Can't find a preceptor for your Clarkson College clinical course?

Updated September 27, 2026, reviewed by the Clarkson Preceptor placement team

If your next Clarkson College clinical course is close and nobody has said yes, start with the calendar rather than more cold calls, because Clarkson's catalog puts approval of both the preceptor and the site ahead of registration. Count the weeks until the agreement is due, make sure your list fits Clarkson's rules for your track, then widen the search where those rules allow. Our placement desk can take it over at any point.

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Get your placement plan

Tell us your Clarkson program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.

Count the time you actually have

Clarkson's dated documents give you three fixed points, and your real cutoff comes earlier than the first one.

The filing dateThe dated handbook and rotation sheets put spring filings at Nov. 1, summer at Mar. 1 and fall at Jun. 1. Registration waits for a submitted agreement form, with two narrow exceptions.
The paperwork lead timeA site Clarkson has never contracted with sends the Compliance office into paperwork Clarkson says can take up to two months. A hospital found two weeks before the filing date may not clear in time.
The first week of termAn agreement still unfinished when the opening week of class closes can force a withdrawal, and nothing logged ahead of final approval is credited.

Clarkson no longer posts those documents, so your Graduate Nursing advisor is the source for this year's dates; our clinical deadlines page tracks them as a calendar.

Check the list against your track's rules

A search can stall because it is aimed at people Clarkson would not approve. Before widening it, make sure every name on your list could actually sign. Any NP-track preceptor must be licensed where you will train, have two or more years in practice, work in a field that matches the course, and be unrelated to you.

Track limits in Clarkson's dated documents

FNP: physicians, DOs, PAs or NPs at primary care or rural health clinics whose patients span every age; hospitalist time is not accepted; NRS 840 and NRS 842 carry minimums with pediatric and women's health providers.
AGACNP: an MD, DO, PA or NP, and the NP must hold acute care certification; family NPs are excluded.
PMHNP: once NRS 830 is done, only psychiatrists or PMHNPs, never PAs, and part of NRS 856 (50 hours) spent beside a licensed therapist with a master's degree.
Every NP track: PAs are excluded as preceptors in Arizona, Florida, Maryland and Oklahoma.
Education and administration practicums (2021-22 handbook): a single preceptor per course, MSN-prepared, with two or more years teaching nursing or leading as a nurse administrator.

Each exclusion, with its source, is on who cannot precept you.

Where Clarkson's rules let you widen the search

Once the list is clean, stretch it in the directions Clarkson's documents allow.

Your employer, in another department. Clarkson permits clinicals where you are employed, just not on your own unit, and your paid time and student time stay in separate logs.
Health-system request routes. Nebraska Medicine takes NP requests through its own online application in set windows, and Clarkson's 2025 resources page pointed CHI, UnityPoint, Avera and Sanford requests to myClinicalExchange or Clarkson's MSN advising. Each system decides for itself.
Group practices. A practice with several qualifying clinicians offers more than one route to a yes, as long as every provider you see patients with is on an agreement.
A wider radius in your own state. Crossing a state line changes the license picture: your RN license must be effective there, the preceptor must be licensed there, and Clarkson's workbook must list the state as meeting requirements.

One caution from the 2021-22 handbook: students were told not to contact the preceptor directly and to follow each location's own channels. Read that as going through a system's placement office where one exists, as Nebraska Medicine asks. The health system requests page lists each route.

Talk to Clarkson before the date passes

If the filing date is weeks away and the list is empty, tell your Graduate Nursing advisor, and your course faculty if a course is already underway. They know your plan of study and the current handbook. The 2021-22 edition relaxed the no-form, no-registration rule in two cases only: a placement request filed in My Clinical Exchange, and a preceptor change the student could not avoid.

If a term slips, the delay compounds. Under Clarkson's single-clinical-course rule, each later course slides back with it. A leave of absence covers one semester per request, and the seven-year limit on finishing counts any time on leave. The delayed graduation page covers those rules.

