Liberty MSN Nursing Administration: a nurse leader for 300 hours

The administration track at a glance

This 36-credit online MSN prepares nurses for management and executive roles. Alongside the shared nursing core, the concentration adds two business courses, BUSI 610 and BUSI 642, and two nursing courses, NURS 523 and NURS 524, before and around the practicums.

Courses are 8 weeks long with eight start dates a year, and next starts are listed for October 26, 2026, January 18, 2027 and February 15, 2027. The catalog's standard plan runs six semesters over three years, and Liberty also offers an accelerated one-year track. Coursework has no set login times, but Liberty flags practicums as a possible exception.

The MSN Practicum Gate, NURS 527, comes in the first semester. It collects your practicum requirements, and you can't start any practicum course until you pass it. The Gate course guide explains what it asks for.

Practicum courses and what unlocks them

The first two practicums each depend on a business course, so a delayed BUSI course can push your practicum back a term. Liberty's MSN page describes the total as a minimum of 300 clinical hours across the three courses.

The catalog doesn't split the 300 hours by course. The older 2022-23 handbook worked under 200 hours and different course numbers, so rely on your current syllabus for each term's target.

The preceptor you need

The catalog asks for an approved MSN- or doctorally prepared preceptor, and the NURS 674 description calls this person a nurse leader. The 2022-23 handbook was more specific, describing a preceptor in a nursing administration or leadership role. Since NURS 675 covers human, financial, material and technological resources, a leader who makes those decisions fits the course well.

That handbook also set general MSN preceptor rules: an RN license in good standing, an MSN or School of Nursing approval, and a doctorate, certification and two years of experience preferred. You were to spend 80% of practicum time with one approved preceptor per course, who stays in touch at least weekly and completes your end-of-course evaluation.

Approval ran through two people. The practicum coordinator screened each preceptor and the MSN program chair approved them. Our outreach guide covers how to ask a busy nurse leader to take this on.

Using the hospital where you work

If you already work for a hospital or health system, the workplace question comes up early. The most recent written rule, in the 2022-23 MSN handbook, allowed practicum at your existing workplace only when all four conditions held: the hours were unpaid, a Clinical Program Affiliation Agreement was in place, the site met course requirements, and you worked in a different program, unit or department from your job.

For example, a staff nurse on a medical unit would look for a nurse leader in another department or service line, not their own manager. Confirm the rule with the MSN practicum office before you ask your employer, since no newer public version exists. The employer site page goes further.

You arrange the site; Liberty approves it

Liberty's current catalog is clear about who leads: before NURS 674, you secure a site affiliation agreement with an approved facility of your choice and a practicum contract with an approved nurse leader preceptor. The 2022-23 handbook described the MSN program as working with students to secure preceptors, and the School of Nursing's staff includes Practicum & Clinical Coordinators for the online programs, so ask them early whether Liberty already has an agreement with your target facility.

The older handbook laid out two approvals. The practicum coordinator cleared your registration for the first practicum course, then the course professor approved your goals and objectives and gave final approval to begin. Hours counted only within course dates and after you and the preceptor had met. The placement process page follows the full path.

States open to administration practicum

Nursing Administration is one of the MSN tracks Liberty approves in Washington, as long as you hold an active Washington RN license. The limits are the District of Columbia, where Liberty isn't approved for practicum, and the U.S. territories, whose students must complete practicum in the 50 states.

Your RN license has to be valid where the practicum happens, whether a state license or a multistate license that state accepts. Liberty also notes that certain states may set clinical sites aside for students in their own residential programs, so check with your Board of Nursing. The same Washington approval covers the MSN/MBA and MSN/MSHA dual degrees, which use these three practicums; the dual degree page explains how they fit. The state restrictions page compares all programs.

Why administration students choose us

For an administration practicum, the hard part is usually access: reaching a nurse leader who has time, then getting their facility to sign Liberty's agreement before registration closes. We search for leadership preceptors near you, prepare the preceptor's CV and license details and the site information for the Gate course, and follow the agreement through with you.

If your plan involves your employer, we can help you think through a different-department arrangement to put to the MSN office. We also stay on call if a preceptor changes roles or leaves the organization partway through a course. Every preceptor and site goes to Liberty for approval, and a signed agreement in hand before registration closes puts you in the strongest position for that review. Use the form below when NURS 674 is in view.