Rivier University's PMHNP practicums, course by course
Rivier University's Psychiatric-Mental Health NP track has three practicum-seminar courses, NURS 521, NURS 523 and NURS 525, each worth 5 credits and each carrying 250 supervised hours, 750 in all. The clinical work moves from triage and individual therapy, to group and family therapy, to complex cases, and you secure a qualified psychiatric preceptor for every one of them.
Plan all three PMHNP practicums
Tell us which practicum comes next and where you live.
Three courses, 250 hours inside each semester
Rivier's Nursing Student Handbook sets 250 supervised hours inside each PMHNP practicum semester, 750 across the track. Extra hours in one course cannot be carried into the next, and nothing logged ahead of the semester's opening day on Rivier's calendar counts. The 2026 program sheet and the 2025-26 catalog list the same three courses, each a practicum joined to a seminar.
| Course | Credits | Clinical focus | What must come first |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 521 Advanced Psychiatric Nurse Practicum/Seminar I | 5 | Triage, crisis intervention and individual therapy | NURS 507, NURS 502, NURS 516, NURS 517, NURS 518, NURS 602 and NURS 606; NURS 520 before or alongside |
NURS 523 Advanced Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Practicum/Seminar II | 5 | Milieu, group, family and couples therapy | NURS 520 and NURS 521; NURS 522 before or alongside |
NURS 525 Advanced Psychiatric Nurse Practicum/Seminar III | 5 | Complex assessment and therapy issues | NURS 522 and NURS 523 |
The chain is strict: each practicum needs the one before it. Rivier offers NURS 521 in fall and spring, and the catalog prints no term for the later two, so your Program of Studies is the document that fixes which semester each one lands in.
NURS 521: triage, crisis work and individual therapy
The first practicum is where you start working as a psychiatric NP student: triaging new presentations, stepping in during a crisis and carrying individual therapy cases under supervision. Before it you finish the core APRN courses listed above, with NURS 520 running alongside it or earlier.
Because the course centers on triage and crisis intervention, the setting matters as much as the credential. A site that sees intakes, urgent visits or crisis evaluations gives you the cases the course describes. Rivier's Handbook accepts any age group, inpatient or outpatient, so a crisis service, an inpatient psychiatric unit and a busy outpatient practice can each fit when the preceptor qualifies.
The credential and telehealth rules have their own page, PMHNP preceptor requirements. In brief, you need a psychiatrist or a PMH-certified nurse who has been in practice two years or longer.
NURS 523 and NURS 525: groups, families and complex cases
NURS 523 moves the work from one patient to several at once: milieu, group, family and couples therapy. It needs NURS 520 and NURS 521 complete, with NURS 522 taken first or in the same semester. Before you commit to a site, check that the practice actually runs groups or family sessions; a caseload made up only of solo medication visits can leave this course's group and family work uncovered.
NURS 525 closes the sequence with complex assessment and therapy issues, after NURS 522 and NURS 523. By then your first 500 hours show where your experience is thin. The Handbook strongly suggests experience across the lifespan, which makes the third semester a natural place to add the age group you have seen least.
Whether one preceptor carries you through all three courses or you change sites to widen the mix is worth settling with course faculty early. Graduate faculty approve every site, and each new site goes through the request and contract steps again.
The Handbook's course number misprint
Rivier's 2026-2027 Nursing Student Handbook names the PMHNP practicums two ways. On page 74, in the list of acceptable preceptors, it gives them as NURS512, 523 and 525. On page 76, under the PMHNP track heading, it gives NURS521, NURS523 and NURS525. The 2026 program sheet and the 2025-26 catalog both use NURS 521.
NURS 512 is a real course, but it belongs to the Family Nurse Practitioner track, where the program sheet lists it as FNP Theory II. Page 74 reads as a misprint. If any form, advising note or registration screen repeats 512 for your first psychiatric practicum, ask course faculty or the Program Director to confirm the number before you submit it.
The Handbook also mixes prefixes, writing NSG for some courses the sheets list as NURS. The numbers are what matter: NSG517 and NURS 517 are the same course.
