When your Gonzaga clinical hours count, and when they do not

The four gates before hour one

Gonzaga's FNP Clinical Faculty Packet opens its "Accrual of Clinical Hours" section with this sentence: "Students may not begin to accrue clinical hours for a clinical rotation prior to the start date of the semester, are following CPNW, have site approval, and confirmation of an active affiliation agreement between Gonzaga University and the practicum site." Read plainly, it lists four gates, and all four must be open.

• The semester has started. A preceptor who is ready in August still waits for the fall start date.
• You are following CPNW, meaning your CPNW clearance is complete in every area CPNW requires.
• Your site is approved, through a site request that faculty have reviewed and signed off.
• An active affiliation agreement between Gonzaga and that site is confirmed, not merely requested.

Each gate belongs to a different part of the process, which is why the last one to open decides your real start date. An agreement still in legal review, or one missing immunization record, holds back the first hour even when the preceptor is eager to begin.

Only with your approved preceptor, on their schedule

Hours count only when the provider supervising them is the preceptor faculty approved for that course, and Gonzaga allows no more than two approved preceptors in a semester; see two preceptors per semester. A covering colleague on a day your preceptor is out is not an approved preceptor, however qualified, unless faculty have approved them as well.

The packet adds that "The student must accomplish clinical hours at the availability of the preceptor." It also tells students not to ask preceptors to bend their schedules around personal or employment needs. Plan your job and family time around the clinic calendar rather than the reverse, and confirm the schedule with your preceptor about two weeks before each rotation, as the FNP and PMHNP guides ask.

What counts inside an hour, such as documentation and consult time for FNP students or the observation cap for PMHNP students, is covered in what counts as clinical hours.

What is at stake when hours fall outside the rules

Gonzaga's packet is direct about the consequence. Hours done outside these rules, whether with an unapproved preceptor, without CPNW compliance or without an active agreement, "may result in dismissal from the program or the completed hours not counting," which can mean taking the course again. The packet adds that this "may create a delay in the progression plan."

Lost hours hurt twice. The time is gone, and a repeated course pushes every later practicum back a term. In a nine-semester program where the practicums fill the second half, one repeated course can move your finish date; our page on delayed graduation covers that situation.

How we protect your first hour

The accrual rules reward a placement that is fully in place before the term begins. We start your search early enough that the preceptor is confirmed, the site request is complete, and the agreement question is with the Clinical Placement Team well ahead of the start date. We gather the preceptor's license, board certification, years in the clinical area and the site contact up front, so the request that reaches faculty is whole the first time.

We also build the schedule with your preceptor against the course's hour range and the term dates, so the hours fit inside the semester with room to spare for a missed day. The approval itself is Gonzaga's; our aim is that every gate is ready to swing open on the first day of the term. Send your course and start term through the form below.