UT Tyler PMHNP practicums: four courses and the rules that shape every placement
UT Tyler's PMHNP practicums are NURS 5367, NURS 5368, NURS 5370 and NURS 5373, 125 clinical hours apiece, taken as two co-requisite pairs. The work stays inside Texas under psychiatric preceptors licensed there, and the syllabi layer on a telehealth cap, an inpatient minimum, a limit on reusing preceptors and pediatric minimums in NURS 5370. Plan all four placements as one set and the rules fit together.
Plan your PMHNP practicums
Tell us your next practicum pair and your city in Texas, and your placement advisor maps preceptors for both semesters.
Four practicums in two semesters
UT Tyler's catalog gives the MSN PMHNP and the post-master's certificate the same 750 direct patient care hours and lists six clinical courses behind them. Four are the practicums below, each printed at 125 hours. The diagnosis and psychotherapy courses, NURS 5363 and NURS 5365, publish no hour counts and have their own page.
| Course | Title | Hours | Focus | Co-requisite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 5367 | PMHNP Practicum I | 125 | Adults and older adults | NURS 5368 |
NURS 5368 | Integrated Mental Health Care I (Adult/Gerontology) | 125 | Adults and older adults | NURS 5367 |
NURS 5370 | PMHNP Practicum II | 125 | Children, adolescents and families | NURS 5373 |
NURS 5373 | Integrated Mental Health Care II Capstone | 125 in the catalog; 135 in the 2023 preceptor guide | Capstone | NURS 5370 |
Each pair fills one 15-week semester, so a PMHNP clinical semester carries 250 hours. By our arithmetic that is close to 17 hours a week across the term, and the NURS 5367 syllabus sets a floor of 10 hours a week. The catalog is newer than the 2023 guide, so plan on 125 hours for NURS 5373 and confirm the figure in your syllabus.
Texas only, telehealth included
The PMHNP syllabi leave no room for interpretation: student, preceptor and every patient have to be located in Texas. The program page adds that each practicum runs in a facility licensed by the state, precepted by a practitioner who holds a Texas license. A few older UT Tyler pages still mention other states, and the Texas-only page separates current rules from leftover wording.
Telehealth carries two separate limits. No more than 63 hours of any one clinical course may be telehealth, which is about half of a 125-hour practicum. UT Tyler's NP preceptor guide also requires telehealth teaching to happen onsite under the preceptor's supervision, so a video visit counts only when you sit in the room with your preceptor and the patient on screen is in Texas.
A preceptor who sees most patients by video can still anchor a course, but the remaining hours must come from in-person care. Your placement advisor asks every psychiatric preceptor about their in-person and video mix before putting them forward.
The inpatient minimum and the 11-hour day
The syllabi require at least 125 inpatient clinical hours over the program. No public UT Tyler document ties that minimum to a particular course, so agree with your faculty where it lands. Spending one full practicum on an inpatient psychiatric unit meets it in a single rotation, which is usually easier to schedule than scattered shifts.
Mind the length of each day. UT Tyler limits you to 11 clinical hours within any 24-hour window, so a standard 12-hour hospital shift does not fit as written. Build inpatient weeks from 8- or 10-hour days and your log stays inside the rule.
Hospitals also take longer to clear. Each needs a signed affiliation agreement with the school plus its own onboarding: CHRISTUS Health lists 30 to 60 days for a new agreement and University Health in San Antonio lists 6 to 8 weeks, according to their student pages. Start inpatient requests a semester ahead; affiliation agreements covers the paperwork.
Preceptors, the two-rotation limit and conflicts
Primary PMHNP preceptors are PMHNPs, psychiatrists (MD or DO) and physician assistants holding a CAQ in psychiatry, and most of your experience should be with PMHNPs. The 2023 preceptor guide adds that the setting itself must be a psychiatric specialty practice, and the syllabi expect 80 percent of each course's hours to match its population focus.
No preceptor may be used for more than two clinical rotations in the program. Four practicums therefore need at least two different primary preceptors, and more if a course splits across sites. Decide early who covers which pair, so the preceptor you want for the capstone has not already used both rotations with you.
Relatives, employers and direct supervisors are off the table as preceptors, yet the syllabi still allow hours inside your employer's health system when they fall on a different unit or service line, under a different manager, with a different approved preceptor and outside your job duties. Clinicals where you work walks through that tension.
The mistake that surfaces late: one adult preceptor covering both NURS 5367 and NURS 5368 in the same semester may already count as two rotations. Ask faculty how rotations are counted before your first practicum semester, not before your last.
