Drexel On-Campus Intensives, track by track

On-Campus Intensive is Drexel's name for the in-person block built into the clinical portion of each online NP program. Drexel Online lists these programs as online with a residency requirement, and describes the intensives as on-campus and/or virtual and held during clinical courses. The catalog adds that they include simulation in CNHP's multidisciplinary patient simulation lab.

Because they sit inside clinical courses, OCIs overlap the quarters in which you are also logging preceptor hours. The catalog notes that dates are subject to change, so treat any date as provisional until your course confirms it.

Drexel lists each intensive under a course number rather than a fixed date. If your first clinical course moves to a later quarter, ask your track director whether your OCI moves with it, and protect the quarter that holds it.

The quarter catalog and Drexel Online pages list one or two intensives for each NP track. Certificate students attend the same intensives as the matching MSN.

Most first intensives open the first clinical course, which Drexel's sample plans place in Summer of year 2. Hours for each of those courses are on Drexel clinical hours by track.

Drexel's pages do not all describe OCIs the same way, and the gaps matter when you are arranging time off and clinic days.

• The general NP overview says OCIs happen one to two times during the clinical portion and last two to four days, yet the catalog lists five-day intensives for PNP acute care, PNP dual and WHNP.
• The CNHP page for the FNP with Emergency Specialization says two to four OCIs of two to three days, while that track's catalog lists a one-day and a two-day intensive.
• For the Emergency/Trauma NP certificate, Drexel Online lists one two-day OCI in NURS 673, while the CNHP page lists a three-day Simulation Experience in each of NURS 673, NURS 674 and NURS 675.

Where sources conflict, the schedule your track director gives your cohort is the one to follow. The emergency courses are covered on Drexel emergency NP clinical courses.

The Summer 2027 quarter shrinks to seven weeks, with classes from June 21 to August 7, 2027, to bridge into semesters starting August 23, 2027. In the quarter sample plans, the week-one summer intensives for FNP, AGPCNP, AGACNP, PMHNP, the PNP tracks and WHNP all fall in summer, and Drexel has not published how intensives or 160-hour courses fit the shorter term. Semester summers will run as a 12-week full term or 6-week part terms, a different shape from the 10-week quarter today's intensives were built around.

The 2027–28 semester catalog does not mention OCIs at all, so semester-era lengths and timing are unknown for now. If your first clinical course falls in Summer 2027 or later, ask your academic advisor for your individual transition plan and your track director for the intensive dates. The wider calendar change is covered on the semester conversion.

An intensive in week one means your preceptor may not see you until week two, and a 160-hour course then has fewer weeks to fill. Give your preceptor the OCI dates when you agree a schedule, and ask your course faculty whether intensive days count toward clinical hours, because Drexel's public pages do not say.

Mid-quarter intensives need the same care. The AGACNP block in week seven of fall and the WHNP block in week three of spring pull you away from the site in the middle of a practicum, so build a make-up day into the schedule before the quarter starts.

Plan the paperwork too. Your compliance clearance and site agreement have to be complete for the quarter that holds the intensive, so they cannot wait until you are back from campus. The Drexel clinical timeline walks through the months before a first clinical course.

Not every Drexel nursing program brings you to campus. The RN-to-BSN states that there are no on-campus requirements, and the MSN in Nursing Leadership says the same; its practicum asks instead that you declare your intent six months ahead, with the track director helping identify the site and preceptor. The post-master's DNP is fully online, with its practicum hours completed under a Practicum Mentor.

The MSN in Nursing Education has a mandatory intensive, but it is virtual: IPS 617 holds a three-day simulation intensive on Zoom in week three of the quarter, offered twice a year. Its 160 practicum hours run separately in NUPR 618 and NUPR 619.

For these programs the scheduling question is the practicum itself rather than travel. See RN-to-BSN clinical hours and DNP practicum hours.

We build the intensive into your placement from the first conversation. We ask for your track, your first clinical quarter and your OCI dates, then look for a preceptor whose clinic schedule can absorb a late start or a mid-quarter break without shorting your hours. If an OCI date moves after your placement is set, we rework the preceptor's calendar with you instead of restarting the search.

Everything Drexel's contracting and compliance teams need is assembled before you leave for campus: the preceptor's CV, license and board certification, and the site's contact for the affiliation agreement. Drexel signs off on the placement; our job is a package complete enough to clear on the first review, and we stay on call if your dates shift. Send your dates through the request form.