Rivier AG-ACNP preceptors for hospital and critical care practicums
For the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP track at Rivier University, the right preceptor changes with each stage: a hospitalist, either an MD or a certified AG-ACNP, for Practicum I, then a physician, intensivist or AG-ACNP in a critical care unit for Practicums II and III. Each of the two later practicums can include up to 90 hours in acute-care specialties the Handbook lists, and telehealth hours are not permitted at all.
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Tell us your Rivier program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Rivier course.
Three practicums, three preceptor roles
The AG-ACNP practicums run in a fixed order, each paired with a seminar, and the 2025-26 catalog assigns 250 directly supervised hours to each one. Rivier's Nursing Student Handbook (pp. 74, 76) sets who may supervise you at every stage.
| Course | Term offered | Setting | Who can precept |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 638P Acute Care Practicum I, with NURS 638S | Fall | Acute care, hospitalist service | An MD or certified AG-ACNP working as a hospitalist |
NURS 639P Acute Care Practicum II, with NURS 639S | Spring | Critical care unit | An MD or intensivist, or an AG-ACNP |
NURS 640P Acute Care Practicum III, with NURS 640S | Fall | Critical care unit | An MD or intensivist, or an AG-ACNP |
The AG-ACNP post-master's certificate runs the same three practicums, so certificate students need the same preceptor sequence. Course content and the two skills labs are covered on the AG-ACNP practicums page.
Practicum I: finding a hospitalist
NURS 638P is your first practicum, taken in a fall semester after NURS 631 and NURS 636, the second acute care skills lab. Here the preceptor is a hospitalist: a physician (MD) or a certified AG-ACNP practicing on an acute care medicine service. That points you toward hospital medicine groups: the physicians and acute care nurse practitioners who admit, round on and discharge adult inpatients.
The Handbook also lets an ICU or ER stand in for the hospitalist setting. If your local hospital's medicine service cannot take a student, a critical care unit or an emergency department is an accepted substitute, and graduate faculty review it the way they review any other site.
Because Practicum I lands in the fall, the August 1 absolute deadline governs it, and the hospital's contract with Rivier needs 30 days before that. Rivier's placement policy advises starting your search as much as a year ahead; for a hospitalist in a busy system, take that advice literally.
Practicums II and III: the critical care preceptor
NURS 639P in the spring and NURS 640P the following fall move you into a critical care unit. Your preceptor there is an MD or intensivist, or an AG-ACNP, managing critically ill adults. One unit can serve both practicums, which spares you a second contract and lets the same preceptor watch you grow over two semesters.
Critical care clinicians may work in blocks of long shifts, so ask early how a student's 250 hours would fit around the preceptor's schedule. Someone who works a handful of shifts a month may give you fewer supervised hours than the semester demands, however strong the unit.
Faculty stay close to this work. The catalog notes that faculty follow your clinical logs and read what your preceptor reports in every acute care practicum, so choose a preceptor who is willing to complete evaluations on time.
Specialty hours and the telehealth ban
Rivier gives AG-ACNP students some range beyond the ICU. In each of Practicums II and III, up to 90 hours may be spent in acute-care specialties the Handbook lists on page 76. With 250 hours per practicum, that leaves at least 160 hours of each course in the critical care unit itself.
Use the specialty time with intent. Pick specialties that connect to the patients you manage in critical care, and clear each one against the Handbook's list with Rivier's coordinator and Program Director ahead of your first shift, because alternative hours go through Rivier's standard approval process.
Telehealth is not allowed on this track at all, so every AG-ACNP hour is in person. The FNP and PMHNP tracks treat remote time differently; the alternative practicum hours page compares all three.
No telehealth hours count on Rivier's AG-ACNP track, so a preceptor who works partly by video can supervise only your in-person time.
Hospital sites and their own rules
Acute care placements sit inside hospitals, and some health systems publish firm limits on student rotations. Dartmouth Health's page for advanced practice students, for instance, says it is only accepting students from currently affiliated schools and gives priority to its own employees. Read each system's own policy before you approach a unit; New Hampshire NP preceptors covers local systems in more depth.
Hospitals also bring onboarding of their own. Before any shift, your CastleBranch requirements are due four months ahead, the Centralized Clinical Placement orientation comes around each August, and every clinical experience needs its own Clinical Assignment Ticket. A hospital may hand you its own ID badge, and AG-ACNP admission already required BLS and ACLS certification, so keep both cards current and ready to show on your first day.
Where you can practice: the State Guide gap
Rivier's State Guide carries FNP and PMHNP columns but no AG-ACNP column, so for acute care students it is silent. Put the question of your state to the Program Director before any calls to hospitals. Once the answer is clear, start the search, and make sure your RN license covers the state where the hospital sits; see the RN license rule.
Campus time shapes the year as well. The MSN includes ten days on campus in Nashua and the certificate eight, so line up hospital schedules around those days once dates are confirmed. A critical care preceptor who knows your campus dates months ahead can build your shifts around them instead of losing a week, and your hours stay on pace for the semester.
How we build an AG-ACNP placement
Rivier acute care students work with us because we plan the whole sequence at once: a hospitalist MD or AG-ACNP for NURS 638P, then an intensivist or AG-ACNP in a critical care unit for NURS 639P and NURS 640P, all within reach of home. We ask each candidate how their shifts would carry 250 in-person hours, and we map any specialty time against the 90-hour allowance before you commit.
We pull together the preceptor's licensing documents and CV and the hospital details Rivier's contract needs, counting back from the fall and spring cutoffs. When a unit changes course mid-plan, the search for a replacement begins at once. Approval sits with Rivier's faculty and coordinator, and each acute care request reaches them complete and aligned with the Handbook.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can an emergency medicine physician precept a Rivier AG-ACNP student?
The Handbook lets an ICU or ER substitute for the hospitalist setting of Practicum I, so an emergency department can host that practicum when graduate faculty approve the site. For Practicums II and III, the Handbook's setting is critical care, supervised by a physician or intensivist or by an AG-ACNP, so ask course faculty before planning emergency department time in those courses.
Can a physician assistant precept Rivier AG-ACNP hours?
The Handbook names an MD or certified AG-ACNP for the hospitalist practicum, and an MD, intensivist or AG-ACNP for critical care. Physician assistants are not listed for this track. If a PA works on your unit, check with course faculty before counting any time that PA supervises.
Which semester does NURS 638P start?
The 2025-26 catalog offers NURS 638P Acute Care Practicum I in the fall, NURS 639P in the spring and NURS 640P in the fall. Practicum I follows NURS 631 and NURS 636, so your first hospitalist placement falls in a fall semester after the theory and skills-lab year.
How many clinical hours is Rivier's AG-ACNP?
Each of the three acute care practicums carries 250 directly supervised hours in the catalog, 750 across the track. A seminar runs alongside every practicum, and faculty keep watch over your logs and your preceptor's evaluations from start to finish.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against Rivier's own Nursing Student Handbook, program sheets, catalog, academic calendar and State Guide. Your program of study, your course faculty, your Program Director and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
Rivier asks you to identify a qualified preceptor. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Rivier track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who meet your track's rules, check early whether the site can contract with Rivier, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for, well ahead of August 1 and December 1.
- Preceptors matched to the track: an MD, DO or FNP in outpatient family practice for
NURS 511, a psychiatrist or PMH-certified NP forNURS 521, a hospitalist or intensivist forNURS 638P - Preceptor license, credentials and CV ready for the Preceptor Request Form, with the site's contact details for the contract
- In your own area, in New Hampshire or any state Rivier's State Guide accepts
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