UT Tyler FNP OSCE days: the campus dates to plan around
UT Tyler's FNP is hybrid in a narrow sense: your preceptor hours happen near home in Texas, and the only required trips to the main campus in Tyler are for OSCEs, usually in Week 11 of a clinical course. That adds up to one or two days a semester, but they land in the middle of your clinical schedule, so they belong in your plan from the first week.
Plan clinicals around OSCE week
Tell us your next FNP clinical course and where you live in Texas. A placement advisor builds a preceptor schedule that leaves room for the campus trip.
What UT Tyler requires on campus
UT Tyler's FNP program page describes preceptor hours near where you live and just a day or two in person each semester at the main campus. The Fall 2026 NURS 5454 syllabus narrows that down: the OSCE is the only mandatory on-campus date, and it usually falls in Week 11. The older NURS 5353 syllabus says the same, and a legacy post-master's FNP page describes one to two days per semester on the Tyler campus.
An OSCE, or objective structured clinical examination, checks your clinical skills in a standard format that faculty observe directly, the counterpart on campus to the evaluations your preceptor completes in clinic.
The School of Nursing is based in the Braithwaite Building on UT Tyler's main campus in Tyler. Look for the exact location and time of your OSCE in your course materials in Canvas, and read the MSN FNP guide for how the campus days fit the rest of the program.
Which FNP courses hold an OSCE
UT Tyler's Fall 2026 syllabi mention on-campus OSCEs in four current FNP clinical courses and in the older NURS 5353. What each says about timing and hours differs.
| Course | On-campus OSCE | Timing given | Does OSCE time count as hours? |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 5453 Primary Care I | Yes | Check your course in Canvas | Not stated |
NURS 5454 Primary Care II | Yes, the only mandatory campus date | Usually Week 11 | Not stated |
NURS 5347 Internship I | Yes | Check your course in Canvas | No simulation hours given for OSCEs |
NURS 5349 Internship II | Yes | Fall 2026: Nov. 9 - 15 on campus | No simulation hours given for OSCEs |
NURS 5353 (675-hour plan) | Yes, the only mandatory campus date | Check your course in Canvas | Counts as clinical hours |
NURS 5455 Primary Care III | Not listed in the UT Tyler material we reviewed | Check your course in Canvas | Not stated |
The pattern is clear enough to plan around: expect a trip to Tyler in most FNP clinical semesters, usually in the later weeks of the term, and confirm the date in your course before you settle your preceptor schedule.
Do OSCE days count toward clinical hours?
UT Tyler's own syllabi disagree. The older NURS 5353 syllabus counts OSCE time as clinical hours. The Fall 2026 internship syllabi for NURS 5347 and NURS 5349 refuse simulation credit for the on-campus exam. The current NURS 5453 and NURS 5454 material we reviewed does not address it either way.
The safe plan is to assume the OSCE adds nothing to your total and to schedule every course hour with your preceptor. If your course faculty confirm that OSCE time counts, you finish a little early; if it does not, you are not hunting for makeup hours in Week 14. For how the course totals themselves are set, see the clinical hours guide.
The mistake to avoid is trimming preceptor days to the bare minimum and counting on OSCE time to close the gap. In the internships, the syllabi say plainly that it will not.
Planning your preceptor weeks around the OSCE
- Find the date in Week 1Check your course in Canvas for your section's OSCE day during the first week, and ask your course faculty if it has not been posted.
- Tell your preceptor at the startGive the date at your first meeting, alongside your proposed schedule, so the practice plans around your absence.
- Bank hours before itAdd clinic time in the weeks leading into the OSCE so a lost week does not pull you under your course's weekly minimum.
- Keep the travel day openIf you live far from Tyler, the day before or after the exam may go to the drive, so leave it off your clinical schedule.
- Resubmit if the schedule shiftsUT Tyler's NP preceptor guide makes schedule updates the student's job: whenever the preceptor arrangement shifts, rework the schedule and resubmit it to faculty.
The 2026-27 calendar and OSCE season
The School of Nursing's calendar sets the frame. Fall 2026 classes run Aug 27 to Dec 12, with census on Sep 10, the last day to withdraw on Nov 2 and finals Dec 7-11. The spring 2027 term covers Jan 7 through Apr 24, with a Mar 8-12 break, and summer 2027 covers May 10 through Aug 14.
Week 11 sits in the last third of a 15-week term, close enough to finals that a missed clinic week is hard to recover. That is why the planning steps above put the extra hours before the OSCE, not after it. Census, withdrawal and commencement dates for every session are on the academic calendar page.
Getting to Tyler from the rest of Texas
Since UT Tyler's NP students must be Texas residents doing every clinical hour in the state, the OSCE trip is always an in-state one, but Texas is large. A student in Longview, Palestine or elsewhere in East Texas can make it a day trip; one in the Rio Grande Valley, the Panhandle or El Paso is planning a longer journey and possibly a night away.
UT Tyler also runs the Longview University Center, the Palestine Campus and North Campus in Tyler, but the FNP campus days are tied to the main campus. The campuses guide describes each site. Plan the trip when you plan the semester, not the week before.
How we plan placements around campus days
Your placement advisor treats OSCE week as a fixed point in every FNP clinical semester. We confirm your preceptor's clinic days, build in extra hours ahead of the campus trip, and make sure the preceptor knows the date before the Self-Placement Request goes in.
- Preceptors near where you live whose schedules can flex around a campus week
- A semester plan with banked hours before Week 11
- Preceptor details ready for faculty approval well before the term
- A backup preceptor if a practice cannot absorb the schedule change
Request a plan for your next clinical course from the contact page.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Where are UT Tyler FNP OSCEs held?
On the main UT Tyler campus in Tyler, home of the School of Nursing's Braithwaite Building. UT Tyler's FNP program page describes the in-person days as time at the main campus. Your course materials in Canvas give the exact location, day and time for your section, so check them in the first week.
Are there other required campus visits in the UT Tyler FNP?
According to the Fall 2026 NURS 5454 syllabus, the OSCE is the only mandatory on-campus date. The FNP program page allows for one or two in-person days a semester. Your clinical hours all happen with Texas preceptors near your home, so the OSCE is the trip to plan the semester around.
Do post-master's FNP certificate students attend OSCEs too?
The certificate runs through the same FNP specialty courses as the MSN, and UT Tyler's post-master's FNP page describes one to two days per semester on the Tyler campus. Expect the same OSCE days as MSN students in each clinical course you take, and check each course in Canvas for the date.
Does the UT Tyler PMHNP have campus days as well?
Yes, though fewer. UT Tyler describes its PMHNP as online except for one hybrid course plus as many as two in-person clinical experiences at the main campus. The post-master's AGACNP certificate holds its OSCEs in the Braithwaite Building. Each track's syllabus gives its own campus dates.
What should I tell my preceptor about OSCE week?
Give the date at your first meeting and ask to book extra clinic hours in the two or three weeks before it. Explain that the OSCE is a required UT Tyler exam, that you will be away from the practice that day and possibly the day around it, and that your weekly hour minimum still applies.
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.
UT Tyler asks you to choose your clinical site. We find it.
Tell us your UT Tyler track, where in Texas you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and gather everything your Self-Placement Request needs, so faculty can approve it before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 5453, adult and geriatric care forNURS 5455, psychiatric care forNURS 5367 - Texas-licensed preceptors who clear UT Tyler's supervisor, relative and site rules
- Anywhere in Texas, from the Piney Woods to the Valley
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