Family nurse practitioner clinical requirements: is the best recommendation 500 hours?

PURPOSE: The purpose of the article was to stimulate further dialog around the recommended number of clinical hours required for students in family nurse practitioner (FNP) programs. DATA SOURCES: Nursing literature was reviewed for research supporting the current clinical hour requirement. Both authors are faculty in FNP programs that provided experiential data for the article. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: There are no scientific data upon which to base the number of required clinical hour. Researchers need to identify what type and how many clinical hours are needed to prepare competent new FNP graduates.