Behind on clinical hours in an EKU course: how to catch up
Tell your clinical faculty now, while the gap is still small: EKU's rules are built around early notice. Most students catch up by adding clinic days with their preceptor, or with a second approved preceptor, inside the course dates. If that cannot close the gap, the graduate catalog has In Progress and Incomplete grades your faculty can use when a course cannot be finished on time.
Need more clinic days before your course ends?
Tell us your EKU course, the hours still owed and the course end date. Your placement advisor looks for added days or a second preceptor near you.
Know the hours you owe
For FNP students, EKU's program page sets a total of 750 direct patient care hours and describes the final 300 as synthesis hours. The split between courses, the PMHNP total and the credit-to-clock-hour ratio for NSC 800 are not public, so the target for the course you are in is whatever your syllabus and faculty set. DNP students document at least 1,000 post-BSN clinical hours, and admission decides how many of those fall at EKU. The clinical hours guide compares every program.
Measure the gap in clinic days rather than hours. Divide the hours still owed by the length of a typical clinic day, then count the clinic days left before the course ends. If the answer does not fit your preceptor's schedule, you need more days, a second site or a conversation with faculty about more time.
EKU's attendance rules
Regular attendance at scheduled clinical experiences is a requirement in the 2021-22 MSN Student Handbook, the newest edition still readable, in an archived copy. When you will miss a clinical day, your preceptor and your clinical faculty both need to hear from you at least an hour before the day begins; skipping that notice can cost you the clinical component of the course.
Past two missed clinical experiences, the handbook leaves failure to the clinical instructor's judgment, and repeated lateness can end the same way. The chair hears appeals of absence decisions and has the final word. Confirm the current wording in your course, and see the attendance guide for the rule in depth.
Missed days and missing hours are two different problems. The missed-day limit is a line to stay under; owed hours can be made up only in ways your faculty approves.
Making time up with your preceptor
- Map the gapWrite down the hours owed, the clinic days left in the course and the days your preceptor has open.
- Ask your preceptor for added daysOffer full days, other weekdays or a longer block, and keep every added day inside the course dates. According to the archived handbook, the liability insurance students buy through EKU applies only to clinical time within a scheduled class.
- Get the plan approvedSend the revised schedule to your clinical faculty and get a written yes before the new days begin. The approval also protects those hours when you log them.
- Add a second preceptor if one is not enoughA second preceptor in the same specialty can carry some of the days. Any new preceptor or site goes through EKU's review first, starting with updated preceptor information.
- Log hours the same dayRecord each day in whatever system your course uses. DNP students log every experience, with its date, time and tie to the DNP Essentials, in the DNP Experience Log.
In Progress, Incomplete and withdrawal
If the hours will not fit before the course closes, two catalog grades can buy time. In Progress (IP) is reserved for approved courses such as practicums, and an IP earned in a practicum or internship has to be completed by the end of that calendar year or it converts to NC. Incomplete (I) is for extenuating circumstances only: ask for it before classes end, and expect it only if you have already done at least 60% of the course satisfactorily.
An Incomplete also needs paperwork, an Incomplete Grade Agreement signed by you, your faculty member, the chair and the dean. The Registrar has to receive it no more than 15 university business days after grades are due, or the I turns into an F. The outer limit is the end of the following regular semester, plus a single one-semester extension if you ask before time runs out. Your faculty decides which route, if any, fits.
Withdrawal is the costly route. Under the archived MSN handbook, dropping a required MSN course means leaving the MSN program and applying for readmission, and practicum courses need a satisfactory grade, with an Unsatisfactory tied to dismissal. The grades and progression guide explains both.
What to raise with your faculty
- The hours you have logged so far and the exact number still owed for this course.
- Why the gap opened: missed days, a preceptor's reduced schedule, a site delay or a preceptor who left.
- Your plan, with dates: added days with your current preceptor, a second preceptor, or both.
- Whether telehealth time counts. EKU's FNP Telehealth Checklist exists, but its rules are not public.
- Whether an IP or I grade is possible if the plan falls short, and what its deadlines would be.
- How the plan affects the next course, since the
NSC 876FNP Internship requires eight hours ofNSC 800and theNSC 886PMHNP Internship listsNSC 800hours as a prerequisite too.
How we help you catch up
Catching up usually takes more clinic days than one preceptor can spare. Your placement advisor finds a second preceptor near you in the same specialty, or a replacement if your preceptor has stepped away, and prepares the details EKU reviews so the new days can begin as soon as EKU approves them. A preceptor found now can also become a strong option for the internship that follows, NSC 876 or NSC 886, so the catch-up work pays off twice.
We fit the new schedule to your course end date and your work shifts, so the plan you bring to faculty is realistic from its first week. Start with the form below, and if you need a whole new placement, read no preceptor yet.
Questions EKU students ask
How many clinical days can I miss in an EKU NP course?
EKU's archived 2021-22 MSN handbook puts students who miss more than two clinical experiences at risk of failure, at the clinical instructor's discretion, and requires notice at least one hour ahead of any absence. Treat two as a ceiling rather than an allowance, and check your current syllabus, since the handbook is no longer posted.
Can I make up EKU clinical hours after the semester ends?
Only through an arrangement your faculty approves, for example an In Progress grade on a practicum, which runs out when the calendar year ends. The archived handbook limits EKU's liability coverage to clinicals that belong to a scheduled class, so ask how any extension is enrolled before you book days with your preceptor.
Do hours at my regular job count toward EKU clinical hours?
EKU's public pages do not say whether time at your own job can count, and its handbook rules for workplace clinicals are not online. Hours belong to a clinical course with a preceptor and site EKU has approved, so ask your faculty before counting any workplace time. The workplace clinicals guide covers what EKU has said.
What if my preceptor cancels days or leaves mid-course?
Tell your clinical faculty the same day and keep a record of the lost days. Under Kentucky's rule EKU secures its NP students' preceptors, so ask what the course can arrange, and share any replacement you can propose through the preceptor information form. Your placement advisor can line up a replacement option quickly.
Will falling behind on hours affect my EKU grade?
It can. EKU's practicum and internship courses require a satisfactory grade, and the archived MSN handbook ties an Unsatisfactory to dismissal from the program. How a shortfall is handled in your course is your faculty's call, which is why a written catch-up plan, agreed early, is the strongest position to be in.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against EKU's own catalog, program pages and handbooks, and Kentucky's regulations. The current MSN Student Handbook, your course and your faculty have the final word.
EKU secures your preceptor. Your input decides how well it fits your life.
Tell us your EKU program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors in your community who fit the course and prepare everything EKU reviews, so the option you put forward is ready to approve.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family primary care for
NSC 800andNSC 876, psychiatric care forNSC 886 - Preceptor, license and site details organized for EKU's preceptor information form
- In your own community, wherever EKU enrolls students and you hold your RN license
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.