The AG skills bootcamp: Bradley's new on-site step for AGACNP and AGPCNP

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Bradley Preceptor placement team

Bradley University's 2026-27 catalog adds one in-person skills bootcamp to every adult-gerontology program, master's, doctoral or certificate, and it will not let you start NUR 658 or NUR 668 until the bootcamp is behind you. Dates, place and length are not yet public, and the online AG pages still describe no campus visit, so ask early and plan your clinical weeks around the answer.

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2AG courses that list the bootcamp as a prerequisite

2026-27first catalog year to require it of AG students

What the 2026-27 catalog requires

Each AGACNP and AGPCNP program page in the 2026-27 catalog carries "(Online & one onsite bootcamp)" in its requirements heading, and the program description makes attendance mandatory. That covers all eight AG options: the MSN for BSN holders and for RNs, the doctorate and the certificate, in both acute and primary care.

The course descriptions turn it into a gate. The third management course in each track, NUR 658 for acute care and NUR 668 for primary care, names the finished Nurse Practitioner Skills Bootcamp alongside its course prerequisites. In practice, you attend before your third and largest management course, the one with 300 hours. Beyond that prerequisite, the catalog ties the bootcamp to no particular semester, so the timing within your first two management courses is a question for your advisor.

Where the bootcamp falls in each AG track
Track	Courses that can come before it	Course that needs it
AGACNP	NUR 655, NUR 656, NUR 657	NUR 658 (300 hours)
AGPCNP	NUR 655, NUR 666, NUR 667	NUR 668 (300 hours)

Why the online pages say something different

Bradley's marketing pages for both AG tracks, refreshed in September 2026, still advertise study with no campus visit and still count 600 clinical hours. The AG welcome sites for newly admitted students name no campus event either.

That is how the two previous catalog editions read: no AG bootcamp, 600 hours. The bootcamp arrived with the 2026-27 catalog, together with 50 hours in NUR 655 and 300-hour third courses, all set out on our 750-hour change page.

Which requirement binds you depends on the catalog year that governs your plan of study, and Bradley has not published how the change applies to students admitted earlier. Your academic advisor is the person to ask, ideally on B-Mail so the answer is on record.

What the FNP bootcamp suggests, and what it leaves open

Bradley's only fully described bootcamp belongs to the FNP track. According to the MSN-FNP page, it runs over two October days in Peoria, every FNP student must complete it ahead of NUR 679, other NP specialties may join, and it earns continuing education units. The FNP welcome site uses the name Nurse Practitioner Skills Workshop and expects attendees to be enrolled in one of the first three FNP practicums at the time.

The AG prerequisite uses a close cousin of that name, the Nurse Practitioner Skills Bootcamp. Separately, Bradley's continuing education office promotes its own Nurse Practitioner Skills Workshop, held in the nursing building and open to working NPs as well as students. Bradley has not said whether AG students join the October FNP event, attend a separate AG session, or use that continuing education workshop.

Treat the overlap as a clue rather than an answer. The FNP bootcamp page has the FNP details, and your advisor has the AG ones.

Questions to put to your advisor

Until Bradley publishes the logistics, these questions let you plan. Practicum matters go to your academic advisor, who is on the nursing faculty, and onboarding for online students runs through the Office of Online and Distance Education.

Which dates and location apply to my cohort, and how many days does it run?
Is it the October FNP bootcamp, or a separate session for the AG tracks?
In which semester should I attend: during my first management course, or during the second?
Does the requirement apply to me if I was admitted under an earlier catalog?
Are there costs, and who covers travel and lodging? Bradley's public pages do not say.
Does any bootcamp time count toward clinical hours or earn continuing education units, as the FNP event does?

Keep the answers with your program of study, and watch MyOnline and B-Mail for announcements.

Getting to Peoria

If the AG bootcamp is on campus like the FNP event, you will travel to Bradley at 1501 W Bradley Ave in Peoria, Illinois, where the Department of Nursing works out of Westlake Hall. By Bradley's own reckoning, Chicago, Indianapolis and St. Louis are each about a three-hour trip away, so many Midwestern students can drive, while others will fly in. The catalog places the campus about a mile from downtown Peoria, which helps if you book lodging in town.

