AGACNP Practice I to III: acute care clinicals on hospital timelines
Augusta University's DNP-AGACNP track places three practice courses, NURS 8332, NURS 8335 and NURS 8338, ahead of the final practicum, which by our count comes to 600 clinical and 90 lab hours. Nearly every acute care placement runs through a hospital's own onboarding, with request windows that close months before the term. We plan each course against those calendars and find an acute care preceptor in Georgia or South Carolina who fits it, whatever part your program takes in arranging clinicals.
Start your acute care search early
Tell us which AGACNP course is next and where you live; hospital lead times make early better.
The AGACNP sequence at a glance
Full-time students take the three courses in consecutive terms from the spring of year two, then close with NURS 9192 in the spring of year three, covered in the final practicum guide. Each course sits beside a didactic partner in the same term. Part-time students follow a four-year plan with identical totals, 77 credits with 840 clinical, 180 lab and 360 residency hours, spread across more semesters.
| Course | Term | Clinical hours | Lab hours | Catalog wording | Taken with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 8332 Practice I | Spring, year 2 | 180 | 45 | Corequisite printed as NURS 8331 | NURS 8331 |
NURS 8335 Practice II | Summer, year 2 | 180 | 45 | Adults and older adults with complex urgent and emergent health care needs | NURS 8334 |
NURS 8338 Practice III | Fall, year 3 | 240 | none | Adults with complex and rapidly changing health care needs | NURS 8337 |
Read the catalog entry and your syllabus for Practice I's population focus, and ask your course faculty which patient mix they expect in that first term. From Practice II to Practice III the escalation is plain: first urgent and emergent presentations, then patients whose condition shifts quickly. The 840-hour page shows how these hours combine with the final practicum and 360 residency hours.
Why acute care placements run on hospital calendars
An outpatient practice can often say yes within weeks. A hospital usually needs an active agreement with the school, a student account in its onboarding system and a finished compliance file before your first shift, and many post request windows well ahead of each term. In Georgia, most large systems use ACEMAPP for this.
The table lines up the windows four systems publish against the three AGACNP terms, as read in September 2026. Systems revise these each term, so treat them as a planning guide and recheck before you apply.
| System and source | Spring (Practice I) | Summer (Practice II) | Fall (Practice III) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wellstar, its ACEMAPP student page | Apply by Nov. 15 | Apply by March 30 | Apply by June 30 |
| Piedmont, archived orientation page | Request Aug. 1-31 | Request Feb. 1-28 | Request April 1-30 |
| Atrium Health Floyd, its APP page | Apply July 1 to Oct. 1 | Apply Nov. 1 to Feb. 1 | Apply March 1 to May 31 |
| Northside, its APP page | Compliant 30 days before start; 60 suggested for January | Compliant 30 days before start | Compliant 30 days before start |
Our suggestion: begin acute care paperwork a full term before the course. For summer's NURS 8335, that means working on it during the winter, while Practice I is still underway.
Acute care settings in Georgia
Near campus, Wellstar MCG Health, formerly AU Health, is the university's academic health system; the Medical College of Georgia's surgery pages describe it as a 520-bed tertiary hospital with a Level I trauma center. Wellstar's ACEMAPP pages list AGACNP among the advanced practice programs they accept, ask students not to contact them before decision dates, and note that rotations depend on preceptor availability and specialty. Piedmont Augusta, the former University Hospital, sits beside the Health Sciences campus; the MCG page counts 581 beds there, while a search summary of Piedmont's fact sheet gives 812 across two campuses.
Farther out, Atrium Health Floyd in Rome is not signing new school agreements, yet its active agreement list shows Augusta University for PA and NP students; it also asks applicants not to call its physicians or APPs. Northside in metro Atlanta requires NP students to be precepted by an NP or a physician, one student per preceptor, with a signed sponsoring physician agreement. Emory Healthcare sends every precepted request through one central office and honors no arrangement made outside it.
Acute care settings in South Carolina
South Carolina's large systems publish less for NP students from out-of-state schools. According to an archived copy of its graduate nursing page, Prisma Health considers only its own team members with a year of service or Clemson and University of South Carolina students, and adds new school agreements only for a specific workforce need. We found no page for outside NP students at MUSC Health, Lexington Health or Aiken Regional Medical Centers.
