The HAL practicum at APU: courses, surveys and deadlines

The practicum courses and their hours

The 2026-27 catalog gives the MSN HAL two practicum courses. APU prints both in units only, so their hours are what the practicum units work out to at 45 hours per unit.

That makes 225 hours for the MSN. The 19-unit HAL post-master's certificate lists only GNRS 567 in the catalog, even though APU's certificate web page promises two administrative practicum experiences. Admission and the degree itself are covered on the MSN HAL program page.

GNRS 567 is the larger of the two blocks and the only one with no classroom units, so it drives most of the planning described below.

Where APU's documents disagree on hours

APU's 2025-26 MSN HAL and MS HCA Program Guidelines tell a different story from the catalog. They give GNRS 567 90 hours across its 3 practicum units, where the catalog's units work out to 135, and they pair it with GNRS 543 at 90 hours across 2 of its 4 units, where the catalog lists GNRS 562. The guidelines cite the 2020-21 catalog, which may explain the older pairing.

APU's healthcare administration onboarding hub shows the same drift: it carries a 2025/2026 label while linking the 2026-27 training modules. None of this changes what you need to do, but it does mean the numbers you see depend on which document you open.

Anchor your plan to the catalog year of your admission, and check each course's hour target in its syllabus before you agree a weekly schedule with your preceptor. The clinical hours overview shows where APU's hour figures conflict in other programs too.

The published practicum calendar

The HAL onboarding hub is one of the few APU pages that prints a full practicum timeline. It begins with a 15-minute orientation video, then runs on two sets of dates, one for practicum courses that start in fall and one for spring.

Read the fall column closely: a fall practicum starts its paperwork in April, more than four months ahead of an August term. For a spring 2027 course, Survey A was due September 15, 2026. If a date has already passed, contact the coordinator right away instead of waiting for the next cycle.

Practicum Survey A and Survey B

Practicum Survey A is yours to complete. It asks for your current employer plus as many as three alternative organizations where you would like the practicum to happen. The School of Nursing team then checks whether each one holds an affiliation agreement with APU and requests the placement, so listing organizations that already have an agreement, or that can sign one quickly, gives the team more to work with.

Practicum Survey B comes from the site, through its education or placement contact. That means you need to know who handles students at each organization before you list it on Survey A. A named contact who knows the survey is coming makes that deadline much easier to meet.

APU's timing advice varies by document. The 2025-26 guidelines suggest reaching the coordinator a month or two ahead of the course, stretching to half a year for out-of-state students, while the hub's calendar sets Survey A roughly four months before a fall course. Plan by the earlier date.

Who can precept the HAL practicum

For GNRS 567, APU's guidelines call for a nurse administrator with proven leadership. For GNRS 543, where your plan includes it, the ideal preceptor leads interdisciplinary care-management teams, and the guidelines single out preceptors with business or management degrees as especially suitable. On top of those course-level preferences sit the baseline standards in APU's Preceptor Handbook, a document APU keeps off its public pages.

The course faculty works with you to identify the site and preceptor. From there the placement coordinator takes over with the preceptor: sending APU's handbook for preceptors, getting the Preceptor Agreement Form signed, securing the organization's affiliation agreement and verifying that your own requirements are up to date.

APU's rules on relatives, close friends and training at your own employer sit on our preceptor requirements page. Survey A asks for your employer by name, so ask course faculty which of those conditions apply to an administrative practicum there.

The learning contract, evaluation and hours log

Once you are placed, you write a learning contract with your preceptor, and faculty sign off on it. Because GNRS 567 is individualized, that contract is the document that turns a general administration practicum into your specific plan. At the end, the preceptor rates your engagement, your professionalism and your final project.

The HAL guidelines carry over the weekly logging rule used across APU's graduate programs, so practicum hours go into Medatrax every week. Our Medatrax guide explains what happens when entries fall behind.

Compliance runs through CastleBranch, which gives HAL its own package code. The program's license rule follows the practicum: the state hosting it must be one where your nursing license is active and carries no restrictions. ELM graduates on the HAL track also need a year of RN clinical experience, or the equivalent, before GNRS 567.

How we help HAL students

We work to APU's calendar. Before Survey A is due, we identify leaders who fit GNRS 567, nurse administrators with real leadership scope near where you live, and we find out who handles student placements at each organization so every choice on your Survey A comes with a named contact for Survey B.

If your employer is your first choice, we still line up strong alternates for Survey A, so a slow contract at one organization does not hold up your whole term.

We also check whether each organization already has an APU affiliation agreement, and we gather its legal name and authorized signer so the School of Nursing can move quickly if a new agreement is needed. APU confirms the placement and start date; the options you hand them arrive strong and complete. Read how it works, or send your course number and term through the form below.

Questions APU students ask