Plan for the days around the event as well as the event itself: time off from work, travel days and a gap in your clinical schedule. Bradley has not published who pays for travel or lodging, so budget as if those costs are yours until your advisor says otherwise.

Planning clinical weeks around the bootcamp

The bootcamp lands in the middle of your busiest clinical stretch, so treat it as a fixed block on the calendar. Tell your second-course preceptor the dates as soon as you have them, and build your hour plan without counting bootcamp days, since Bradley has not said they count.

The DocuSign packet for that third course falls due halfway through the preceding semester, possibly within weeks of the bootcamp itself. Having that 300-hour preceptor confirmed before you travel keeps the final practicum on schedule.

This is where we help most. We plan your AG placements as one sequence: the preceptor for the second management course, the 300-hour preceptor for the third, and the clinical weeks around the bootcamp once Bradley posts the date. Each packet we assemble arrives with the preceptor's credentials, liability proof and practice address in place. See how it works or start with the form below.

Questions Bradley students ask

Do AGPCNP students have to attend the bootcamp too?

Yes, under the 2026-27 catalog. The primary care track carries the same one-bootcamp rule as the acute care track, and NUR 668 cannot begin until you have attended, mirroring NUR 658 on the acute care side. Plan the search for your 300-hour primary care preceptor with the bootcamp date in mind.

When is the AG skills bootcamp?

Bradley has not published dates, a location or a length for the AG bootcamp. The one schedule it has posted belongs to the FNP event, held over two October days in Peoria. Watch MyOnline and B-Mail, and ask your academic advisor which session your cohort should attend.

Do BSN-to-DNP and certificate AG students attend?

Yes. The 2026-27 catalog pages for the DNP-AGACNP, DNP-AGPCNP and both post-master's AG certificates include the on-site skills bootcamp, and each of them uses NUR 658 or NUR 668 as its third management course. The AG certificates page covers those programs.

Do Bradley PMHNP or leadership students have a bootcamp?

Not as far as Bradley's public material shows. Its PMHNP and leadership pages promise fully online study, and the current catalog adds no in-person event to either. The FNP track has its October bootcamp, and the AG tracks now have this one.

Does the bootcamp count toward the 750 AG clinical hours?

Bradley has not said. The 750 in the 2026-27 catalog is simply the sum of the four clinical courses, from Diagnostic Reasoning through the third management course. Unless course faculty tell you otherwise, count only practicum days toward that total.

AGACNPNUR 658 AGACNP course IIIBradley's NUR 658 is the last AGACNP practicum: 300 hours in the 2026-27 catalog (200 online), the skills bootcamp first, and how to finish on time.AGPCNPNUR 668: AGPCNP practicum IIINUR 668 closes Bradley's AGPCNP track with 300 primary care hours after the skills bootcamp. The 300 vs 200 conflict, weekly pacing and what comes after.FNPFNP Bootcamp in PeoriaBradley University's two-day October FNP Bootcamp in Peoria: who must attend, the NUR 679 cutoff, pages that disagree, and planning clinical weeks around it.AGACNPMSN AGACNPBradley's MSN AGACNP: 750 acute care hours in the 2026-27 catalog (the online page still says 600), four practicum courses, the skills bootcamp and preceptors.AGPCNPMSN AGPCNPBradley's MSN AGPCNP: 750 primary care or outpatient hours in the 2026-27 catalog (600 on the online page), NUR 655 and NUR 666-668, and preceptor search.CalendarSemester calendar and termsHow Bradley's online nursing semesters and 7-week terms run, the 2026-27 dates, enrollment confirmation, drops, Incompletes and what each means for clinicals.

Last checked 2026-09-25

We check these pages against Bradley's own catalog, online program pages and Graduate Student Handbook. Your clinical packet, course faculty and academic advisor have the final word.

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