Self Regional Healthcare in Greenwood, about 60 driving miles from Augusta, takes placement requests on a form the school submits two to three weeks before the start, and its onboarding policy marks NP requests "Must find provider." Aiken and North Augusta sit inside the Augusta metro area, so hospitalist groups and specialty practices on that side of the Savannah River stay within easy reach for faculty visits. The Midlands guide covers the counties next to Augusta.
Matching a preceptor to each AGACNP course
These pairings are our suggestions. Augusta University does not publish setting rules for its AGACNP courses, so confirm each with your course faculty.
NURS 8332: an inpatient medicine or hospitalist service where you follow admitted adults through a stay, a steady base for a first acute care term.NURS 8335: an emergency department, observation unit or rapid response team, matching the catalog's urgent and emergent wording, with older adults well represented.NURS 8338: an intensive care or step-down unit, or a specialty inpatient service such as cardiology or pulmonology, where plans change within a day.
Georgia expects APRN clinical instruction to come from a nurse with Georgia APRN authorization, and hospitals layer on their own rules, such as Northside's NP-to-NP precepting. The preceptor requirements guide covers both states.
Hospital onboarding: what to have ready
A hospital checks your Augusta University compliance file and then adds its own layer. Expect to satisfy both before the first shift.
- Augusta University's list: in-person American Heart Association BLS, TB screening, the annual flu vaccine, liability and health insurance, and mask fit testing where the placement requires it. See compliance requirements.
- Repeat screening: College of Nursing policy expects DNP students to complete several background checks and drug screens during the program, and each clinical agency decides independently on the results.
- Hospital vendors: Wellstar, Piedmont, Northside and Atrium Health Floyd run background checks through Advantage Students, according to their student pages; Piedmont repeats them every 18 months.
- Wellstar extras: fit testing and hand hygiene check-offs before arrival for rotations from summer 2026, and proof of flu vaccine for rotations between Oct. 1 and March 31.
- Per-rotation paperwork: Piedmont wants a new Student Participation Agreement for every rotation, and Northside a signed sponsoring physician agreement.
We track each hospital's window and file for you course by course. Start with the placement form.
Questions Augusta University students ask
Does AGACNP Practice II include lab hours?
Yes. The Fall 2026 plan writes NURS 8335 as 0-1-3-4, one lab credit worth 45 hours on top of 180 clinical hours. In the FNP, PNP and PMHNP plans, Practice II carries clinical credits only, which is why the AGACNP plan totals 180 lab hours against 135 in the other three tracks.
Can AGACNP clinical hours be done in an outpatient clinic?
Augusta University publishes no setting rule for these courses. The catalog wording for NURS 8335 and NURS 8338, urgent and emergent needs and rapidly changing needs, points toward hospital units. The certificate page's mention of ambulatory practices sits oddly beside an acute care specialty, so ask your course faculty before counting any clinic hours.
Can a physician precept an Augusta University AGACNP student?
Augusta University does not publish preceptor qualifications. Georgia's Board of Nursing says APRN clinical instruction must come from a nurse with Georgia APRN authorization, while Northside, for one, lets a physician precept any discipline. Ask your course faculty how they apply these before you settle on a physician preceptor for a course.
Does the AGACNP certificate use the same practice courses?
No. Certificate students take NURS 8333, NURS 8370 and NURS 8371, which total 540 clinical and 90 lab hours in the certificate plan, and a gap analysis can raise the clinical total as high as 750. The AGACNP certificate guide covers that path and its spring start.
Do AGACNP students attend MEGAI?
Yes. Augusta University names AGACNP students, with FNP and PNP students, for MEGAI, its multi-day campus skills intensive. The published skill list includes ultrasound, suturing and joint injections, all useful in hospital settings. Dates and length are not posted, so ask your course faculty and plan clinical days around it once dates arrive.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Augusta University's own catalog, program plans, DNP handbook and program pages, and Georgia and South Carolina rules. Your course faculty and the College of Nursing have the final word.
Whatever your program arranges, we find the preceptor who fits.
Tell us your Augusta University track, where in Georgia or South Carolina you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and Augusta University's rules, and hand you everything your faculty and the site need, well before the semester.
- Adult, pediatric and older-adult preceptors for
NURS 8312toNURS 8318, acute care forNURS 8332toNURS 8338 - Pediatric primary care for the PNP courses and psychiatric preceptors for
NURS 8342toNURS 8348 - Across Georgia and South Carolina, from the CSRA to Savannah, Atlanta and Columbia
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