NSU Entry and Accelerated BSN clinicals: how placement works and what to plan for
NSU places every Entry and Accelerated BSN student itself: the clinical coordinator assigns sites within 75 miles of your campus, and you must live within 150 miles of that campus. Across the program you complete 750 clinical clock hours in nine courses, starting in your first semester. What you control is staying cleared for every placement and, if an NP degree is in your future, learning early how different NSU's graduate rules are.
Plan ahead from the BSN
Get your compliance calendar in order now, and talk to us about NP clinicals when you are ready for graduate school.
How NSU places BSN students
The rule sits in the 2025-26 Nursing Student Handbook, on the same page as the graduate placement rule: "B.S.N. students must live within 150 miles of their assigned campus. The clinical coordinator will place the B.S.N. student within 75 miles of the student's campus." At this level, finding sites is NSU's job, and the handbook's BSN rule says nothing about students arranging their own. The 75-mile sentence is new in the 2025-26 edition; earlier handbooks carried only the 150-mile residence rule.
Your campus anchors everything. Entry BSN students attend Fort Lauderdale/Davie, Fort Myers or Miami, and Accelerated BSN students attend Fort Myers or Miami, so the campus you enroll at decides the area your clinical sites come from. The Accelerated BSN page says students gain experience in a hospital near campus, but NSU publishes no list of partner hospitals and does not explain how the final-semester NUR 4180 preceptorship is matched.
Getting to those sites is up to you. With placements as far as 75 miles from campus, reliable transportation and some give in your schedule matter from semester I. If you plan to move, talk to your program director first, because a home more than 150 miles from your assigned campus breaks the rule.
Entry and Accelerated BSN at a glance
Both programs run the same 20 nursing courses and the same clinical hours; the accelerated version compresses them. Admission to either asks for a 3.0 cumulative GPA, a 2.75 science GPA and the TEAS. The fall deadline appears as August 7 on the program pages and August 1 on the applicants page and in the undergraduate catalog, and winter is December 1.
| Item | Entry BSN | Accelerated BSN |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Students who first complete 56 to 57 credits of prerequisites and general education | Holders of a bachelor's degree in another field |
| Campuses | Fort Lauderdale/Davie, Fort Myers, Miami | Fort Myers, Miami |
| Nursing credits | 64 | 64 |
| Length | Five semesters ("twenty months" or "less than two years" on NSU pages) | Four semesters, 15 months (one NSU index says five) |
| Start terms | Fall and winter | Fall and winter |
| Clinical clock hours | 750 (our sum) | 750 (our sum) |
| Working during the program | Handbook advises 20 hours a week at most | Catalog strongly discourages it; handbook advises 20 hours at most |
750 clock hours, course by course
NSU's curriculum key converts clinical credits to time: one clinical credit is 50 clock hours, two are 100 and three are 150. Nine of the 20 nursing courses carry clinical time. The 750 total is our sum; NSU does not print it.
| Course | Title | Entry semester | Accelerated semester | Clock hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NUR 3130 | Foundations of Professional Nursing Practice | I | I | 100 |
NUR 3171 | Adult Nursing I | II | II | 100 |
NUR 4132 | Pediatric Nursing | II | II | 50 |
NUR 3181 | Adult Nursing II | III | III | 100 |
NUR 4131 | Women's Health and Newborn Nursing | III | III | 50 |
NUR 4152 | Population Health Nursing | IV | II | 50 |
NUR 4121 | Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing | IV | III | 50 |
NUR 4111 | Adult Nursing III | V | IV | 100 |
NUR 4180 | Nursing Practicum | V | IV | 150 |
| Total | 750 (our sum) |
The accelerated plan, listed as starting fall 2026, packs the same courses into four semesters, so its second and third semesters each carry three clinical courses against two in the entry plan. Plan work and family commitments around those two terms in particular.
Gates you must clear along the way
- Math competency. You may not give medications until you pass NSU's math competency exam. You get three attempts, and failing the third means dismissal from the program.
- Attendance. Undergraduate clinical and lab attendance is mandatory. An excused absence needs at least 48 hours' notice, missed hours must be finished before the term ends for you to pass, ACON schedules the make-up, and the handbook says an absent student may have to pay the clinical instructor for that time.
- Religious holidays. NSU's religious-holiday policy does not extend to required attendance in clinical settings.
- Grades. Didactic BSN courses pass at 75 points with no rounding, and graduation needs a C or better in every course and clinical.
- The
NUR 4180exit exam. Your final-semester practicum includes an exit exam with a set benchmark; fall short and the course stays incomplete until you reach it. NSU also requires one or more diagnostic exams that gauge NCLEX-RN readiness. - Service hours. 25 hours of service across the program, at least 5 in each semester.
