Sacred Heart University's online MSN PMHNP: practicums and preceptors
The online MSN Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner track at Sacred Heart University is 42 credits, with 540 supervised hours split evenly across NU 571, NU 572 and NU 573. At least 100 of the NU 572 hours must be with patients under 18, and that one rule shapes the whole search. You identify each site and preceptor; we find behavioral health preceptors who fit each course and prepare the approval packet.
Plan your PMHNP practicums
Tell us which practicum comes next and where you live.
How the PMHNP plan is built
The first stretch looks like the FNP's: the 9-credit core (NU 501, NU 530, NU 603) and four foundation courses in family and community context (NU 550), advanced pharmacology (NU 551), advanced health assessment (NU 552) and advanced pathophysiology (NU 566). The track then turns to psychiatry with NU 509 Advanced Psychopharmacology for the PMHNP, followed by three 6-credit practicum courses. The capstone lives inside NU 573, and the track prepares you for the ANCC PMHNP exam.
Expect about 2.5 years, with a single fall start each year. Admission requires a BSN with a 3.0 GPA and an RN license. SHU Online pages describe the PMHNP as a program for RNs with a BSN and two years of experience, while the catalog's MSN admission list names no minimum years, so ask admissions which reading applies to you.
The three practicum courses
Each practicum carries 180 hours and a distinct patient focus. Plan them as a sequence, because the preceptor who suits NU 571 is often a poor fit for NU 572.
| Course | Hours | Population and focus | Settings to target |
|---|---|---|---|
NU 571 Role Development for the PMHNP I | 180 | The lifespan, weighted toward late adolescence through adulthood; assessment, diagnosis, medication and psychotherapy for adults | Adult outpatient psychiatry, community mental health centers |
NU 572 PMHNP II: Care of Children and Families | 180, of which 100 or more with patients under 18 | Children, adolescents and their families; crisis intervention and psychiatric emergencies | Child and adolescent psychiatry, family-focused behavioral health |
NU 573 PMHNP III: The PMHNP in Complex Systems | 180 | Older adults, couples and families; co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions; growing independence | Integrated care, geriatric psychiatry, programs treating medical comorbidity |
The SHU Online site gives the same three courses longer titles; credits and hours match. All three require NU 509 and the foundation courses, and NU 572 and NU 573 both list NU 571 as a prerequisite. The settings column is our planning advice; approval rests with Sacred Heart.
The 540 hours and the under-18 rule
The catalog, the 2026-27 student guide and the program page agree on 540 clinical hours, 180 per course. The catalog adds 10 lab hours, completed during the first residency. The single population rule with a number attached sits in NU 572: a minimum of 100 of its hours goes to patients under age 18.
That rule narrows the search more than any other. An adult practice that sees the occasional teenager is unlikely to supply 100 pediatric hours within one course, so NU 572 generally calls for a preceptor whose caseload is mostly children and adolescents, or a site that pairs a youth service with family work. Ask course faculty how the pediatric hours are logged in E*Value before you begin. The PMHNP clinical hours page shows the full breakdown.
Timing: published deadlines, not week 10
PMHNP placement dates run on a different clock from the FNP's week-10 rule. The student guide ties each placement to "the published deadline created by the Clinical Placement Team", and those dates are not public. Check the Grad Cert: Psych Mental Hlth Nurse Prac Clinical Requirements organization in Blackboard, which holds the process details, and ask your academic advisor for the current date. The deadline page compares both systems.
- Week 10 of NU 552Full compliance in your Health Account is due, and it holds through the end of the program.
- Before the Clinical Placement Team's dateSite and preceptor identified and approved by your academic advisor; resume, license and board certification sent to the MSN Online NP Programs Clinical Coordinator.
- Partnering health system reviewA preceptor employed by one of Sacred Heart's partnering health systems needs that system's sign-off first; Sacred Heart's approval waits for it.
- MSN PMHNP Contract Request FormFiled once the coordinator approves by email. A site new to Sacred Heart needs an affiliation agreement, and Sacred Heart allows up to nine months to finalize one.
- Registration and clearanceYou register only with an approved site and preceptor, and you attend only after the Cleared for Clinical email.
Where PMHNP students lose a term: assuming the FNP's week-10 rhythm applies to them. Ask for the Clinical Placement Team's date as soon as each course opens.
Who can precept a PMHNP student
Sacred Heart's sources list PMHNP credentials differently, so check before you ask anyone. The 2026-27 student guide names MD, DO or APRN, with board certification where appropriate. An archived PMHNP preceptor portal also named psychiatry-board-certified physicians, licensed clinical social workers, licensed mental health counselors and clinical psychologists, each with a year or more of psychiatric mental health experience. The current PMHNP inquiry form lists PMHNP, psychiatry-board-certified MD or DO, LCSW with an MSW and LMHC, with no psychologist option.
A PMHNP or a psychiatry-board-certified physician is the clearest fit with the guide, and any therapist-level preceptor is worth clearing with the MSN Online NP Programs Clinical Coordinator first. The guide bars immediate relatives and spouses, along with anyone whose conflict of interest is evident. The preceptor requirements page sets every track side by side.
