PMHNP preceptors for Wilmington University's psychiatric practicums
Wilmington University's four psychiatric mental health practicums, GRN 7221 to GRN 7224, total 750 hours, and the first three each share a semester with a didactic PMHNP course. The right preceptor practices psychiatric mental health care, holds a license that satisfies Delaware's rule for APRN program preceptors, and can keep a steady schedule through a term when you are also carrying coursework. Faculty decide on every match.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your WilmU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your WilmU course.
Each practicum and the course beside it
The catalog pairs the PMHNP practicums with didactic courses, and that pairing is the first thing to plan around. GRN 7221, Psychiatric Mental Health Practicum I, comes after GRN 7201 and GRN 7202 and is taken alongside GRN 7203.
| Practicum | Clinical hours | Taken with |
|---|---|---|
GRN 7221 Practicum I | 175 | GRN 7203 |
GRN 7222 Practicum II | 175 | GRN 7204 |
GRN 7223 Practicum III | 175 | GRN 7205 |
GRN 7224 Practicum IV | 225 | No paired course listed |
Each didactic course carries 3 credits and each practicum 4, so the first three practicum semesters each hold at least seven credits of work alongside 175 hours in clinic. Tell a prospective preceptor that from the first conversation. The PMHNP practicums guide covers the full course sequence.
Plan each practicum and its paired course as one semester, and share both with your preceptor before the schedule is set.
Who takes these courses
Three WilmU routes lead through GRN 7221 to GRN 7224. The PMHNP Graduate Certificate admits nurses with a BSN plus an MSN or DNP; its catalog entry and curriculum page say 31 credits, yet the page for the combined certificate-plus-DNP option counts it at 27. The BSN to DNP PMHNP track runs 79 credits over 3.5 years, and pairing the certificate with the DNP comes to 60 credits, or 72 for non-APRNs.
Before enrolling, certificate students need a B or higher in each prerequisite, GRN 7101 through GRN 7104. WilmU offers the PMHNP only as a Graduate Certificate and inside BSN to DNP, not as a stand-alone MSN, and graduates prepare for PMHNP certification through ANCC or AANPCB. Program details sit on the PMHNP Graduate Certificate and BSN to DNP PMHNP pages.
Psychiatric settings we search
A psychiatric track calls for a preceptor whose daily work is psychiatric mental health care. For WilmU PMHNP students we look across outpatient psychiatric practices, community mental health programs, behavioral health services inside community health centers and hospital psychiatric units, matching the setting to the practicum you are about to start.
Delaware has depth to draw on. The state's open-data license roster shows 1,034 active licenses in the Psych/Mental Health NP focus, second only to family practice, though those are license records rather than individual clinicians. All three counties also carry population-based mental health shortage designations for low-income or Medicaid-eligible residents, and several community health centers carry their own; New Castle, Kent and Sussex maps them.
A shortage designation shows where need is formally recognized; it says nothing about a clinic's room to teach, so ask about capacity for a student in the very first conversation.
Comparable focus on a psychiatric track
Delaware's Board of Nursing rules let an APRN program use a preceptor licensed as an APRN, physician, PA or pharmacist, so long as that license is current, carries no encumbrance, and sits in a practice focus comparable to the track. For a PMHNP student, comparable means psychiatric mental health practice; which clinicians clear that bar is for faculty to decide, since the same rules give faculty the approval of preceptors.
Two more Board points shape the search. The preceptor's license has to match or exceed the level you are training for and be valid where the precepting occurs, and you keep an active RN license or privilege from before the first clinical course to the end of the last. WilmU's own requirement points the same way: an RN license good in the clinical's state. WilmU's public pages add no PMHNP-specific credential, experience rule or ratio, so questions beyond the Board rule go to the PMHNP program's Assistant Chair.
Questions to settle with the PMHNP Assistant Chair
Several PMHNP practicum details are left to the program. Put these questions in writing before you confirm a preceptor, and keep the answers with your practicum records.
- Whether any practicum calls for a particular population, such as children and adolescents, or a particular setting
- Whether a single preceptor can stay with you across several of the four practicums
- Whether a psychiatrist, a PA in psychiatry or a pharmacist can serve as the main preceptor for a given course
- Whether a clinician at your workplace, or your own supervisor, may precept you
- Which forms the preceptor completes, and when the program needs them
- Whether each practicum is scheduled as a full 15-week semester or a 7-week block
The questions for your program chair page turns these into a short email you can adapt to your own course.
How we search for WilmU PMHNP students
We search psychiatric settings for the practicum in front of you, not from a generic list. For GRN 7221 that means a psychiatric mental health clinician ready to take a new student in the same term as GRN 7203; for GRN 7224 it means a site with room for 225 hours. We confirm each clinician's license, and your RN license state, against Delaware's preceptor standard, then lay out the site's own intake in order before you say yes.
What reaches you is the preceptor's license, credentials and contact details, organized for faculty to review, plus a placement desk that stays on call if a preceptor leaves partway through a course. Faculty decide on the match; we make sure nothing is missing when they look. Send us your course and dates.
Questions WilmU students ask
What is the clinical hour total in WilmU's PMHNP track?
750, spread over four practicums: GRN 7221, GRN 7222 and GRN 7223 at 175 clinical hours apiece, and GRN 7224 at 225. BSN to DNP PMHNP students complete those same practicums and then add DNP practice hours, and WilmU's pages do not state the combined total for that route.
Is WilmU's PMHNP certificate 31 or 27 credits?
WilmU publishes both. The certificate's own curriculum page, like its catalog entry, gives 31; the combined certificate-and-DNP page puts the certificate at 27. The prerequisite block is also labeled differently in different places. Ask the PMHNP program's Assistant Chair which figure applies to your plan before you map your practicum terms.
Can a physician in psychiatry supervise my WilmU PMHNP hours?
Delaware's Board rules include physicians among the licenses an APRN program preceptor may hold, provided the license is active and unencumbered and the practice focus is comparable. WilmU's own pages name no PMHNP preceptor credentials, and faculty approve preceptors, so confirm a particular psychiatrist with the Assistant Chair before you commit.
Is there a PMHNP master's at WilmU?
No. WilmU's program list offers the PMHNP as a Graduate Certificate and as a BSN to DNP track, and the only NP master's on the list is the MSN-FNP. Nurses with a BSN who want the psychiatric route look at BSN to DNP; nurses with a master's or doctorate look at the certificate.
When does the first PMHNP practicum start?
GRN 7221 follows GRN 7201 and GRN 7202 and shares a semester with GRN 7203. WilmU's pages publish no semester-by-semester plan for the certificate and do not say whether the practicum runs in a block or a full semester, so check the plan in MyWilmU Degree Works and confirm the format with course faculty.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Wilmington University's own program and curriculum pages, the 2026-27 graduate catalog, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences policies and the State Licensures by Program page. Your NP Program Chair, your course faculty and the College have the final word.
A WilmU practicum coming up? Your preceptor search starts here.
Tell us your WilmU program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. Whether WilmU's faculty help with your placement or you are starting the search yourself, we find preceptors who fit the course, check the health system's own intake steps, and organize the preceptor's license and credentials well before the first day.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice across the lifespan for
GRN 7121toGRN 7124, psychiatric mental health forGRN 7221toGRN 7224, doctorally prepared for the DNP - Clinicians who meet Delaware's rule for APRN program preceptors: an active APRN, PA, pharmacist or physician license in a comparable focus
- Close to home, in a state where you hold an RN license, with each system's onboarding mapped out early
Start your placement plan
Program, city and semester is all we need to begin.