Kent State NAHSL and MSN/MBA: planning 300 hours of leadership practicum

Three ways to study nursing leadership at Kent State

Kent State offers NAHSL as an MSN concentration, inside the MSN/MBA with the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship, and as a post-master's certificate. All three are delivered fully online and run through one practicum sequence, so the preceptor search looks the same whichever door you choose.

The catalog aims the MSN/MBA at experienced nurses bound for middle or executive management. MGMT 68051 can be waived for applicants with two years of full-time work since the bachelor's degree. The MSN core for both degrees is NURS 60025 (or NURS 50089 abroad), NURS 60010, NURS 60101 and NURS 60403.

Leaders as preceptors, and a project at each site

NAHSL students learn beside managers and executives rather than bedside clinicians. Kent State looks for a leader with a master's degree, an MSN preferred, who sits a level or two above the job you hold now, and it nudges you to look past your own unit or employer. Each placement is organized around a project you carry out for the host organization.

Over the two practicums you complete 300 hours, and the catalog gives each 2-credit course 10 contact hours a week. Your hours are logged in the Typhon database Kent State shares among CNS, educator and leadership students. The NAHSL practicum courses page takes each course, the project and the outside-your-unit advice in turn.

Healthcare administrator is one of the roles on Kent State's preceptor recruiting page, and every preceptor needs an unrestricted license or certification, a year of practice and their employer's sign-off. Hours also depend on a current College of Nursing affiliation agreement with the organization, so a health system new to Kent State needs time; the affiliation agreements page explains why.

A leadership placement calendar

1. Two terms before NAHSL I: list the leaders you could learn fromThink of managers, directors and executives in your region with a master's degree who sit above your current level. The GSN Canvas course holds the placement guide and any agency rules on contacting staff.
2. Four to six months out: first-practicum orientationThe orientation is mandatory, and your concentration coordinator supports the search for this first placement in the preceding term.
3. The semester before: compliance and approvalClear every Clinical Compliance Policy item, send the leader's details to practicum faculty for approval, and give the college room to start any new affiliation agreement.
4. During NAHSL I: secure the second leaderAim NAHSL II at a different organization or leadership path so the seminar term draws on contrasting experience, and confirm that preceptor before the seminar semester begins.
5. Every term: stay inside the semester datesSite hours cannot start before the semester's first day without your coordinator's approval, and they wrap up by its final day. Log each day in Typhon within 15 days.

Why nurse leaders choose us

Leadership preceptors are busy and rarely advertise that they take students. Our placement desk searches for master's-prepared managers, directors and executives in your community, outside your reporting line, and opens with the question that matters to them: what project could a Kent State student carry for their department this term.

We plan both NAHSL placements together, so the second leader is confirmed well before the seminar semester. For every preceptor, we prepare the degree, title, license and organization details your practicum faculty and concentration coordinator examine, and we raise any affiliation agreement need at the outset, while there is still time for the college to act. MSN/MBA students get the same search, timed around their business coursework. Start with the form below or see how it works.