UT Tyler's MSN in Informatics, Quality and Safety: the 130-hour practicum, with or without a preceptor
UT Tyler's MSN in Informatics, Quality and Safety (IQS) is 36 credits online, with practice hours in every specialty course and a 130-hour practicum in NURS 5390. A preceptor is one way to complete those hours, not the only one. If a preceptor fits your goals, our placement desk finds a professional working in informatics, quality or patient safety near you and prepares the details faculty need.
Weigh your IQS practicum options
Tell us your term, your goals and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the route that fits and, if you want one, a preceptor search.
The degree at a glance
UT Tyler's MSN in Informatics, Quality and Safety is 36 credits in the 2026-27 catalog: a 12-credit core, 18 specialty credits and 6 elective credits. Its core leaves out NURS 5324, the informatics course other MSN tracks take. Classes are 100% online, with the specialty courses in 7-week Flex sessions.
The program page counts 12 core, 18 specialty and nine elective credits, which adds up to 39 rather than 36. Confirm with your advisor which count your signed degree plan uses.
UT Tyler states that completing the program's practice hours fulfills the 200 practice-hour eligibility requirement of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). A 12-credit post-baccalaureate IQS certificate covers NURS 5381, NURS 5383, NURS 5385 and NURS 5387, with the practicum and capstone optional, and associate-degree RNs can enter the MSN early through UT Tyler's RN-MSN route.
Courses and practice hours
The specialty courses run in 7-week Flex sessions, while the practicum and capstone take a full 15-week semester. Hours come from Fall 2026 syllabi.
| Course | Title | Practice hours | When it runs |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 5381 | Nursing Informatics: Roles, Theory, Ethics and Legal Perspectives | 50 | Flex I |
NURS 5383 | Nursing Informatics: Quality and Safety | 50 | Flex II |
NURS 5385 | Nursing Informatics Leadership and Project Management | 50 | Flex I |
NURS 5387 | Data Management and Analysis for Nursing Informatics | 50 | Flex II |
NURS 5390 | Informatics, Quality and Safety Practicum | 130 | 15 weeks |
NURS 5389 | Informatics, Quality and Safety Capstone | 130 (112.5 for students who entered before Fall 2025, or 200 for ANCC) | 15 weeks |
| MSN core (four courses) and electives | 12 and 6 credits | 10 per core course | Flex sessions |
NURS 5390: a preceptor is one route
The Fall 2026 NURS 5390 syllabus requires 130 practice hours, counted toward the program's 500-hour total. It is unusually open about how you earn them: working with a preceptor is described as one option, alongside other active-learning, hands-on options that need neither a preceptor nor a facility placement.
That flexibility is real, and it makes the choice yours to settle with your course faculty. The syllabus does not publish preceptor credentials for IQS, so faculty judge the fit of anyone you propose. If you take the preceptor route, the sequence matches UT Tyler's other graduate tracks: you propose the preceptor and site through the Self-Placement Request, faculty approve, and the facility needs an affiliation agreement before hours start.
Build that lead time into your decision. A student who chooses the preceptor route a few weeks before the semester may run out of time for the agreement, while the non-preceptor options have no such wait.
When a preceptor is worth it
Hands-on options without a site are convenient, and for some students they are enough. A preceptor earns a place when you want experience inside a working system: following an electronic health record change from request to go-live, sitting in on a quality committee, or tracing a patient safety event through its review.
A preceptor is usually the stronger choice if you
- Want a role in informatics, quality or patient safety after graduation and need a reference who has watched you work
- Plan to use the practicum as a bridge into a department you would like to join
- Work somewhere without an informatics or quality team and want to see how a larger one runs day to day
If your own facility has these teams, a department outside your reporting line is often the simplest site; clinicals where you work covers the conflict-of-interest rules UT Tyler applies in other tracks.
Hours by entry term
IQS hour counts shifted with the Fall 2025 entry cohort, so two students in the same course can owe different totals. The Fall 2026 syllabi set NURS 5390 and NURS 5389 at 130 hours each. Students who entered before Fall 2025 follow 112.5 hours in the capstone, or 200 if they are building hours for ANCC eligibility.
By our count, the four core courses at 10 hours each, the four specialty courses at 50 each, and the practicum and capstone at 130 each add up to exactly the 500-hour total the NURS 5390 syllabus names. If your own plan does not add up that way, ask your course faculty which older rule you fall under.
Check which cohort rules apply to you before you tell a preceptor how many hours you need. Your term's syllabus, not an older program page, is the document faculty grade against.
Studying from outside Texas
IQS does not lead to APRN licensure, so the catalog is flexible about your license: it can come from whichever state hosts your practice hours. UT Tyler's disclosures place the IQS MSN among its online programs that take students living elsewhere, subject to conditions, and the program page adds its usual note for applicants outside Texas about reciprocity and clinical hours.
UT Tyler's licensure chart carries an entry labeled "Nursing Infomatics, Quality & Safety (RN-BC) B.S.N.", spelled that way, with an all-states entry. UT Tyler has no IQS bachelor's degree, so the entry most likely describes the MSN. For the post-baccalaureate certificate, UT Tyler's disclosures confirm Texas and leave other states undetermined. State authorization has the full picture by state, and it is worth reading before you choose a practicum site in a state other than your own.
How our placement desk helps IQS students
Because a preceptor is optional here, our first job is helping you decide whether you want one at all.
- Weigh the routesWe set the preceptor route beside the non-preceptor options in your syllabus and test both against your career goal, your schedule and the time left before the semester.
- Find the right professionalIf you choose a preceptor, we look for a nurse or leader working in informatics, quality or patient safety near you, at a facility willing to host a UT Tyler student.
- Prepare the requestWe gather the preceptor and facility details faculty need to approve the placement, early enough for the agreement to finish before the term.
- Stay availableIf a preceptor's project calendar shifts mid-semester, your placement advisor helps you adjust the plan or finds a replacement.
Start with the form below.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Can I move from IQS into a nurse practitioner track at UT Tyler?
Not as an internal move. Under School of Nursing policy 5.1, students admitted to the Informatics, Administration or Education MSN cannot transfer into the FNP or PMHNP degree programs. An NP track is a separate application with its own requirements, including Texas residence and a Texas RN license for anyone seeking APRN licensure.
Does the IQS MSN qualify me for ANCC informatics certification?
UT Tyler says the program's practice hours fulfill ANCC's 200 practice-hour eligibility requirement. ANCC sets its remaining eligibility rules, so check its current criteria before you apply. Students who complete only the post-baccalaureate IQS certificate are held to a different standard: UT Tyler notes they need 1,000 hours working in an informatics nursing role.
How many hours a week does the IQS practicum take?
UT Tyler publishes the total rather than a weekly minimum: 130 hours across a 15-week semester. Spread evenly, that is a little under nine hours a week by our arithmetic, though preceptor schedules and project deadlines rarely spread evenly. Your syllabus and course faculty set any pacing expectations, so check them in the first week.
Can I earn IQS practice hours at my own job?
The NURS 5390 syllabus does not rule out your employer. For a facility placement, faculty approve the preceptor and site, and the facility needs its agreement with UT Tyler. Proposing someone outside your chain of command is the safest approach, because other UT Tyler tracks bar supervisors from precepting their own staff.
Is UT Tyler's IQS program fully online?
Yes for coursework: UT Tyler lists the MSN in Informatics, Quality and Safety as 100% online. Practice hours can also be earned through options that need no facility placement, so a student may finish without a site at all. If you choose a preceptor, those hours take place at the preceptor's facility instead.
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
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.