Rivier campus intensives: FNP, PMHNP and AG-ACNP time in Nashua
Rivier University's online NP tracks are low-residency. FNP students spend nine days on campus across three intensives, PMHNP students come for three weekends as a cohort, and AG-ACNP students spend ten days on campus (eight in the certificate). Of these, only the FNP intensives have dates on the 2026-27 academic calendar (August 24 through September 4, 2026, and January 4 through 15, 2027), and each ends before the semester opens and your practicum hours can start.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Rivier program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Rivier course.
Campus time by track
Each NP track sets its own campus requirement. Only the FNP intensives appear on the 2026-27 calendar; for the rest, your course faculty or the Program Director give the dates, so ask as soon as you register.
| Program | Campus time | Dates on the 2026-27 calendar |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | Nine days in three intensives (program page) | August 24 - September 4, 2026; January 4-15, 2027 |
| FNP post-master's certificate | Three intensives, nine days in total | The same FNP On-Campus Intensive entries |
| MSN PMHNP and PMHNP certificate | Three weekends, as a cohort | Not listed |
| MSN AG-ACNP | Ten days | Not listed |
| AG-ACNP post-master's certificate | Eight days | Not listed |
| DNP | One seminar each semester of NURS 895 in the 2025-26 catalog; the program page says Format: Online | Not listed |
| Nursing Education, Leadership, APRN Degree Completion | Fully online | None |
Is the FNP fully online? Rivier's documents disagree
The FNP's 2026 program sheet describes it as 100% online, with six seven-week terms a year. The FNP program page describes it as low-residency, with nine days on campus and 14-week courses, and the 2026-27 academic calendar lists Family Nurse Practitioner On-Campus Intensives before both fall and spring.
Two of the three sources put campus time into the plan, so budget for the trips unless the Program Director tells you otherwise, and check what your own Program of Studies shows. The DNP has a similar split: the program page says Format: Online, while the 2025-26 catalog asks for one on-campus seminar in each semester of NURS 895. DNP students should settle it with the Director of Doctoral Nursing Education before booking a year of trips. The FNP program guide covers the other places the FNP documents differ.
Where you will be: Sylvia Trottier Hall
Campus days center on the Nursing Simulation and Clinical Education Center, on the second level of Sylvia Trottier Hall at 420 South Main Street in Nashua. The 2025-26 catalog describes six simulation labs and assessment areas, two classrooms, a lecture hall, and nursing administration and faculty offices, with renovated teaching labs for fundamentals, clinical assessment, community nursing and telehealth simulation.
Rivier's 2022 announcement of the renovated center described rooms set up as medical-surgical, pediatric and neonatal hospital rooms, an obstetrics room, examination rooms and telehealth offices, with labs designated for advanced nurse practitioner training. The Handbook uses two names for the same space, the Nursing Simulation and Clinical Education Center and the Nursing Simulation and Clinical Learning Center, so expect either on a schedule.
What the Simulation Lab decides for graduate students
For graduate students, the Simulation Lab is where some high-stakes checks happen. The FNP's simulation check-offs, spread across NURS 511, NURS 513 and NURS 515, must be passed at 84% or better, and a third failed attempt in the first two courses ends the FNP track; the check-off guide explains the attempts and the remediation plan in the third.
The same lab hosts the re-entry assessment an FNP student takes when coming back from a leave, and the competency testing, passed at 84%, that readmission calls for. A student readmitted after withdrawing from a practicum also brings a clinical competency sheet with a score of at least 84%, good for 30 days. Arrive at an intensive having practiced the skills your course lists, because the campus days are short and the stakes are real.
Fitting the intensives around your practicum
Under the Handbook, no practicum hour may come before the semester's opening day on Rivier's calendar, and the FNP intensives wrap up just ahead of it. In fall 2026, the intensives close September 4 and 14-week graduate classes open September 8. In spring 2027, the intensives run January 4 to 15, the semester begins January 18 and 14-week classes start January 19.
With 250 hours to complete inside each FNP or PMHNP practicum semester, the first weeks count. The 250-hour guide explains why hours cannot be banked from one semester to the next.
- Get your datesTake the FNP dates from the calendar; ask faculty for PMHNP weekends, AG-ACNP days or a DNP seminar.
- Arrange time awayBook travel and time off from work before the practicum schedule fills your calendar.
- Tell your preceptor earlyShare the campus dates in the first conversation so clinical days start the week you are back.
- Keep the deadline in viewAugust 1 falls about three weeks before the fall intensive and December 1 about a month before January's, so the placement has to be settled before you travel.
The license question for on-campus days
Rivier's older 2018 practicum form tied the FNP's on-campus activities to a New Hampshire RN license and pointed to the state Board of Nursing as the reason. The state licensing office, OPLC, adds that a nurse holding a multistate license from a Nurse Licensure Compact state has no need for a second, New Hampshire-only license.
The current Handbook frames its license rule around the practicum state and is silent on campus days. Nurses with a single-state license issued elsewhere should put the question to the Program Director before the first intensive. Holding a New Hampshire license, or a compact multistate one, satisfies either reading. Sort this out early, since a new license application runs on the state's timeline rather than Rivier's. The RN license guide covers the practicum side.
Built around your campus dates
Intensive weeks are an easy place for a practicum plan to slip: the student is in Nashua, the preceptor is at home, and the first clinical week drifts. We plan the other way round. When we match you with a preceptor for NURS 511, NURS 521 or NURS 638P, we give the preceptor your campus dates from day one and set the first clinical days for the week you return.
The Preceptor Request Form package, with the preceptor's license, credentials and CV, is ready well before August 1 or December 1, so the placement is settled before you pack for Nashua. If a preceptor's calendar shifts around your campus dates, we stay on call to rework the plan or line up a replacement, keeping the semester's 250 hours within reach.
Questions Rivier students ask
How many times do Rivier FNP students go to campus?
The FNP program page and the certificate page describe three intensives totaling nine days. On the 2026-27 academic calendar, the FNP On-Campus Intensives run August 24 through September 4, 2026 and January 4 through 15, 2027. The 2026 program sheet calls the FNP 100% online, so confirm your own campus schedule with the Program Director.
When are the Rivier PMHNP campus weekends?
The PMHNP program page describes three weekends on campus, run as a cohort, but the 2026-27 academic calendar lists dates only for the FNP intensives. Ask your course faculty or the Program Director for the weekend dates as soon as you register, and share them with your practicum preceptor before the schedule is built.
Can I log practicum hours during an intensive?
No practicum hour may be logged ahead of the semester's opening day, and both 2026-27 FNP intensives finish before their semester starts. That means your fall or spring practicum hours begin after the campus days, from September 8 in fall 2026 and from the start of the spring semester in January 2027.
Do AG-ACNP students come to Rivier's campus?
Yes. The AG-ACNP MSN program page lists ten days on campus, and the AG-ACNP post-master's certificate lists eight. The calendar does not date these days, so get them from your course faculty or the Program Director. Your acute care practicums themselves take place at your own approved sites.
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
Start your placement plan
Track, city and semester is all we need to begin.