UT Tyler DNP practice hours: how the 1,000 hours add up and where you can earn them
UT Tyler's post-master's DNP requires at least 1,000 DNP practice hours logged in Exxat, and the 2026 syllabi spread them across every course in the 39-credit plan. In NURS 7315, earlier post-baccalaureate hours, once approved, may count for as much as half of the course's requirement, and no hour counts at any site, your own employer included, until a fully executed affiliation agreement is on file.
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Tell us your start term, your city in Texas and your project area, and your placement advisor looks for a site and mentor that fit.
How the 1,000 hours add up
Every DNP course carries practice hours in the 2026 syllabi, either 50 or 100. The catalog's part-time outline runs the program over two years, and the order below follows it.
| Course | Title | Practice hours | Term (part-time outline) |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 7301 | Introduction to DNP Role and Culture | 50 | Year 1, semester 1 |
NURS 7302 | Foundations of Evidence-based Practice | 50 | Year 1, semester 1 |
NURS 7314 | Practice Change for DNP Leaders | 50 | Year 1, semester 2 |
NURS 7315 | Evidence-based Practice 1 | 100 | Year 1, semester 2 |
NURS 7303 | Healthcare Informatics | 50 | Year 1, semester 3 |
NURS 7317 | Evidence-based Practice II | 100 | Year 1, semester 3 |
NURS 7371 | Organizational and Systems Leadership | 100 (50 in Summer 2026) | Year 2, semester 1 |
NURS 7375 | Healthcare Quality and Safety | 100 | Year 2, semester 1 |
NURS 7331 | Health Policy and Advocacy | 100 | Year 2, semester 2 |
NURS 7358 | Population Health | 50 | Year 2, semester 2 |
NURS 7373 | Financial and Business Management | 50 | Year 2, semester 2 |
NURS 7343 | Publishing Scholarly Papers (NURS 6343 in the catalog) | 100 | Year 2, semester 3 |
NURS 7377 | DNP Scholarly Synthesis | 100 | Final semester |
Two conflicts are worth knowing. NURS 7371 shows 50 hours in its Summer 2026 syllabus and 100 in Fall 2026, and the scholarly publishing course carries different numbers in the catalog and the syllabus. The column reaches 1,000 only with the Fall 2026 figure, so check the syllabus for the term you take each course. NURS 7315 and NURS 7317 each state a minimum of 100 hours in Exxat.
Credit for hours you already have
The NURS 7315 syllabus lets approved post-baccalaureate hours cover up to 50 percent of the hours required for that course. In a 100-hour course that means, by our arithmetic, as many as 50 hours could come from earlier work rather than new practice.
What qualifies and how it is approved are not spelled out in the public syllabus text. Before your first term, put three questions to your DNP faculty: which earlier hours count, what proof they want, and whether the same allowance appears in your other course syllabi.
Gather your records before you ask. Clinical logs, practicum summaries and verification letters from your master's program are the kind of documentation that makes a request easy to approve, and an hour you cannot document is an hour you have to earn again at a site. Credit you secure early also changes how much site time you need to arrange in each semester.
No agreement, no hours
The NURS 7317 syllabus is direct: you may not log hours at any site, your place of employment included, without a fully executed affiliation agreement. It also makes you responsible for starting the process, coordinating with DNP faculty and the clinical placement coordinator far enough ahead of your planned start at the site.
UT Tyler's affiliation agreements are paper documents with wet signatures, so they move at the pace of a facility's legal and education offices. Texas health systems publish lead times for new school agreements ranging from 30 to 60 days at CHRISTUS Health to 6 to 8 weeks at University Health and several months at Memorial Hermann, according to their own pages. Affiliation agreements explains the steps.
Your employer is not an exception. If your practice hours will run where you work, the agreement with your own hospital or clinic still has to be executed first. Clinicals where you work covers the other workplace rules UT Tyler sets.
Logging in Exxat
DNP practice hours go into Exxat, which UT Tyler adopted from Spring 2024 to replace InPlace for clinical management and CastleBranch for graduate compliance. The NURS 7317 syllabus requires an active subscription in every clinical course (it spells the name Exaat), and the student pays for it. DNP entries are due within 7 days.
