Maryville AGACNP practicums: NURS 641, 643 and 645

The three acute care practicums

Each practicum follows a Diagnosis and Management course, and the six make up 18 of the MSN's 47 credits. Maryville's catalog records give the credits and a description for each, but no clinical hours.

Across the five tracks the total is the same, 750 hours; the clinical hours page explains why no per-course figure is published.

Why the AGACNP numbers look different in each source

Depending on where you look, the AGACNP practicums appear three ways. The 2026-27 catalog's MSN program page lists only the didactic courses, NURS 640, NURS 642 and NURS 644, under an 18-credit heading, while the practicums sit in separate catalog course records. The active 2026-27 course list shows the practicums only in their C form. Maryville's online program curriculum still uses the plain numbers.

The plain and C versions carry the same title, 3 credits and description, and Maryville doesn't publish what the letter means. It doesn't change the placement you need. Register for the number on your program plan. When you send a course description to a prospective preceptor or a hospital's education office, the catalog record for either number gives the same text.

The DNP-NP concentration list in the catalog has the same gap, naming the 18 acute care credits without the practicums, so don't read their absence there as a sign the courses were dropped.

The hospital setting and preceptor AGACNP needs

AGACNP is the only Maryville NP track built for the hospital. In a 2023 webinar, Maryville said acute care students need some type of hospitalist setting, while FNP, AGPCNP and pediatric students must stay in primary care. The catalog describes NURS 641 in acute care practice settings and NURS 643 and NURS 645 with complex, acute and critically ill patients.

Your preceptor must meet Maryville's general rule, which asks for an APRN, MD or DO holding board certification, a clean license in their state and at least a year of practice. Maryville's 2026 guidance says PAs "don't typically qualify", so a service staffed mainly by PAs may not give you an eligible preceptor. An acute care NP or a board-certified hospitalist physician fits the rule.

Working at the hospital doesn't rule it out, but the employer limits apply: you can't log clinical time during paid shifts, paid hours don't count, and no preceptor who supervises you, reports to you, works directly with you or evaluates your performance. Preceptor requirements has the full list.

Hospital onboarding on top of Maryville approval

Hospitals, like other sites, may run their own student onboarding, and Maryville treats it as a separate layer. Maryville maintains an OnBoarding Information List of sites with known onboarding steps, plus an Onboarding Request Form for those sites. If your hospital isn't listed, you have to ask the hospital directly what it requires. Either way, Maryville's help center is explicit that finishing a site's onboarding doesn't replace the university's own approval.

Expect extra requests. A hospital may ask for a background check or drug screen more recent than the one in your file, and you reorder those through Exxat. Maryville's catalog notes that some Missouri hospitals screen for nicotine and that some sites may require COVID vaccination. Once Exxat shows final approval, ask whether the hospital needs a Maryville photo ID; Maryville now issues them digitally.

A hospital may also prefer its own affiliation contract. Maryville lets a site's own agreement replace its MOU, but someone in the hospital's education, HR or business office has to handle it. Onboarding requests and the MOU page cover both steps, and our St. Louis and Kansas City sites page looks at the region's systems.

What must be cleared before your first hospital shift

Maryville's four approvals come first, and a hospital placement touches every one of them.

• Exxat Compliance: every item approved and current, plus any newer screening the hospital asks for.
• Site and preceptor request: approved in Exxat for the specific practicum, naming the acute care NP or hospitalist physician who will precept you.
• Hospital clearance: sign-off from the education department or unit manager, sometimes after the hospital's own onboarding.
• Course faculty: your instructor's approval of the placement.

Don't book a first shift until all four are in place; the hospital's onboarding and Maryville's review run on separate clocks, and one finishing doesn't mean the other has. If any compliance item lapses during the term, the placement goes On Hold, and hours worked in that window must be repeated, which is hard to recover on a hospital schedule.

Older curriculum and state limits for AGACNP

Students admitted in Fall 2023 or earlier may be on the older AGACNP curriculum, which a 2023 Maryville webinar put at 830 hours over four semesters, the second-highest of the five tracks. Moving to the current 750-hour curriculum is a choice you make through the Office of Academic Records, not something that happens by default.

The June 2026 licensure grids mark AGACNP "Does not meet" in New York and Louisiana. A status page last modified in 2020, and still online, also lists Oregon as closed to AGACNP, which the 2026 grid contradicts by marking Oregon "Meets". Confirm with Maryville before relying on either. Your RN license must also be unencumbered in the hospital's state. Out-of-state clinicals has the details.

Why AGACNP students choose us

Acute care placements run on two clocks, the hospital's onboarding and Maryville's review, and we keep both moving for AGACNP students. The placement desk looks for acute care NPs and hospitalist physicians who meet Maryville's rules at hospitals that accept NP students, then helps you assemble the preceptor's CV, license and board-certification proof with the site contacts for the agreement and onboarding. If a preceptor leaves mid-rotation, we go straight back to the search.

The hospital clears you for its floors and Maryville approves the placement; our part is making sure both files are complete and neither waits on the other. We start early, track what each side still needs and flag a tight hospital timeline while there is still room to change course. Send your start term, nearest hospitals and next practicum through the form below.