Duke University MSN AGACNP - Spring 2026

thecottoncure · Sep 5, 2025

Faith,

You have answered so many questions and given me so much information already, but I have a few more questions, if you don't mind.

How are classes delivered? Are there live lectures?

When do clinicals begin?

Did you find your own preceptors or did Duke find them for you?

Did the preceptors need to be in specific clinical areas? For example, did you need to do rotations through critical care, ED, Internal Medicine, etc...

How many preceptors did you have in total?

How many days are the intensives? Did you enjoy them? I think they kind of look fun.

Thank you!

Faith9, MSN, APRN, NP · Sep 5, 2025

thecottoncure said:

Faith,

You have answered so many questions and given me so much information already, but I have a few more questions, if you don't mind.

How are classes delivered? Are there live lectures?

When do clinicals begin?

Did you find your own preceptors or did Duke find them for you?

Did the preceptors need to be in specific clinical areas? For example, did you need to do rotations through critical care, ED, Internal Medicine, etc...

How many preceptors did you have in total?

How many days are the intensives? Did you enjoy them? I think they kind of look fun.

Thank you!

Hello,

No problem - classes are all online past the ABSN/MEPN program, so MSN, DNP, PGCs, Specialty Certificates. There are no live lectures, but can be synchronous for certain portions of the program if needed with the discretion of the course faculty/needs of the course. I can recall one time with a guest lecturer mid way through the program as an example.

Clinicals begin once core courses are finished - I had started clinicals around term 5 (Summer term 1 within "year 2" of the matriculation plan). It appears AC clinicals start with N664. They posted the ACNP curriculum similar to the PC one that I am sharing:

AG-ACNP Curriculum - 2024.pdf

For reference, there's a calendar that was posted for timelines (when classes begin, when clinicals start/end), this is found within the DUSON academic calendar:

Academic Calendar 2025-2026 1-30-2025.pdf

As far as preceptors go:

Duke has contracts with the clinical sites and has preceptors that accept students within those sites. I never had to find a preceptor myself, usually the site has them already, and they collaborate with the clinical placement office (CPO).

I had mixed experiences with the CPO - the first person that assisted me with clinicals was amazing - I had no issues despite my area being relatively difficult in general to find placement. Midway through I was switched to another person that was super lazy - basically filling in the gap of what the other person did prior to her. With that being said, I found what helped me THE MOST was working as an RN at a hospital setting that also had a clinic present, at least for my experience with primary care! I noticed that a lot of these sites don't accept people for clinicals who do not work for them.

I had another challenge in which I had the issue with my workplace having a strict preference only for those local schools with clinical placements; however, my clinical placement officer applied anyway despite this and advocated for me as I worked for this company for over 2 years at that point (as I had to apply with another application for the hospital's school of health sciences and they (CPO) had to apply on my behalf). I had really good communication with them for this whole process.

The second half of the program with clinicals (with the last clinical in PC and specialty certificate - I had the lazy CPO person), with someone who wanted me to do all the work - even fill out the form despite it strictly saying to not have the student apply on their own for my workplace. I reiterated this part and screenshot that on the website of my workplace and sent it to them along with how to answer the questions on that said form so they can write it out on my behalf. Yes, I was annoyed by this part - but it did not deter me from getting my dream clinical experiences! I actually had the best ones toward the end due to me knowing the process of my workplace with clinical placements and told the CPO when to apply and that it was a preference that they should consider. I stayed on track and did not defer my graduation by any means.

So, definitely consider staying an employee while in school, as this program is doable and was essentially made for working individuals in addition to the perks of a steady income, not having to take out student health insurance, only taking out what's needed for tuition if needing to take out student loans, and being able to have clinicals at your work place which could help you advance at that facility with an NP role.

I asked during the interview what clinical areas would be for AC, and I was told: hospitalist, intensive care, and ED.

For PC, I had one preceptor for each clinical, but for the specialty I went with everyone on the APP team as they subspecialized and it was cool to have those experiences and learn from them and had a "main" preceptor on paper. If your preceptor is going on vacation and you need another person to fill in a gap of two weeks or so you would have them formally apply with the school CPO with their resume, credentials, etc for legality purposes. The CPO will inform you of that part if its needed.

So there is both NPI and OCI - two different experiences, but both in-person. NPI is a course you have to take, but it's classified as "0" credit hours, but need to have to graduate, and only 3 days maximum consecutively. When enrolled in the course you would have this date given to you in the syllabus and correspondence with faculty. Think about NPI being consisted of assessment check-off's.

OCI is with on-campus experiences that give you the experience of practical application of skills learned within the didactics, along with presentations (if required by the course), but also think of simulations, standardized patients and workshops. Again, about 3 days consecutively, with information provided by the school faculty and within the program - I had 2 of these at least, and this included the specialty certificate.

They are, as in the name, intense. Think of 0730-1600 or 0800-1700. You would have to make sure you are prepared and ready for these as these need passing in order to ensure you have the content down and are successful.

Hope this helps.

thecottoncure · Sep 6, 2025

Thank you so much! Once again, hugely helpful. Just out of curiosity, do you know how many started the program and his many finished. I'm really curious what the graduation rate is.

Faith9, MSN, APRN, NP · Sep 6, 2025

Hello,

I don't know the specific graduation rate for DUSON, but Duke in general is between 94-97% from what I have read online. I can tell you that the people who didn't graduate either did something stupid or had some personal issue that they needed to work through, not necessarily due to the rigor of the program. If there's something that's going on, there can always be a leave of absence granted.

thecottoncure · Sep 8, 2025

Thank you again, Faith!

pepinokc · Nov 4, 2025

If you have other options, choose the other school! The amount of disorganization regarding clinicals in certain states...I cant even. Frankly, for that tuition, everything should be arranged for students in a timely fashion. Heard the FNPs were having issues with OBGYN placement too.