ask
How much of the Kent State AGACNP is online?
At least half of it. Kent State's catalog calls the AGACNP mostly online, its label for programs where half or more of the coursework is online and a few courses meet at the Kent Campus. How many, and when, is not published. The four practicums always happen in person, in hospital-based settings near your home.
Do I need ICU experience to apply to Kent State's AGACNP?
Kent State states no minimum years of RN experience for MSN admission. Its catalog says priority goes to applicants with experience in their area of interest, specialty certification, clinical ladder or quality improvement work, and experience with underserved or high-risk populations. Acute or critical care experience fits the first of those, but it is not listed as a requirement.
Can I do AGACNP practicum at Cleveland Clinic or University Hospitals?
Both appear among the clinical partners Kent State names. Whether a particular unit can take you in a particular term is a separate question. Some agencies bar students from contacting preceptors directly, so check the GSN Canvas course for their process before reaching out, and confirm the affiliation agreement covers your site.
Do urgent care or rehabilitation hours count for the Kent State AGACNP?
Kent State's AGACNP program page lists urgent care, rehabilitation, sub-acute and post-acute care among the settings the concentration covers. The rotation page, though, centers on hospital-based settings with a CNP, MD or DO. Whether a non-hospital site fits a particular practicum depends on the course objectives, so get your practicum faculty's approval first.
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.
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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.
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