Family nurse practitioner clinical requirements: is the best recommendation 500 hours?
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the article was to stimulate further dialog around the recommended number of clinical hours required for students in family nurse practitioner (FNP) programs.


METHODS
Nursing literature was reviewed for research supporting the current clinical hour requirement. Both authors are faculty in FNP programs that provided experiential data for the article.


CONCLUSIONS
There are no scientific data upon which to base the number of required clinical hour. Researchers need to identify what type and how many clinical hours are needed to prepare competent new FNP graduates.
Bray
Christell O
CO
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. chris.bray@tamucc.edu
Olson
Karen Koozer
KK
D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055318:Evidence-Based Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D022143:Family Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008008:Licensure, Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012579:Schools, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data