Gonzaga's FNP practicum courses, course by course

Four pairs and an extension

Each FNP practicum is a corequisite of a 3-credit didactic course, so the classroom and clinical halves of a topic share a term. The pairs are Gender-Based primary care (NURS 651P with NURS 661P), infant, child and adolescent care (NURS 652P with NURS 662P), and two adult and gerontology courses (NURS 653P with NURS 663P, then NURS 654P with NURS 664P).

Gonzaga's course list puts the pediatric pair first, and NURS 662P is the first specialty practicum in the FNP plan, landing in the same year as health assessment. Prerequisites stack at a minimum grade of C: NURS 663P, for example, needs NURS 600, NURS 601, NURS 651P and NURS 661P first. Your progression plan fixes the actual terms, and NURS 683P follows the last adult pair for anyone still short of hours.

The practicum credits across the sequence total 10, which Gonzaga converts at 60 clock hours per credit into 600 hours. Add the 60 hours of NURS 601 and you reach the 660 on Gonzaga's 2026 FNP page.

Primary care, and every age group

Primary care is the setting for every FNP practicum. The last adult course and the extension, NURS 664P and NURS 683P, widen that to primary care and other settings, which helps when a final block needs somewhere a little different. Each practicum still has to be an approved clinical setting.

Lifespan coverage is the rule that shapes preceptor choice most. For the pediatric practicum the packet is blunt: the student must see patients in every age group, from infants to adolescents. Course faculty also audit logs for hours against registered credits and for coverage across ages and population foci, so a panel that leans heavily toward one age band can leave a gap to fill in a later term. Logs go in Typhon, or CORE if your cohort has moved; see Typhon clinical logs.

One more course appears only in the catalog: NURS 671 Care of Frail Elder, taken with NURS 683P, whose clinical work happens in internal medicine or long-term care. It sits outside the required FNP list, so check with your faculty advisor before planning around it.

Immersions and site visits in each term

Each FNP didactic course brings one 3-day immersion in Spokane, so the four specialty terms add four campus trips to the two from NURS 600. Check immersion dates before you commit a preceptor schedule; the Spokane immersions page covers timing and travel.

Every practicum course also includes a clinical faculty site visit. Students living in Washington, Idaho, Oregon or Montana have at least one at their own clinical site, graded on an OSCE rubric while they see several patients. Students in the other six western states travel to Spokane for an extra campus day attached to an immersion instead. For the in-region version, tell your preceptor early that a faculty member will join a clinic day, since you coordinate the visit and need several patients booked for it. The faculty site visits guide explains how each version runs.

Why FNP students choose us

Four practicums in four terms means four chances for a search to stall. We plan the whole FNP sequence with you rather than one course at a time: a preceptor mix that keeps nurse practitioner hours above half, a site with a real pediatric panel for NURS 662P, and adult and older-adult caseloads for NURS 663P and NURS 664P, all in your own state.

Each course gets its own request package: the preceptor's license and certification records, the person at the site who handles agreements, clinic dates sized to that course's hour range, and a short explanation of fit. If a preceptor leaves mid-sequence, your placement advisor starts on the replacement right away. The approval decision is Gonzaga's; the package we hand you leaves faculty nothing to chase.