What counts as a clinical hour at UofM
A UofM clinical hour counts when it happens on a schedule your clinical faculty approved, with a preceptor whose agreement form was approved, at a site that has cleared you, outside university breaks, inside a course that runs at least seven weeks. Miss one of those conditions and you can lose the hour, and sometimes the course. Here is each rule as UofM states it, with where to confirm it for your term.
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Tell us your UofM program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UofM course.
The conditions a clinical hour has to meet
The LCON Academic Bulletin has no single list titled countable hours. Its MSN clinical policies spread the rules across several pages, and read together they make a working checklist.
An hour counts toward your UofM practicum when:
- The preceptor's agreement form already carries approval from UofM's Office of Community Partnerships and Practice, obtained ahead of day one.
- The site has cleared you: each orientation module and upload in myClinicalExchange and Complio is accepted and still in date.
- Your clinical faculty signed off on a schedule that includes that day.
- The date is not a university break or holiday, or faculty and administration made a specific arrangement for it.
- The course's total hours stretch over seven weeks or more.
- The setting suits the course and your track's rotation rules.
The sections below take the rules that catch students most often. For the paperwork behind the first two conditions, see the preceptor agreement form and the Complio guide.
The seven-week floor
The Bulletin puts it in one line: clinical practice hours may not be completed in less than 7 weeks. Pack a 250-hour FNP practicum into five weeks of long shifts and it breaks the rule, even with every shift approved. A preceptor who proposes a fast, dense schedule is proposing something UofM rejects.
Summer is where the rule bites. The summer halves last barely more than a month, too short to hold a full practicum under a seven-week floor, and UofM leaves unstated which part of term its MSN practicums follow. Get your summer course dates from clinical faculty before a preceptor fixes a calendar.
Hours are only half the finish line. Your clinical faculty member and your preceptor each have to find you competent before the practicum is complete, and the faculty member's last clinical visit doubles as your clinical performance evaluation.
Approved days only
Every clinical day begins as a line on a schedule. Early in week two, by its Monday, your clinical faculty expect your planned clinical days for approval, and a change needs a written note seven days before it happens. Working clinically without that approval can get you dismissed from the course, so an extra Saturday your preceptor offers on short notice is a risk, not a bonus.
University breaks and holidays stay off the calendar unless faculty and administration set up an exception. In 2026-27 that takes out Labor Day, Fall Break, the Thanksgiving break, Spring Break and the summer holidays; the academic calendar guide lists every date. How to request changes, and who signs off when a site changes, is covered in the schedule and site changes guide.
Absences can cost the whole course
UofM treats clinical absence more strictly than many students expect. Missing a clinical day without approval fails the course automatically; there is no make-up day to fall back on. For a planned absence, such as a conference, UofM has a Practicum Leave of Absence Request Form, due to your clinical instructor no less than a week before the date. The instructor may decline it or set make-up work.
Lapsed paperwork counts against you too. If an expired document keeps you out of clinical, UofM deems that absence unexcused, and it may place a registration hold on your record. Every renewal date must reach beyond the placement's final day, which is why we check every expiry date against the whole term rather than the first day. The immunizations and BLS guide lists the items that expire.
File the leave request for any planned absence a week or more in advance: at UofM, a clinical day missed without approval fails the course.
Specialty hours and workplace hours
Two limits shape where hours can come from. During the residency, the last semester of an NP track, up to 60 hours can go to a specialty area if the track coordinator approves it beforehand. Everything else in the residency stays in the setting the track requires. Older UofM bulletins used a different cap, 20 percent of a semester's clinical time approved by the clinical coordinator, so check that any advice you hear matches the current Bulletin. The track-by-track picture is in the rotation rules guide.
The second limit is your employer. UofM keeps practicum hours away from the place you work now, with an exception only for compelling circumstances, which faculty and program administration then approve and record. The workplace clinicals guide explains how that exception is handled.
Logging hours and where to confirm
UofM's public pages and Bulletin name its compliance systems, Complio and myClinicalExchange, but no hour-logging system. How you record hours, who signs them and when they are due are set course by course, so look to the practicum syllabus, the course in Canvas and the faculty member supervising you. Ask in the first week, since the schedule you submit in week two should match the way hours will be verified.
Your preceptor's view counts as well. Faculty and preceptors both complete the Student Clinical Evaluation Tool, and passing a clinical course takes steady improvement plus a Satisfactory mark on each core competency and each course competency by term's end. If you fall behind on hours despite all this, the behind on clinical hours guide sets out the options.
How we protect the hours you earn
Countable hours start with the right match. Whichever way UofM is involved in your placement, our team locates a preceptor and site close to home that suit the course and the rules above, and we brief the preceptor on the seven-week floor, the break rule and the schedule approval step before your first day. The rotation settings your track requires are part of the match too, so each hour lands where UofM expects it.
Everything the agreement form needs about the preceptor, from license to board certification to practice setting, arrives complete, and your Complio and myClinicalExchange items are checked against the full placement period. If a preceptor's availability changes mid-term, we source a replacement for the same course so your clinical faculty can approve the change in writing. Use the form below to tell us your course and term.
Questions UofM students ask
Can I do UofM clinical hours on weekends?
UofM's published MSN rules do not single out weekends. What matters is that the day is on the schedule your clinical faculty approved and does not fall on a university break or holiday. If your preceptor works Saturdays, include those days in the schedule you submit in week two, or send the change in writing a week ahead.
What if my preceptor could get me done in under seven weeks?
Spread the shifts out. Under the Bulletin's seven-week floor, finishing early works against you rather than for you. Build a pattern that fills the required hours across at least seven weeks and confirm it with your clinical faculty when you hand in your schedule.
Who signs off on my clinical hours at UofM?
UofM's public documents do not describe an hour-log sign-off. What they do say: clinical faculty sign off on the schedule and on each clinical day, faculty and preceptors score your performance on the evaluation tool, and the course is complete only once both find you competent. Your syllabus explains the log itself.
Can I do clinical on a university holiday if my preceptor's clinic is open?
Only through an arrangement made by faculty and administration. By default, UofM keeps practicum days off its breaks and holidays. If your preceptor's clinic stays open on a university holiday and you want that day, raise it with your clinical faculty well before the date instead of adding it to your schedule on your own.
What happens if a Complio document expires in the middle of a practicum?
Clinical time you miss because a document lapsed is treated as an unexcused absence, and UofM may place a hold on your registration. Clinical sites also expect renewal dates to run past the whole placement. Before the term begins, compare every expiry date against the last day of the course, not the first.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UofM's 2026-27 catalog, the LCON Academic Bulletin, program pages and licensure disclosures. Your clinical faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
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