Your ASU adult-gerontology NP preceptor

It is primary care. ASU's DNP adult-gerontology concentration is the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner track, and it prepares graduates to sit for the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner certification exam, not an acute-care exam. That distinction matters for your placement: your rotations belong in adult and older-adult primary care and community settings, not hospital intensive or acute-care units, and a preceptor whose scope is acute care will not match the concentration Edson approves. If you need an acute-care pathway, ASU's adult-gerontology DNP is not it, and we will tell you so before you commit.

The practical consequence is that your rotations and your preceptor both have to live in primary care. A hospitalist, an ICU team, or an acute-care nurse practitioner may be excellent clinicians, but their scope will not satisfy an Adult-Gerontology Primary Care practicum, and building hours there can leave you short of the competencies the AGPCNP exam and Edson both expect. We flag that mismatch before it costs you, and we point the search at longitudinal adult and older-adult primary care from the outset.

Not outside Maricopa County. You are responsible for identifying your own clinical sites and preceptors, the DNP program office does not guarantee a placement, and Edson College approves the sites you bring before any clinical experience begins. Adult and older-adult primary care providers who precept are in real demand, especially in the community and shortage-area settings ASU recognizes, so beginning the search well ahead of your practicum term is what keeps a doctoral timeline intact.

In-county students can lean on ASU to arrange focused experiences, but for the out-of-county students who make up most of the online cohort, the adult and geriatric primary-care providers who are willing to precept are a limited pool shared with other schools. Reaching them early, and reaching more than one, is what keeps the concentration's schedule intact, since a single no late in the process can push a practicum term.

The ASU DNP Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP concentration requires up to 1,125 practicum hours, including 585 clock hours (13 credit hours) of practicum in a community setting, within an 84 credit-hour program that ends with the DNP 707 applied project. The table shows the concentration as ASU publishes it.

Confirm the current figures for your catalog year against your Edson handbook, since counts can shift between cohorts.

AGPCNP practicum is completed in community-based primary care serving adolescents through older adults, under an approved preceptor in your own region. Recognized environments include family and internal medicine practices that carry an adult and geriatric panel, community clinics, and the urban underserved and rural shortage-area sites ASU rotates students through across the state. The common thread is longitudinal primary care of the adult and aging population, which is the scope Edson checks a proposed site against.

When we vet a site, we are confirming it carries enough adult and older-adult volume, and a broad enough set of chronic and preventive care, to fill the community practicum with real primary-care learning rather than a narrow slice. Internal medicine and family practices with a strong geriatric panel, federally qualified health centers, and the rural and urban underserved sites ASU recognizes across the state all fit that bill when the preceptor's scope lines up.

An approvable AGPCNP preceptor holds an active license and a scope centered on adult and older-adult primary care, typically an adult-gerontology or family nurse practitioner or a physician in internal or family medicine. Edson College must approve the preceptor and site before your hours count, and preceptor rules are set by ASU and can vary, so we confirm each match against your program's current requirements before you commit rather than discover a scope mismatch after a term is lost.

Confirming the preceptor's license, certification, and primary-care scope before any agreement is signed is the step that protects your term. An adult-gerontology or family nurse practitioner in primary care, or an internal or family medicine physician, is the natural fit; a provider who has moved into an acute or subspecialty role is where we most often catch a mismatch, which is far cheaper to catch before you start than after.

We run the search as an independent preceptor matching service: we source an ASU-approvable adult-gerontology primary care preceptor and the community sites your concentration needs, verify credentials and scope against ASU's rules, and shepherd the documentation through Edson approval so a scarce site does not stall your doctoral timeline. You pay only once your preceptor and site are confirmed, and we never promise an approval decision that belongs to ASU.

Because approval, not just a preceptor's yes, is what unlocks your hours, we treat the Edson submission as part of the placement rather than an afterthought. We assemble the documentation, keep it moving, and keep you informed, so a scarce adult-gero site does not sit in a queue while your start term slips. You are never charged until your preceptor and site are confirmed.

Sources: ASU DNP Adult-Gerontology NP degree page, ASU Edson College clinical placements, and Arizona State Board of Nursing.