Excelsior RN-to-BS practice experience, arranged for you
The Excelsior University RN-to-BS in Nursing adds roughly 90 practice-experience hours on top of your coursework, and Excelsior expects you to arrange them yourself. These hours are workplace-embedded and community-based rather than a supervised hospital rotation, so most students can complete them near where they already live and work. We help you line up the setting, the volunteer contact, and a project scope your Excelsior faculty will approve, so the hours count the first time.
Which RN-to-BS courses carry practice-experience hours?
Three courses in the Excelsior RN-to-BS sequence carry hands-on practice-experience requirements. Two of them, NUR448 and the NUR462 capstone, make up the bulk of the roughly 90 hours; NUR342 asks you to work with a live adult volunteer for a health assessment. Confirm exact hour counts and course numbers against your current Excelsior catalog, since Excelsior updates its curriculum periodically.
| Course | Focus | Practice-experience hours | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| NUR342 | Health assessment | Live adult volunteer | A hands-on assessment on a consenting adult you recruit |
| NUR448 | Community health | ~45 | Community-based practice hours in a public or population-health setting |
| NUR462 | Capstone | ~45 | Direct practice hours built around your capstone project |
These are practice-experience hours, not direct patient-care clinical rotations. Excelsior provides no clinical instruction in the School of Nursing, so the setting and the volunteer contact are yours to arrange.
Can you complete these hours where you already work?
Yes, in most cases. Because the RN-to-BS practice experience is community and population focused rather than a bedside rotation, many working nurses complete NUR448 and the NUR462 capstone inside their own employer, a local clinic, a public-health office, a school district, a long-term-care setting, or a community organization. The point is a setting that hosts your project and gives you a contact who can vouch for the work, not a formal teaching hospital. NUR342 is even simpler, since it asks for a consenting adult volunteer for a full health assessment rather than a clinical site at all.
Even so, workplace-embedded does not mean automatic. Your employer may want an affiliation agreement on file, your project has to map to the course competencies, and your faculty still has to approve the scope before you log a single hour. That is the part that trips people up when they try to arrange it in the last few weeks before a term starts.
What we handle for RN-to-BS students: confirming a setting that fits NUR448 and NUR462, sorting any affiliation agreement your site or employer requires, guiding CastleBranch compliance if the site asks for it, and helping you scope a project your Excelsior faculty will sign off on.
What kind of work counts toward the hours?
Community health, NUR448
Population-level work: health education, screenings, outreach, and assessment inside a community agency, clinic, school, or public-health setting. About 45 hours.
Capstone practice, NUR462
Direct practice hours tied to an evidence-based project you plan, carry out, and evaluate in a real setting. About 45 hours, faculty-approved.
Health assessment, NUR342
A complete assessment on a live adult volunteer who consents to take part. No clinical site needed, but you do need to recruit the volunteer.
Excelsior sets the exact competencies and deliverables for each course. We do not change the requirement; we help you meet it with a setting, a contact, and a scope that hold up to faculty review.
How do we help you place the RN-to-BS practice experience?
We start from your program, your term, and your city. Then we do the legwork Excelsior leaves to you: we identify a setting that fits NUR448 and the NUR462 capstone, confirm the contact there is willing to host your work, and handle any affiliation agreement the site or your employer wants signed. If the site runs background checks or asks for CastleBranch clearance, we walk you through it so nothing stalls at the last minute.
- We confirm a community or workplace setting that matches your course competencies.
- We secure the site contact and any affiliation agreement your setting requires.
- We guide CastleBranch background, drug screen, and immunization steps if the site asks.
- We help you scope a NUR462 capstone project your faculty will approve.
- You approve the plan, then you log your roughly 90 practice-experience hours.
You pay only once your setting and contact are confirmed, and there is never a payment to your volunteer contact. Because agreements and compliance take time, we recommend starting four to six months before your capstone term. That window is comfortable for the RN-to-BS sequence and removes the scramble that pushes hours, and sometimes a whole term, out of reach.
There is no clinical instruction provided in any program in the School of Nursing. For the RN-to-BS, that means the setting and the contact are yours to arrange, and ours to help you find.
Line up your RN-to-BS practice experience
Tell us your term and your city. We will come back with a setting, a contact, and a capstone scope you can approve for NUR448 and NUR462.
Related
Practice experience at your workplace
When your own employer or community setting can host your hours, and how approval works.
Out-of-state practice experience
Your RN-to-BS hours happen where you live. How we line up local settings in your community.
Excelsior nursing programs overview
Every Excelsior nursing program and who arranges the placement for each, side by side.