Log as you go. Course syllabi set their own hour targets and the final course, NURS 7377, restates the 1,000-hour program minimum, so a missing week is far easier to fix while the course is running than after it closes. Keep your own copy of what you log, including the site, the activity and who supervised it, so the record survives a change of site or mentor. Exxat walks through the system.
Your site, your mentor, your state
UT Tyler's DNP page invites you to complete your clinical experience in a location of your choice. The DNP Project runs through the whole curriculum, and doctoral policy 6.5 gives each student two mentors, one from the faculty and one from industry, so the site you choose and the mentor you work with tend to go together.
Location rules differ from the NP tracks. UT Tyler's Texas-only rule is written for APRN clinical hours, the DNP page ties the RN license to wherever the practicum takes place, and UT Tyler's state disclosures treat the online DNP as open outside Texas with conditions. State authorization has the program-by-program detail, and our search covers every region of Texas.
The catalog also says DNP students may need to be present for clinical work, on-campus intensives or the DNP Project presentation, while UT Tyler's online-program page calls the courses fully online. Ask whether your cohort has an intensive before you plan time away from work.
BSN to DNP: 1,000 or 1,250 hours
The BSN to DNP pathways set their totals by concentration on UT Tyler's online-program page: 1,250 hours for the FNP and PMHNP concentrations, and 1,000 for Informatics, Quality and Safety, Administration and Education. The Administration pathway embeds 24 clinical hours in each specialty course.
The APRN concentrations run through the same MSN clinical courses as the FNP and PMHNP programs, so they carry the Texas-only rule and every course-level rule, from the pediatric minimums in NURS 5370 to the OSCE days in the FNP sequence, on top of the DNP practice hours. That turns the BSN to DNP into a multi-year placement plan, with preceptors and practice sites to arrange across most of the program. BSN to DNP covers each concentration.
How we help with DNP practice sites
- Match the site to your goalsWe look for a Texas practice setting that suits your DNP Project and practice aims, with a leader who fits UT Tyler's mentor profile.
- Start the agreement earlyYou get the facility's details for your DNP faculty and the clinical placement coordinator a full semester before site hours begin, so the paper agreement has time to be signed.
- Plan hours course by courseWe line up site time for the 100-hour courses first, since they carry the heaviest loads.
- Keep a backup readyIf a site withdraws or an agreement stalls, your placement advisor has a second option moving, because a new site still waits for its own agreement.
Start on the placement form with your start term and city.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Can I earn UT Tyler DNP practice hours at my own hospital?
Yes, once an affiliation agreement between UT Tyler and your employer is fully executed. The NURS 7317 syllabus names the place of employment specifically, so hours logged there before the agreement is signed do not count. Ask your DNP faculty early whether your hospital already has one, and start the paperwork a semester ahead if it does not.
Do my MSN clinical hours count toward UT Tyler's DNP practice hours?
They may count toward part of a course. The NURS 7315 syllabus lets previously earned post-baccalaureate hours, if approved, stand in for up to 50 percent of that course, which is the only published rule on prior hours. Bring documentation from your master's program to your DNP faculty before the course starts and ask how the allowance applies elsewhere.
How long does UT Tyler's post-master's DNP take?
The catalog's part-time outline covers two years in six semesters, while UT Tyler's DNP page says part-time students can finish in three years, so the sources disagree. Starts are offered in January, May and August. Either way, 1,000 practice hours over that span means site time in nearly every semester, so line up your site before the first term.
Who can be a DNP industry mentor at UT Tyler?
UT Tyler's online-program preceptor page describes DNP mentors as MSN or master's-prepared leaders with at least 10 years of leadership experience, or, preferred, a PhD or DNP with 5 years. Doctoral policy 6.5 pairs that industry mentor with a faculty mentor for the DNP Project. A mentor at the organization where you plan your practice hours keeps project and site aligned.
What happens if my DNP practice site pulls out?
Alert DNP faculty and the clinical placement coordinator right away. Hours at a replacement site wait until that site's own affiliation agreement is fully executed, so the gap can run for weeks. A backup site identified early, with its agreement already moving, is the best protection, and your placement advisor can find one.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UT Tyler's own catalog, syllabi, program pages and clinical policies, and Texas rules. Your course, your program coordinator and the Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
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