Preceptors for Drexel's online PMHNP

Drexel runs the PMHNP as a part-time online MSN with an on-campus residency, and expects most students to need three years. On the current quarter system it carries 52.0 credits and 640 clinical hours; the Fall 2027 semester edition carries 43.0 credits. The two admission windows are Winter 2027, opening January 4, and Fall 2027, opening August 23. Applicants need at least a year of psychiatric nursing.

Drexel's PMHNP page adds a mandatory online orientation to the clinical course requirements, held several months before clinicals begin. Every NP student also takes NUPR 520, the Nurse Practitioner Clinical Orientation Seminar, which introduces the contracting and compliance processes; the NUPR 520 page explains its timing. Your first clinical quarter, NURS 592, starts with four days on campus during summer's opening week.

Drexel cannot presently accept PMHNP applicants from Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Louisiana or Alabama, and no clinical hour may be completed in New York State. Washington's commission approval includes the PMHNP MSN.

The catalog states 640 hours for the track without splitting them by course, so 160 per course below is the total divided by four. Drexel PMHNP clinical courses has the full titles, descriptions and prerequisites, including the psychiatric pharmacology course NURS 555.

The order matters for planning. The adult psychiatric preceptor who carries you through NURS 592 and NURS 593 may not see anyone under 18, and NURS 595 asks for real psychotherapy exposure, not only medication management visits.

Two of the three credentials on Drexel's preceptor list fit psychiatry: the psychiatric-mental health NP and the psychiatrist, a physician in an approved specialty. The third, the certified nurse midwife, belongs to other tracks. Whoever supervises you needs state licensure and certification, active board certification and a minimum of one year in practice, and forwards a CV with credential proof to Drexel.

Clinicians who often lead therapy groups, such as psychologists, licensed counselors and clinical social workers, are not on Drexel's list, and neither are physician assistants. They can still enrich a site, but the hours you log need an eligible preceptor, the one who evaluates you at midterm and final and signs off your hours in E*Value.

Drexel does not publish a settings list for the PMHNP, and it publishes no telehealth rule. Psychiatric visits are often held by video, so before you count any telehealth hours, get your track director's answer in writing. The general standards live on Drexel preceptor requirements.

Demand outruns supply. WellSpan Health, in south-central Pennsylvania, says it is limiting spots for PMHNP students and gives priority to its own employees. UPMC's advanced practice office will not assist with placements in psychiatry.

The child and adolescent quarter is usually the tightest. NURS 594 needs a preceptor whose caseload is mostly young people, and far fewer psychiatric clinicians focus on that age group. Community mental health centers, school-linked programs and pediatric psychiatry groups are all worth a call.

Students report that persistence pays. Past Drexel PMHNP students on allnurses urged others to start networking early and to pick up the phone, reporting that cold calls do land preceptors. If that effort stalls, can't find a preceptor walks through a reset plan.

NURS 592 and its intensive sit in summer in the quarter sample plan, and the last summer quarter, from June 21 to August 7, 2027, is compressed to seven weeks. Drexel has not described how a 160-hour psychiatric course would fit that window, so confirm the plan with your advisor before any preceptor books those weeks.

When semesters arrive on August 23, 2027, the PMHNP clinical courses become NURS 7510, NURS 7511, NURS 7512 and NURS 7513, a four-part PMHNP sequence in diagnostic reasoning and clinical decision making. The 2027–28 catalog publishes no clinical hours for them, and their titles do not say which population each one covers, so ask which semester course carries the child and adolescent hours.

A semester lasts roughly 14 weeks outside summer, so a preceptor's commitment stretches over more weeks than a quarter. Drexel's advisors map each continuing student's path individually; the semester switch has the calendar.

We search for psychiatric preceptors by population, which is how Drexel's sequence is built. A placement advisor lines up an adult psychiatric NP or psychiatrist for the early courses, a child and adolescent preceptor for NURS 594, and a practice where psychotherapy is part of the week for NURS 595. Licensure, board status and a year-plus of practice are checked for each one before your first message goes out.

Behind each match sits a ready file: the psychiatric preceptor's CV and credentials, the practice contact for Drexel's affiliation agreement, and the practice's own onboarding list. Drexel gives the final yes, and the submission it sees is complete and built to its rules the first time. If a preceptor's caseload changes or they step back mid-quarter, we resume the search immediately. How it works shows each stage, and the form on this page starts yours.