NURS 513 FNP Practicum II and Seminar at Rivier
NURS 513 moves Rivier University FNP students from adult primary care to childbearing families, infants, children and adolescents. It is the one FNP practicum where the 2025-26 catalog and the Nursing Student Handbook agree on 250 hours, and the first where the Handbook lets some time count in urgent care or, when family practice is unavailable, in a pediatric, OB or women's health office.
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.
What NURS 513 covers and what comes first
In the 2025-26 catalog, FNP Practicum II and Seminar is worth 5 credits and centers on childbearing families, infants, children and adolescents. Its prerequisite is NURS 512, the second FNP theory course, and it follows NURS 511 in the practicum sequence. Because NURS 515 needs both NURS 512 and NURS 513, Practicum II is also the course that keeps your final practicum on schedule.
Across the whole FNP track, the Handbook's placement list spans primary care, long-term care, pediatric and women's health settings, and this course's patient focus is where the pediatric and women's health pieces fit. Seminar topics and course assignments come from your course faculty.
250 hours, with the catalog and Handbook in agreement
Both of Rivier's documents give NURS 513 250 clinical hours, so this course's own number is settled. The disagreement lives in the other two practicums: the catalog lists 120 hours for NURS 511 and 240 for NURS 515, making a 610-hour program against the Handbook's 750. The clinical hours overview shows what that means across every track.
The Handbook's timing rules still shape this semester. All 250 hours fall inside the Practicum II semester, none can start before its first day, and surplus hours do not roll forward into Practicum III. If your preceptor's schedule can only support part of the load, raise it with your course faculty before the semester starts, not halfway through.
Who can precept Practicum II
Rivier's first choice is the same as in Practicum I: an MD, DO or FNP working out of an outpatient family practice, with a minimum of two years in practice. A family practice that sees children and pregnant patients along with adults can cover the course's full focus under one preceptor. Whether a given office suits this course is ultimately a faculty decision, so share its patient mix with your course faculty before you commit.
If you cannot find primary care, the Handbook lets Practicum II run in pediatrics, obstetrics or a women's health practice instead. A PA may fill in on days your preceptor is away, though a PA is never the preceptor of record. The qualifications for all three FNP courses are in the FNP preceptor requirements guide.
Patient volume and the urgent care option
Rivier's suggested caseload in NSG513 is six to eight patients across an eight-hour day, a step up from Practicum I. Ask a prospective site how many pediatric and prenatal visits a typical day brings, since the course focus depends on them.
NSG513 is also the first course where approved alternative-setting hours can apply. The Handbook names urgent care as an alternative in NSG513 or NSG515, within a program-wide limit of 120 FNP hours in alternative settings. Urgent care time used here comes out of the same 120 you might want later for cardiology, endocrinology, pulmonology or telehealth in NURS 515, so plan the split across both courses. You and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, together with the Program Director, work each request through to approval; the steps are in alternative practicum hours.
Urgent care hours here and any alternative hours in NURS 515 share a single 120-hour allowance across the FNP program.
When NURS 512 or a check-off holds you back
Because NURS 512 is the gate to Practicum II, a grade below B there pauses your progress. The Handbook has you repeat the theory course before moving on and offers two paths: keep 80 clinical hours going during the repeat to stay sharp, knowing they will not count toward later practicums, or pause clinical work entirely and pass a skills check-off right before returning to the sequence.
NURS 513 also has its own FNP simulation check-off with an 84% pass mark, and missing it three times ends your FNP track enrollment. Attempts and re-entry assessments are covered in the check-offs guide, and the wider rules in grades and progression. If you withdraw from a course rather than repeat it, you have 14 days to reach the Program Director about a revised Program of Studies, and the new plan may move your practicum term.
What to confirm with your NURS 513 faculty
- Whether one family practice can cover the pediatric and childbearing focus, or whether faculty want time in a pediatric or women's health office as well.
- Whether hours may be split between two sites in the same semester.
- How many urgent care hours, if any, they will approve for this course, and what that leaves in your alternative-hour balance for
NURS 515. - Whether a pelvic-exam informed consent form applies to your experiences; the Handbook says graduate FNP consent forms are kept in Canvas.
- The date and format of the NSG513 simulation check-off.
- What your preceptor will be asked to complete at the end of the semester.
- Whether your preceptor must see the pediatric and prenatal patients with you directly, or whether another clinician in the practice may supervise those visits.
How we line up Practicum II
Your placement advisor looks first for a family practice near you that sees infants, children, adolescents and prenatal patients, so one Rivier-qualified preceptor can carry the whole course. Where that is not possible, we source pediatric and women's health practices that fit the Handbook's fallback and put them in front of your faculty as options.
We confirm the preceptor can host 250 hours at a 6-to-8-patient pace inside your semester, gather the license, credentials and CV Rivier asks for, and time everything to the placement deadlines. If an urgent care block makes sense, we fit it inside your alternative-hour budget, and if your preceptor leaves mid-course, a new one who fits Practicum II's rules is lined up quickly. Tell us your semester in the form below.
Questions Rivier students ask
Does NURS 513 require a pediatric preceptor?
Not necessarily. For every FNP practicum, Rivier starts from the same preferred preceptor, an MD, DO or FNP with two years of experience in an outpatient family practice. Pediatric, obstetric and women's health offices are the Handbook's fallback for this course when no primary care site is available. Ask your faculty whether your site's patient mix covers the course focus.
What is the prerequisite for NURS 513 at Rivier?
NURS 512, the second FNP theory course, according to the 2025-26 catalog, and you complete NURS 511 before it in the practicum sequence. NURS 515 later requires both NURS 512 and NURS 513, so a delay in Practicum II pushes back your final practicum as well.
Can I use telehealth hours in NURS 513?
Telehealth appears in the Handbook's alternative-setting list for NSG515 alone. For NURS 513, the one alternative it names is urgent care, and that time comes out of the program's 120-hour alternative limit. Clear any request with the Program Director and the coordinator before scheduling those hours.
What happens if my NURS 513 preceptor drops out?
Alert your course faculty and the coordinator the same day, because a new preceptor has to be approved and the site contracted before new hours count. Hours cannot shift to a later course, so speed matters. The preceptor dropped out page walks through next steps, and we can source a replacement.
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.