GNRS 600 at APU: the NP clinical course, unit by unit

What GNRS 600 is and who enrolls in it

GNRS 600 is APU's primary care clinical course for the two nurse practitioner tracks built on it: the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP (AGPCNP). The catalog describes you working as a student NP under approved preceptors and logging the hours you complete.

Students meet it on several paths: the MSN FNP and MSN AGPCNP, the post-master's FNP and AGPCNP certificates, the MSN that pairs the FNP with the School Nurse Services Credential, and the APRN track of the BSN to DNP. ELM-MSN students who pick the FNP or AGPCNP follow the matching MSN courses once they pass the NCLEX. The PNP-PC, PMHNP and CNS tracks use their own course numbers; pediatric students should read the PNP course sequence instead.

12 units and 540 hours on the MSN and certificate paths

For MSN and post-master's certificate students, GNRS 600 totals 12 units, and APU's catalog states the hours in plain words: 540 supervised direct patient care hours. That printed pairing is one of the sources of APU's 45 hours per clinical unit ratio. The catalog also attaches a 135-hour pediatric share to the FNP, which has its own page.

The printed 540 also sits above California's floor: the BRN's NP program regulation, 16 CCR 1484, calls for at least 500 supervised direct patient care hours and 12 semester units of supervised clinical practice. The 540-765 span in the course entry exists only because one description serves both the master's and the doctoral route.

17 units and 750 hours on the BSN-to-DNP path

BSN-to-DNP students on the FNP or AGPCNP track carry GNRS 600 further. For this pathway the catalog allows up to 17 units and sets a floor of 750 direct-care hours, with a 135-hour share reserved for children on the family track or for older adults on the adult-gerontology track. Multiply 17 units by 45 and you reach 765, the top of the printed span.

APU's dated 2023-24 guidelines go further: anyone on the APRN track who entered after Fall 2023 remains registered in GNRS 600 every term, without a break, and finishes at least 750 hours at a pace of 90 to 270 a semester. With no gap terms, a preceptor who leaves shows up in your hours immediately, so the next site should be ready before the current one wraps. The current handbook and your program director have the final word for your cohort.

Those 750 hours are the NP portion of a doctorate that requires 1,000 clinical hours overall. How they combine with the GNRS 732 residency is covered on the DNP residency hours page.

Spreading 2 to 6 units across your terms

Faculty can approve anywhere from 2 to 6 GNRS 600 units in a single term for FNP and AGPCNP students; at 45 hours apiece, a term's clinical load therefore runs from 90 hours up to 270. APU's graduate calendar has three terms a year in which clinical units can be scheduled, fall, spring and summer, and each offers a 16-week session.

Over a 16-week session, 4 units comes to roughly 11 hours weekly and 6 units to about 17. APU's recent guidelines bar front-loading and back-loading, so build the plan around a weekly pace rather than a rush at the end; the rotation rules page covers the rest.

Courses that run beside GNRS 600

GNRS 600 never runs on its own. GNRS 601 Primary Healthcare I and GNRS 602 Primary Healthcare II list it as a corequisite, and APU's recent guidelines say didactic and clinical courses are taken together, with no exceptions. AGPCNP students must also take GNRS 580 Gerontology together with it, while FNP students complete GNRS 603 and GNRS 590D as theory courses.

Before your first unit, the catalog's prerequisite chain runs from GNRS 610 to GNRS 611 to GNRS 612 and its lab (BSN-to-DNP students can take GNRS 611 without GNRS 610). APU's dated guidelines add a grade floor, B- or higher in each of the three P's (pathophysiology, pharmacology and advanced assessment), and they leave students who lack a finished program plan out of the placement count. The GNRS 612 page explains that gate.

Older numbers still surface. The catalog keeps legacy courses such as GNRS 581, GNRS 591, GNRS 592B and GNRS 593 in its course list, and the GNRS 592B entry still says clinical hours are completed there. Today's FNP and AGPCNP students record their hours under GNRS 600; if your plan shows an older number, you may be on an earlier catalog, so confirm it with your advisor.

Preceptors and settings that fit GNRS 600

The FNP course is outpatient primary care across the lifespan. The AGPCNP track runs from young adults to older adults, and APU's description points to settings that range from community health centers and private offices to long-term care and visits in patients' homes.

On APU's current request form, MDs, DOs, NPs, and PAs who have a supervising physician on site all qualify, and at least one of your terms must be spent learning from a nurse practitioner. Relatives and your own work unit are excluded; preceptor requirements lists the full rules.

Two practical limits come from APU's dated guidelines. Weekend and after-hours clinic time is hard to come by, family practice most of all, and because fit for level and population outranks distance, an hour-plus commute each way is routine.

How we line up GNRS 600 preceptors term after term

APU students choose us because we plan GNRS 600 as a sequence of terms rather than one placement. We map your units per term, find primary care preceptors near home in Southern California who can carry that weekly load, and make sure your NP semester and your pediatric or geriatric share land somewhere in the plan.

For each preceptor we gather what APU's Graduate Preceptor Request form asks for: who the preceptor is and how to reach them, the practice's registered legal name, the person authorized to sign for it and the office manager. We find out at the start whether APU and the practice already have an affiliation agreement on file, since a new one takes longer to put in place. Clearance is APU's call; what we control is handing the team a request with nothing missing.

Should a preceptor bow out mid-sequence, a replacement search opens at once, so your hour count keeps climbing. Send your track, campus and next term through the form below.

Questions APU students ask