Once the degree is approved, NSU sends your name to the Florida Board of Nursing, which makes the final call on NCLEX-RN eligibility.
Compliance: the part you control
NSU arranges the sites, but only you can keep yourself eligible to walk into them. The handbook is blunt: any facility requirement still open on your first scheduled day cancels the placement, and a gap found after the rotation starts gets you removed from the site. NSU adds that it is not obliged to find another site when an immunization is the problem.
- DISA CastleBranch. Your program sets the upload deadline for immunization and physical exam records; ACON Student Affairs watches the account, and reminder emails arrive every week until you are compliant. See CastleBranch at NSU.
- Immunizations. Expect the hepatitis B series with a titer, yearly flu and TB screening, MMR, Tdap and varicella, plus whatever extras a site asks for; the immunizations page has the specifics.
- Background checks. Level 1 happens when you are accepted, and a facility can also trigger a level 2 check with fingerprints, billed to you. The handbook warns that a facility may turn away a student whose check raises concerns. See background checks.
- Drug screening. NSU's zero-tolerance rule covers medical marijuana and CBD too; the drug screening page names the two testing vendors.
- Insurance and dress. You carry health insurance from start to finish, and at clinical you wear teal scrubs, a white jacket, white shoes and your NSU badge, or a teal polo and khakis on psychiatric and community health rotations.
After the BSN: when preceptors become your job
Everything changes if you return to NSU for an NP degree. In the MSN APRN and the BSN to DNP, the student finds a preceptor and site for each clinical course and must let the clinical coordinator know about both a full two semesters ahead of the course. If a student names no one, the coordinator picks a site within a 150-mile radius of home, and NSU describes that placement as not negotiable.
The graduate programs also want experience first: at least a year of current direct patient care, and independent practice of 12 months with a 3.0 GPA, or double that with a 2.75. Those working years are when you meet the nurse practitioners and physicians who can later precept you. The FNP track and the BSN to DNP FNP route show the clinical sequence, and the two-semester deadline explains the timing.
How we help BSN students plan ahead
Your BSN clinical sites come from NSU's clinical coordinator. Our role for BSN students starts where the rules hand the work to you.
Today that means compliance. We help you build one calendar of every CastleBranch due date, annual TB and flu renewal and site-specific item, to keep a missing document from costing you a placement. Later, if you come back for NSU's MSN APRN or BSN to DNP, it means preceptors: your placement advisor finds one near your home for each clinical course, prepares what the coordinator reviews and has it ready two semesters ahead. Use the form below whenever you want to start that plan.
Questions NSU students ask
Can I choose my own clinical site as an NSU BSN student?
The handbook's BSN rule gives placement to the clinical coordinator, who assigns sites within 75 miles of your campus, and it describes no student-arranged option. If a particular site matters to you, such as a hospital where you already work, bring it up with your program director or the clinical coordinator instead of contacting the site yourself.
What if I live more than 150 miles from my NSU campus?
The handbook requires BSN students to live within 150 miles of their assigned campus, so a move beyond that range needs a conversation with your program director first. If you are thinking about switching campuses, NSU's sources name different decision-makers: a 2023 policy change points to the Department Chair, while the 2025-26 handbook names the dean of Academic Programs.
When do NSU BSN clinicals start?
In your first semester. NUR 3130 Foundations of Professional Nursing Practice carries 100 clinical clock hours in semester I of both the Entry and Accelerated plans, so your immunizations, background check and drug screen need to be in order early. Your program sets the CastleBranch due date; treat it as firm.
Is there an RN to BSN at NSU now?
No current NSU source lists one. The 2026-27 undergraduate catalog names only the Entry BSN and the Accelerated BSN, and old RN to BSN web addresses return errors. Some third-party school directories still show an NSU RN to BSN, but that listing is out of date.
Is NSU's BSN program accredited?
Yes. CCNE accredits NSU's baccalaureate nursing program, with the current term running through December 31, 2029 and the next on-site visit planned for spring 2029. The university itself is accredited by SACSCOC. The Florida Board of Nursing decides whether each graduate may sit for the NCLEX-RN.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against NSU's own handbook, catalog and program pages. The graduate clinical guide, your course in Canvas, your clinical coordinator and your program director have the final word.
NSU lets you name your own preceptor. We make sure you have one, close to home and in time.
Tell us your NSU program, your home ZIP area and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors who fit the course and have everything ready for your clinical coordinator well before the two-semester notice.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP, acute care for AGACNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP, a practice site for DNP project hours
- Named early enough for NSU's two-semester notice, with license, credentials and site details ready for the coordinator
- Close to your home ZIP code, with clinic days we plan around your work schedule
Start your placement plan
Program, ZIP area and start term is all we need to begin.