Register for NURS 521, not 512. Page 74 of the Handbook misprints the first PMHNP practicum, and NURS 512 is FNP Theory II.
Cohort timing, campus weekends and the semester line
The PMHNP track runs online as a cohort, with three weekends on campus in Nashua across the program. Most courses last 14 weeks; NURS 517 and NURS 502 run seven. Rivier's 2026-27 calendar prints dates for the FNP intensives alone, so your weekend dates come from the program, and our campus intensives guide gathers what Rivier publishes.
Spread over a 14-week course, 250 hours comes to roughly 18 hours a week, and none of them can fall before the semester opens. Fall 2026 opens September 8; spring 2027 opens January 18, with 14-week classes starting January 19. The academic calendar page has the rest of the dates.
Start dates carry a small conflict of their own. The 2026 PMHNP sheet lists September, January and May starts, while the PMHNP program pages still show January 19, 2026 as the next start, a date already past. Which cohort you join is settled in your Program of Studies, with the Program Director.
Paperwork and deadlines before each practicum
Each of the three courses needs its own approved placement before any hour counts. Rivier asks you to secure it four months before the semester, with absolute cutoffs of August 1 (fall) and December 1 (spring); the placement deadlines guide explains those dates and the older May 1 and September 1 ones.
Your clinical requirements belong in CastleBranch four months ahead too, together with a current resume, the Student Information Sheet for Clinical Experience and an RN license valid where the practicum takes place. Finishing a practicum under 84% costs you your place in the track, so a preceptor with steady availability protects more than your hour count; grades and progression covers that rule.
The Clinical Practicum Coordinator confirms every document and contract before your first hour counts. Build in a margin: a request sent in the final week before a cutoff leaves no room if the site asks for one more item or the preceptor's paperwork arrives late.
How we build a Rivier PMHNP search
We plan all three PMHNP practicums together rather than one semester at a time. For NURS 521 we look for psychiatric preceptors whose settings see triage and crisis work; for NURS 523, practices that run groups or family sessions; for NURS 525, a caseload that fills the age groups you have not yet covered. Every preceptor meets the Handbook's credential and experience rules and practices in person near you, in a state the State Guide accepts for PMHNP students.
We assemble every document the Preceptor Request Form asks of your preceptor, keep a running count of telehealth hours against the 300-hour ceiling, and work to the four-month lead time. Each site still goes to graduate faculty and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator for the decision, and what they receive from us is complete and built to the PMHNP rules. If a preceptor steps away mid-semester, we start the replacement search right away. Tell us your next practicum with the form below.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can I get ahead by logging extra hours in NURS 521?
No. The Handbook requires 250 hours inside each PMHNP practicum semester and does not let extra hours carry forward. Anything above 250 in NURS 521 stays with that course, and NURS 523 still needs its own 250, counted from the first day of its semester. A steady weekly schedule works better than a front-loaded one.
Do PMHNP certificate students take all three Rivier practicums?
Rivier lists NURS 502, NURS 520, NURS 521, NURS 522, NURS 523 and NURS 525 as the minimum courses for the PMHNP post-master's certificate, which runs 19 to 43 credits over three to six semesters. Your earlier study sets the rest; see post-master's certificates.
How much of a Rivier PMHNP practicum can be telehealth?
No more than 300 of the 750 hours may be spent with a prescriber working by telehealth. Because the ceiling covers the whole track, heavy telehealth in NURS 521 leaves less room in the later courses. The remaining hours are in-person time with a qualifying psychiatric preceptor.
When does the first PMHNP practicum usually fall?
After the core APRN courses that are its prerequisites, and in a fall or spring semester, since those are the terms Rivier offers NURS 521. Rivier publishes no sample full-time or part-time plan, so the semester comes from your own Program of Studies; ask your academic advisor or Success Coach to confirm it early.
Can a PMHNP preceptor at my own workplace supervise me?
Rivier's Handbook publishes no rule on precepting at your own workplace, and it encourages students to suggest clinicians they know professionally. Graduate faculty decide whether a site is appropriate, so raise a workplace preceptor with course faculty early and keep a second option ready in case the answer is no.
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.