NSU AGACNP clinical courses and acute-care settings

Four clinicals, four semesters in a row

Unlike the FNP track, AGACNP spreads its clinicals evenly: one in each of four consecutive semesters. Each clinical pairs with a 4-credit Adult-Gerontology Acute Care didactic course, except the capstone, whose partner carries 3 credits.

Two small inconsistencies are worth knowing. NSU's AGACNP page describes the program as “six semesters” while the master's index says seven, and the website's flex plan leaves NSG 5659 without the clinical asterisk even though the catalog lists it as a 190-hour clinical. The full-time vs flex page compares both plans.

Acute-care settings that fit

NSU numbers the AGACNP clinicals I, II, III and Capstone rather than tying each to a setting, and it publishes no per-course site list. The coordinator's test is whether the site gives experience that suits adult-gerontology acute care. Settings built around acutely and critically ill adults and older adults meet that test:

• Inpatient medical and surgical units, including step-down and progressive care
• Intensive care units: medical, surgical, cardiac, neurological or trauma
• Hospitalist services that manage admitted patients
• Emergency departments
• Inpatient specialty consult teams, such as cardiology, pulmonology or nephrology

One way to plan the four courses is for range: a hospitalist service, then an ICU, then an emergency department, with the capstone in the setting where you hope to work. NSU does not publish a rule requiring variety or forbidding a repeat, so check the graduate clinical guide or ask your coordinator before you plan two courses on the same unit.

What hospitals ask of you before day one

Acute-care sites set their own entry conditions on top of NSU's, and the handbook spells out the stakes: if you have not met every requirement of the facility before the first scheduled day, the placement is canceled, and if it has already begun, you are asked to leave. Between the handbook's list of what a clinical site may require and NSU's own standing rules, expect to show:

• Criminal background checks, including a level 2 check through FDLE and VECHS fingerprinting when the facility asks for one, at a fee listed in the handbook
• Basic life support and advanced life support, beyond the ACLS certificate AGACNP admission already requires
• Immunizations and health forms: NSU's list includes annual TB testing and flu vaccine, and facilities can add vaccines of their own
• Drug screening under ACON's zero-tolerance policy, which extends to medical marijuana and CBD
• Health insurance, which NSU requires for the length of the program

The handbook also warns that students may have to upload records to more than one portal, so a hospital may ask for its own system alongside DISA CastleBranch. NSU does not list publicly which facilities it holds agreements with, so your clinical coordinator and the hospital confirm what that facility needs. NSU's side of the paperwork is on the CastleBranch page.