Where you can train
Hours take place in person, with telehealth only occasionally and at your preceptor's direction, in behavioral health settings you secure. Two state rules come first. On Sacred Heart's licensure disclosure table, Washington reads "No" for the PMHNP though "Yes" for the FNP, and the PMHNP shares every place on the FNP's "No" list: Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Louisiana, Oregon and the territories. Compare the disclosure table with your state before you enroll. New York is closed to NP clinical hours entirely; residents cross into a neighboring state and train on that state's RN license (see the New York clinical rule).
Hold an active, unencumbered RN license for each state you train in. A Connecticut site adds one more item: the Connecticut Hospital Association Health & Safety Test, with 85 as the passing score.
Residencies in Fairfield
The catalog uses the FNP's wording for the PMHNP as well: a yearly daylong residency in one paragraph, two onsite competency residencies plus a virtual orientation in another. The PMHNP program page simply mentions in-person residencies. The SHU Online FAQ's detailed schedule, with residencies during NU 552 and NU 621, is written for the FNP, so ask course faculty which courses host yours.
Pass/fail grading applies, and a failed residency means a failed clinical course. The catalog's 10 lab hours happen at the first residency. Sacred Heart posts no residency calendar on its public pages, so once your cohort's dates arrive, block them and warn your preceptor right away so clinic days stay clear. The residencies page compares every program.
Why Sacred Heart PMHNP students choose us
PMHNP students choose us because we plan Sacred Heart's three practicums as one sequence, with the thoroughness the under-18 rule demands.
- An adult-focused psychiatric preceptor for
NU 571, a child and adolescent preceptor who can deliver the 100 under-18 hours inNU 572, and a complex-systems setting forNU 573. - Credentials matched to the student guide's list first, so the NP clinical coordinator sees a preceptor who fits.
- The approval packet assembled: current resume, license and board certification.
- The site's contract contact collected for the MSN PMHNP Contract Request Form, giving the Clinical Contract & Compliance Coordinator an early start.
- Every site in a PMHNP "Yes" state, New York excluded.
- The Clinical Placement Team's dates on our calendar, and a fresh search the moment a preceptor pulls out.
Approval and contracts stay with Sacred Heart; our job is a complete, rule-ready file on the first submission. Use the form below to begin.
Questions Sacred Heart students ask
Does NU 509 include clinical hours?
No clinical hours are listed for NU 509 Advanced Psychopharmacology for the PMHNP. It is a 3-credit course that must come before NU 571, and like the other NP courses it carries Sacred Heart's exam rule: if your weighted exam average falls below 75, that average becomes the course grade. Use the weeks of NU 509 to line up your first practicum.
Which academic calendar does the MSN PMHNP follow?
Sacred Heart's registrar publishes several 2026-27 graduate calendars, and none of them names the MSN PMHNP. NP courses are described elsewhere as 15 to 16 weeks long. For exact term dates and withdrawal deadlines, check your course site and ask your academic advisor, then build the preceptor schedule around those dates.
Can I do PMHNP hours on the unit where I work as an RN?
Sacred Heart reviews it case by case. The Contract Request Form covers both your employment at the site and any working tie to the proposed preceptor. The guides state no written NP rule on training in your own unit, so ask your academic advisor early. The workplace clinicals page covers how to frame the request.
What grade does a PMHNP practicum course require?
The minimum passing grade in every MSN course is a B- (80), and the clinical practicum must be passed on its own: failing it fails the course, and failing a clinical practice component brings an F and dismissal. Passing also requires completing the required hours, so an hour shortfall is a grade problem, not only a scheduling one.
Does Sacred Heart recruit PMHNP preceptors itself?
Its preceptor portal carries a PMHNP inquiry form for clinicians interested in precepting. That sits alongside the student guide's rule that PMHNP students identify their own sites. If a clinician you approach wants to know what precepting involves, our page for preceptors explains it.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Sacred Heart's own catalog, program pages and 2026-27 student guides. Your student guide, your academic advisor and your course faculty have the final word.
- Sacred Heart University, Online MSN: PMHNP program page
- Sacred Heart University, MSN and Post-MSN Certificate Online Student Guide 2026-27
- Sacred Heart University 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, NU 572
- Sacred Heart University 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, Master of Science in Nursing
- Sacred Heart University, State Authorization, Disclosures and Student Complaints
Sacred Heart asks you to secure your clinical placement. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Sacred Heart program, your city and your next clinical course. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare what your advisor, the NP clinical coordinator and the Contract Request Form ask for, early enough for the affiliation agreement.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care of adults, women and children for FNP, psychiatric care across the lifespan for PMHNP
- Preceptor CV, license, board certification and the site's contract contact ready before your week-10 deadline
- Close to home in any state where Sacred Heart's program meets licensure requirements, with New York's rule planned around
Start your placement plan
Program, city and clinical start is all we need to begin.