NURS 7515 Psychiatric Mental Health Practicum II: 200 hours of complex cases
NURS 7515 Psychiatric Mental Health Practicum II is the heaviest of Concordia University Wisconsin's three psychiatric practicums: 200 of the 500 minimum hours in CUW's 2023 PMHNP certificate plan, in a 2-credit course. The catalog focuses it on diagnosing and treating patients with complex psychiatric disorders, and it opens only after NURS 7510. In the certificate plan it runs in spring, which puts its placement work in the middle of Practicum I.
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Why Practicum II carries the biggest block
Practicum II holds 200 hours, 40 percent of the 500-hour minimum, yet it carries the same 2 credits as the courses on either side. The jump from 125 hours in Practicum I to 200 here is the planning problem: the time you owe a clinic grows by more than half in a single term.
How that lands week to week depends on the calendar. The 2023 certificate plan places NURS 7515 in spring, and CUW's 2026-27 calendar runs the spring semester from January 11 to May 9, 2027, with an 8-week Session II starting March 15. The table below is simple arithmetic, not a CUW schedule.
| Weeks of practicum | Hours a week | When that happens |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | 12.5 | Hours spread across a full spring semester |
| 14 | About 14.3 | A semester with two weeks lost to breaks or a late start |
| 8 | 25 | Hours packed into one 8-week session |
CUW has not published whether the MSN PMHNP or PMHNP DNP runs Practicum II across a full semester or a session, so ask your course faculty before you promise a clinic a schedule.
Complex psychiatric disorders: reading the course description
Where Practicum I stresses assessment, the catalog moves Practicum II to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with complex psychiatric disorders. That tilts the site search toward caseloads with real diagnostic depth: patients with co-occurring conditions, presentations that have not responded to earlier treatment, or histories that need careful sorting before a plan is set.
Treatment is the other half. A preceptor who manages medications over time and sees patients back for follow-up lets you carry cases forward, adjust plans and watch what changes. A clinic built mostly on one-time consultations may give you plenty of assessments but less of that continuity. Because CUW's catalog describes PMHNP scope as patients of all ages, a site with a narrow age band can still work, provided faculty agree it meets the course objectives.
Stay at your Practicum I site or add a second?
Continuity is the strongest case for staying: a preceptor who watched your Practicum I assessments can hand you harder cases sooner, and a site CUW has already reviewed skips a second contract check. A new site brings a different population and another clinician's reasoning, which suits a course about complexity.
CUW publishes no PMHNP limit on hours with one preceptor. Its archived primary care handbook capped a single preceptor at 400 program hours, but that rule was written for the primary care NP tracks and predates CUW's PMHNP programs; 125 plus 200 comes to 325 in any case. Ask the Graduate Clinical Coordinator whether a cap applies to the psychiatric practicums.
A clean handoff from Practicum I to Practicum II
- Ask your Practicum I preceptor, well before fall ends, whether they can take you for spring
- If they cannot, name the new site early enough for any new contract
- Share your Practicum I evaluation so a new preceptor knows your level
- Agree on a weekly schedule that actually adds up to 200 hours
The approval clock for a spring practicum
CUW's current pages publish no proposal deadline or contract lead time, so ask the Graduate Clinical Coordinator for both. The archived NP process gives a way to plan in the meantime. Taking a spring 2027 start on January 11 as the example:
- About October 19, 2026Twelve weeks before the start, the longest contract time on CUW's archived proposal form. A site new to CUW should be named and proposed by now.
- About November 16, 2026Eight weeks out, the short end of the 8-to-12-week contract range in CUW's 2014-15 handbook.
- About December 14, 2026Four weeks out, the archived floor for the Clinical Practicum Site Proposal and Preceptor Information form. A late form once meant no practicum and no matching didactic course that term.
- January 11, 2027The earliest start, and only once the contract is in place and your documents are approved.
October 19 is also the first day of fall Session II, so the Practicum II search runs while Practicum I is still in full swing. The deadlines page covers other start terms.
If a Practicum II preceptor steps away
Losing a preceptor hurts most in the largest course. No current CUW page describes what happens when a placement falls through mid-term, so the Graduate Clinical Coordinator and your course faculty are the first call. The catalog does say, for the PMHNP certificate, that a student may need to complete additional hours based on performance, which is one more reason to keep a small buffer above your target.
The archived NP process offers two habits worth keeping. When plans changed after a preceptor had agreed, the student told that provider directly and forwarded a copy of the message to the Clinical Education Coordinator. And paperwork that arrived late pushed the rotation to the following semester. The preceptor dropped out page sets out the recovery steps.
How we carry CUW PMHNP students through Practicum II
We plan Practicum II during Practicum I, not after it. That means asking about your first preceptor's spring availability early and running a parallel search for a second mental health site near home with the case complexity the course calls for. Each proposal reaches CUW's graduate faculty with the preceptor's documents and the site profile already attached, and we tell you early when a site looks likely to need a new contract.
Because 200 hours leaves little slack, we work out a schedule with your preceptor that fits the term you are in, and we stay on call through the semester. If a preceptor leaves, your placement advisor opens a replacement search right away. Start with the form below or send a message.
Questions CUW students ask
Can I take NURS 7515 without finishing NURS 7510?
No. The catalog lists NURS 7510 as the prerequisite for NURS 7515, and CUW's registration policy drops a student registered in advance if a prerequisite is not completed successfully. An incomplete in Practicum I has to be resolved within three weeks after the term, or up to six in some cases, which can collide with a spring start.
Do the PMHNP DNP's 1,000 hours mean more than 200 in Practicum II?
Not on CUW's own figures. The catalog asks PMHNP DNP students for at least 500 psychiatric clinical hours plus 200 leadership hours. The program page's 1,000-hour total counts verified hours from a prior advanced practice degree, so the three practicums still hold the 500. The PMHNP DNP page covers the conflict.
Can NURS 7515 hours be done by telehealth?
CUW names telehealth among the settings where its PMHNP graduates practice, but no CUW source says whether practicum hours delivered by telehealth count, or how many may. Ask the Graduate Clinical Coordinator before you accept a telehealth-heavy placement, and keep the answer on record alongside your proposal.
Is NURS 7515 the same course in the MSN, DNP and certificate?
Yes. The course number, title, 2-credit weight and prerequisite are the same across CUW's three PMHNP programs. What can differ is where it falls in each plan and whether CUW applies the certificate's 200-hour figure to the newer MSN and DNP. Check both with your course faculty early.
Can I use the same site for Practicum III?
Often that is the simplest path. Practicum III turns to patients and families with complex needs, so a site where family members take part in care can carry you through. Confirm with faculty whether any per-preceptor limit applies before you plan all three practicums with one person.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against CUW's own academic catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and the Graduate Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
- Concordia University Wisconsin 2026-27 catalog: graduate NURS course descriptions
- Concordia University Wisconsin 2026-27 catalog: PMHNP CAGE certificate
- Concordia University Wisconsin: Psychiatric Mental Health NP DNP
- Concordia University Wisconsin: academic calendars
- CUW PMHNP certificate curriculum plan, May 2023 (archived copy)
CUW asks you to secure your preceptors. We make the search the easy part.
Tell us your CUW track, your city and your next clinical course. We line up preceptors who fit the NURS course, gather the license, board certification and site details CUW's graduate faculty review, and flag early whether the site needs a new clinical contract.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP and AGPCNP, mental health settings for PMHNP, an agency mentor for DNP projects
- Preceptor license, certification, CV and site details ready for CUW's approval
- All three clinical courses planned together, close to home in a state CUW's disclosure lists for your program
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