NURS 5370: the pediatric minimums
NURS 5370 centers on children, adolescents and families, and its syllabus sets two floors: at least 15 clinical hours with patients aged 0 to 12, and at least 50 pediatric patient encounters with patients aged 12 to 17. One is counted in hours and the other in encounters, so your logs have to show both measures.
The young-child hours are usually the harder half. A practice that sees plenty of teenagers may see few children under 13, so ask a prospective preceptor how many they see in a typical week before anyone files paperwork. If one practice cannot cover both age groups, ask your course faculty about adding a second approved preceptor for part of the course.
The 80 percent population-focus expectation applies here as well. Hours with adults will not carry this course, so the preceptor you choose for NURS 5370 should spend most of the day with patients under 18.
Approvals, logs and the calendar
Each clinical semester starts with the same checklist, and the syllabi are explicit about the order.
- Before your first hour: Exxat clearance, clinical site approval, clinical schedule approval and faculty approval. Exxat clearance alone does not authorize you to begin.
- Day one of class is never a clinical day, and the go-ahead from faculty typically needs 24 to 48 hours.
- Anything logged ahead of the full set of approvals does not count and may lead to disciplinary review.
- Log each shift promptly. The
NURS 5373syllabus says 48 hours in one place and 72 in another, so 48 is the safe habit. - No clinical time over university holidays or breaks, or during finals week.
- If a placement or preceptor falls through, notify your lead faculty right away.
The syllabi also recommend booking extra hours as a cushion against cancellations. Clinical scheduling rules has the full detail.
How we plan all four practicums
- Map the whole sequenceWe lay out both semesters at once: which preceptor covers which course, where the 125 inpatient hours fall and which practice covers the
NURS 5370age groups. - Find Texas psychiatric preceptors near youPMHNPs first, then psychiatrists and PAs with a psychiatry CAQ, each Texas-licensed, in a psychiatric specialty practice and clear of your job.
- Check the fit before anything is filedWe confirm in-person versus video volume, patient ages, day length on inpatient units and the preceptor's commitment to the full 125 hours.
- Hand you a complete requestYou receive every detail the Self-Placement Request asks for, early enough for faculty approval, the Preceptor Agreement and facility onboarding to finish before the semester.
- Stay on call all semesterIf a preceptor steps away, your placement advisor lines up a replacement so you can go to faculty with a new option already in hand.
Share your track, city and start term on the placement form and your placement advisor starts with the hardest piece, usually the inpatient block or the young-child hours.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Can a psychiatrist or psychiatric PA be my only PMHNP preceptor at UT Tyler?
They can precept, but they cannot carry the program alone. Psychiatrists and psychiatry-certified PAs qualify as primary preceptors, yet the syllabi expect most of your experience to come from PMHNPs, and any one preceptor tops out at two rotations. Physician or PA hours work well as one piece of a plan anchored by PMHNP preceptors.
Do post-master's PMHNP certificate students follow the same practicum rules?
Yes. The certificate runs 34 credits against the MSN's 49, yet the catalog assigns it the identical specialty sequence and 750-hour total. The Texas-only rule, the telehealth cap, the inpatient minimum and the preceptor limits live in the course syllabi, so they apply to everyone enrolled in NURS 5367 through NURS 5373.
Can I complete PMHNP hours with a Texas telepsychiatry practice?
Partly. Patients must be in Texas, the preceptor guide requires you to be onsite with your preceptor during telehealth teaching, and the syllabi cap telehealth at 63 hours per clinical course. A Texas telepsychiatry practice can cover part of a practicum if you sit beside your preceptor, while the rest of the 125 hours comes from in-person care.
What happens if my PMHNP preceptor cancels partway through the semester?
Tell your lead faculty at once; the syllabi require prompt notice. UT Tyler's preceptor guide makes you responsible for revising the clinical schedule and resubmitting it, and a new preceptor must be approved before their hours count. Keep a cushion of extra hours, as the syllabi advise, and ask your placement advisor for a replacement right away.
When should I start looking for a spring PMHNP practicum preceptor?
Early in the fall before. Policy 7.2 expects sites and preceptors to be cleared ahead of the semester's first day, and the Spring 2027 School of Nursing semester opens January 7. Add the Preceptor Agreement, faculty review and, for inpatient units, a hospital affiliation agreement and onboarding, and a search that starts in November leaves very little margin.
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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