Behind on clinical hours before your MRU course ends
At MRU, a clinical course is only passed when all of its practicum hours are done, with a preceptor MRU has approved, by the course's final day; come up short and the whole course fails. If you are behind, count the gap today, tell your course faculty early, and get any extra preceptor approved before they supervise a single hour.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your MRU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with what an MRU-ready preceptor and site look like for you.
What the last day of the course means at MRU
The last day of the course is a hard line in MRU's catalog. By that date you need every practicum hour, your logs, your case lists, any other required documentation and the end-of-course evaluation carrying three signatures: your preceptor's, your clinical instructor's and yours. Miss any of them and the course is failed.
It is also a whole-course grade. Failing any component of an MSN concentration course, including the preceptorship, records an F for the entire course, and on MRU's graduate scale anything under 80 is an F. Our pages on logs and case lists and the three-signature evaluation cover the paperwork side.
Do not close a gap on paper. MRU treats falsified time logs, misrepresented hours or invented client encounters as grounds for failing the course and possible dismissal.
Work out the size of the gap
Get the numbers straight before you call anyone. Faculty and a new preceptor can only help with a gap they can see.
- Take your logged totalUse the running count in your tracking system: Typhon for MSN-FNP students, myevaluation.com for the DNP, or whatever your syllabus names.
- Confirm the targetYour syllabus sets the course's required hours. For the FNP courses, where MRU prints no hour count, its rule of 45 clinical hours per credit gives the estimates in the table below.
- Count weeks, not the semesterWork from the course's own last day. MRU's semesters have been 16 weeks long since Fall 2026, with two 8-week modules inside each, so a course may end in late October rather than December.
- Divide what is leftHours still needed divided by weeks remaining is your weekly target. Compare it with the shifts your preceptor can really offer.
| Course | Clinical hours | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
MSN5700 adult and geriatric primary care | 225 | Our calculation; MRU prints no FNP hour total |
MSN6050 women's health | 135 | Our calculation |
MSN6150 pediatrics | 135 | Our calculation |
MSN6400 clinical integration | At least 180 | Course description (270 by calculation) |
MSN5056C, MSN6057C, MSN6065C (PMHNP) | 180, 180, 405 | MRU catalog |
MSN5040C, MSN5041C, MSN5042C (AGACNP) | 225, 225, 360 | MRU catalog |
MSN5855 (leadership MSN) | 180 | 2026 program addendum |
NUR4269, NUR4679, NUR4689 (RN-to-BSN) | 45 each | 2026 curriculum addendum |
Tell your course faculty before the gap grows
Your clinical instructor co-signs the final evaluation, so they need to hear about a shortfall from you, early and in writing, with the hours left and your plan to close them. MRU treats university email as its official channel: check it daily, answer official messages within 24 hours, and keep copies of what you send.
Know the limits before that conversation. MRU normally does not accept make-up work, although faculty may allow it for verifiable extenuating circumstances, and where missed externship time can be made up, the catalog lists a per-hour fee. Anything that runs beyond your course, such as an Incomplete stretching past 14 days, ends up with the Office of Academic Affairs.
Adding hours: more shifts or a second preceptor
The quickest source of hours is usually the preceptor you already have. MRU's catalog says externship shifts can fall on days, evenings, nights, weekends or holidays, so ask about extra or longer shifts before looking elsewhere.
A second preceptor is the other route, and approval is the catch. MRU requires approval before any preceptorship starts, and it comes from the Office of Academic Affairs for FNP students (MSN or certificate) and AGACNP students, from the Program Coordinator or that office for PMHNP depending on the document, and from a graduate clinical coordinator in the leadership MSN. MRU does not publish how long approval takes, so begin that paperwork the day you decide. Our preceptor approval page lists who approves what.
Check the course design first. MSN6400 is described as clinical integration in one clinical setting, so ask your faculty before splitting it across two sites. PMHNP students should work out which part of the 115 child and adolescent, 150 psychotherapy and 500 lifespan hours is short, because a new preceptor has to cover that part.
If the hours cannot be finished in time
An Incomplete is the tool MRU provides, and it comes with firm conditions. The request goes in writing on MRU's Incomplete Grade Request Form and has to cite extenuating circumstances. Your course faculty and the program Dean both approve it, and it is not granted unless at least 80% of the course is done.
Anything more than 14 days past the course end needs the Office of Academic Affairs to agree, and 15 weeks after the course end is the absolute limit, after which unfinished work becomes an F. You usually cannot start a course whose prerequisite still shows an I, which matters for FNP students because MSN6050 and MSN6150 both follow MSN5700. The Incomplete grade guide walks through the form.
Withdrawal is the other exit. A W is available only before the course's 50% point; later withdrawals are recorded as WF, which counts as a failure. For Fall 2026 the semester W deadline is November 6, with module deadlines of October 2 and November 27. A second W in the same course is treated as a failure.
How we help you catch up
If you need a second preceptor, we search for one whose practice fits your course and whose schedule has room for the missing hours, then collect their details in the shape MRU checks so you can submit them for approval.
MRU keeps control of approval, course dates and signatures, and we put our effort into getting a well-matched second preceptor in front of MRU quickly and fully documented. Use the form below with your course code, hours logged, hours still needed and the course's last day. If a preceptor left you mid-course, read what to do when a preceptor drops out as well.
Questions MRU students ask
Can I finish MRU clinical hours after the course's last day?
Only through an approved Incomplete. The catalog requires all practicum hours by the last day of the course, so any hours after that date depend on an Incomplete that your course faculty and program Dean have agreed. Past 14 days after the course ends, the Office of Academic Affairs must also agree, and nothing can run beyond 15 weeks.
Do hours count if I start with a new preceptor before MRU approves them?
Do not count on it. MRU's catalog says practicum hours must be completed with a University-approved preceptor and that approval comes before the preceptorship starts. Hours supervised by someone MRU has not yet approved risk being rejected, and logging them as approved time would raise the falsified-log problem. Wait for written approval, then begin.
Can simulation or lab time replace missing preceptor hours?
MRU's public documents do not say so. The catalog's credit rule groups externship, clinical and simulation hours together when it converts hours into credits, but that is not permission to swap simulation for preceptorship hours in a given course. Ask your course faculty and check the nursing student handbook on the student portal before relying on it.
What happens to my next clinical course if I fail this one?
MRU allows one repeat of the same MSN course, and a second failure of that course means dismissal. When a student fails a course, the Registrar drops their other courses and reschedules the failed one if they are eligible to retake it. Failing any two MSN concentration courses also leads to dismissal.
Should I tell my preceptor I am behind?
Yes, and early. Your preceptor controls most of the extra time you can find, and they sign the end-of-course evaluation, so they need to know the target and the deadline. Share the hours remaining, the course's last day and the weeks you have, then ask plainly which extra shifts are realistic for their practice.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against MRU's own catalog, addenda and program pages. The nursing student handbook on the MRU student portal and MRU's Office of Academic Affairs have the final word.
MRU says secure your own preceptor. We start the search now.
Tell us your MRU program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We look for preceptors who fit the course and help you gather what MRU checks before approving them.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult primary care for
MSN5700, women's health, pediatrics, psychiatric or acute care - Credentials, license and site details collected before MRU's credential check
- Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, or wherever in a SARA state you live
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.