Drexel WHNP preceptors: gynecology, obstetrics and 640 hours

Drexel lists the program as the MSN Women's Health/Gender Related Nurse Practitioner. It is online with residency, part-time only, and takes about three years. Under the 2026–27 quarter catalog the degree is worth 55.0 quarter credits, 640 hours of them clinical; the semester rewrite trims it to 43.0 credits. A Winter 2027 admit begins on quarters, while a Fall 2027 admit begins on semesters.

Experience in women's health is preferred but not required. The real gate sits before NURS 690: the five MSN core courses, advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology and health assessment, NURS 664, and two courses specific to this track, NURS 680, which covers primary care for women's health, and the WHNP pharmacology course NURS 682. Each needs a B or better. The drexel.edu program page pairs distance learning with clinical preceptorships close to home, so your preceptors are meant to be where you live.

NUPR 520 Nurse Practitioner Clinical Orientation Seminar introduces Drexel's clinical contracting and compliance processes. The sample plan schedules it for the fall of your second year, three quarters before NURS 690; the NUPR 520 page explains what it covers.

Each WHNP course carries 5.0 quarter credits and 160 hours, with the clinical rotation running alongside the online coursework. The catalog names the focus of every rotation, and that focus decides which preceptor fits.

The first two rotations suit a gynecology or general women's health practice. The third needs prenatal and postpartum patients, and the fourth needs a practice or hospital service that manages high-risk pregnancies. The WHNP clinical courses page takes each course in more depth, including the semester titles.

Three kinds of clinician can precept for Drexel: nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physicians whose specialty Drexel approves. Each needs a year or more in practice, current board certification, and the license and certification their home state asks for. Your preceptor sends a CV plus license and certification proof, fills in E*Value evaluations at midterm and at the end, and confirms your logged hours there.

For this track the natural fits are WHNPs, CNMs and OB/GYN physicians, with maternal-fetal medicine specialists a strong match for the high-risk course. Physician assistants are not on Drexel's list. Drexel publishes no rule on precepting by relatives, on training at your own employer or on how hours split between NPs and physicians, so put those questions to your track director before you commit to a practice.

Drexel thanks preceptors with a clinical faculty title, a certificate of hours each term and a continuing education discount. The preceptor requirements page has the fine print on every rule.

The gynecology quarters are usually the easier ask. The obstetric pair takes more planning, for four reasons.

• Back-to-back obstetric quarters. NURS 692 and NURS 693 run in consecutive quarters in the sample plan, so a low-risk prenatal practice and a high-risk service have to be lined up together, often with two different preceptors.
• High-risk care sits inside hospital systems. Maternal-fetal medicine and hospital obstetric services tend to run their own student intake, and they need a signed affiliation agreement with Drexel, which adds lead time.
• Steady weekly hours. 160 hours in a ten-week quarter averages about 16 hours a week, and the 2-day NURS 693 intensive in week three of spring takes days out of that quarter.
• Fewer contacts to start from. Women's health experience is preferred rather than required, so some students reach their first clinical quarter without OB/GYN colleagues to ask.

Near Philadelphia, ChristianaCare names Drexel as a graduate clinical partner and Virtua lists Drexel as an affiliate school; the New Jersey and Delaware sites page explains how each takes students. Drexel's March 2026 partnership with Cooper mentions more women's health placements, but it is aimed at ABSN students and doesn't name NP students.

The WHNP track has two On-Campus Intensives in the quarter catalog. NURS 690 opens with five days on campus in the first week of summer, and NURS 693 brings you back for two days in its third week of spring. Drexel flags the dates as subject to change, and the 2027–28 catalog doesn't yet describe semester-era intensives. The OCI page tracks what each track has.

Residents of 11 states can't enroll in Drexel's NP programs at present, and rotations are barred in New York even though New Yorkers may enroll. Washington, by contrast, is open: its nursing commission lists the WHNP MSN among the Drexel tracks cleared for practice experiences there. The state authorization page names the 11 states and covers moves between states.

The RN license rule depends on which Drexel page you read. NP program pages want a Pennsylvania license before clinicals, but the compliance certifications page lets a multistate compact license from your home state stand in, adding a separate license only for a clinical state outside the compact. Ask Clinical Compliance which reading applies to you. Life support is simpler: WHNP students need AHA BLS, while ACLS and PALS belong to other tracks.

The semester calendar arrives on August 23, 2027. A Winter 2027 admit starts in the quarter courses above; a Fall 2027 admit, or anyone later, follows the 2027–28 catalog, where the four WHNP clinicals are renumbered NURS 7620 through NURS 7623 at 5.0 semester credits apiece.

The semester catalog publishes no clinical hours for those courses, so whether the 640-hour total carries over is still to be confirmed. The Summer 2027 transition term is only seven weeks, and the quarter sample plan puts NURS 690 and its five-day intensive in a summer. Drexel hasn't said how a 160-hour rotation squeezes into so short a term. Continuing students are getting individual transition plans from their advisors; get yours in hand before a preceptor blocks out dates. The semester conversion page follows the change across tracks.

A WHNP search goes best when all four rotations are mapped from the start, and that is how we run it. We read your course sequence, then search in person near you for WHNPs, CNMs and OB/GYN physicians whose patients match each course: gynecology for NURS 690 and NURS 691, prenatal and postpartum care for NURS 692, and high-risk obstetrics for NURS 693. Every candidate is checked against Drexel's rules on licensure, board certification and time in practice before you are introduced.

Once a preceptor says yes, we collect their CV and proof of license and board certification, find out who at the practice signs Drexel's affiliation agreement, and write down the practice's onboarding steps. Drexel decides on every preceptor, site and agreement; our job is a WHNP file that is whole and matches its rules on the first review. Should a preceptor step away mid-quarter, we are on call to line up another in the same kind of practice. Send us your course and location through the form here, and read how it works for the steps.