If your course has already begun and you still have nobody, go straight to need a preceptor fast.

What our placement desk does when you are stuck

Clarkson students turn to us at exactly this point because we take the whole search off your plate and run it against Clarkson's rules from the first call. Your placement advisor looks near you for clinicians who fit your course, whether that means all-ages primary care, an acute care unit, a psychiatric practice or an experienced nurse educator.

Each candidate is checked for licensure, two years in practice, family ties and your track's limits before you hear a name. We assemble the site's legal name and the preceptor's credentials for DocuSign, flag early any site that would be new to Clarkson's Compliance office, and aim for a file ready well ahead of the date. Then the next course's search begins. Our steps are on how it works; the contact form gets your search started.

Questions Clarkson students ask

Will Clarkson find a preceptor for me?

Clarkson's 2021-22 graduate handbook says identifying preceptors and clinical or practicum sites is each student's responsibility, not the College's or the Graduate Nursing program's. Clarkson's advisors, Compliance office and course faculty then approve what you bring. Nurse anesthesia is the exception at Clarkson: that program uses its own clinical sites.

Can I register for a clinical course without a preceptor?

Not under Clarkson's rules. The 2026-27 catalog marks each NP clinical course as requiring preceptor and site approval before registration. The 2021-22 handbook carved out two exceptions: requests made in My Clinical Exchange, and a preceptor change you could not prevent. Ask your advisor whether the current handbook keeps them.

Can I use a preceptor in a different state?

Only when three things line up. Clarkson's workbook must list that state as meeting requirements for Graduate Nursing, your RN license must be effective there, and the preceptor must be licensed there. Twelve states are marked as not meeting requirements for 2026-27, so check the list before you look past your state line.

What happens if I sit out a semester because I have no preceptor?

Your clinical sequence pauses, and because Clarkson allows one clinical course at a time, every later course moves back a term. Clarkson grants leaves of absence one semester at a time, and a student on leave who does not register the next semester is withdrawn. All programs must be completed within seven years.

How early should I start looking for a Clarkson preceptor?

Clarkson's 2021-22 handbook told graduate students to begin interviewing and identifying preceptors and sites upon entering the program. In practice, count back from the filing date before each course and allow up to two months for a new affiliation agreement, which means starting each search at least a term ahead.

Placement helpNeed a preceptor fastA Clarkson College agreement date or semester start is close and you have no preceptor. What Clarkson's rules allow, what to do today, and how we move quickly.PreceptorsFinding your own preceptorWhat Clarkson College's rule that each student finds the preceptor means in practice, where to start looking, and how to read the 1,000+ clinical sites line.PreceptorsWho cannot precept youThe preceptors Clarkson College rules out: relatives, clinicians under two years, PAs in four states, FNPs in acute care, hospitalists for FNP hours, and more.RequestsHealth system request routesNebraska Medicine, Children's Nebraska, CHI, Methodist, Avera, Sanford and UnityPoint: how each takes NP student requests and when its window closes.Placement helpDelayed graduationHow a missing preceptor pushes back a Clarkson College graduation: one clinical course at a time, what a lost term does to your dates, and the seven-year limit.

Last checked 2026-09-27

We check these pages against Clarkson College's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and Graduate Nursing advisor have the final word.

Clarkson asks you to find your preceptor. We make the search the easy part.

Tell us your Clarkson track, your city and your next clinical course. We line up preceptors who fit the NRS course and Clarkson's rules, gather the details the site and preceptor agreement asks for, and flag early whether the site needs a new affiliation agreement.

Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages primary care for FNP, acute care units for AGACNP, psychiatric providers for PMHNP
License, experience and site details checked against Clarkson's rules before the agreement is filed
Every clinical course planned in sequence, close to home in a state where Clarkson's graduate nursing meets requirements

Start your placement plan

Track, city and next clinical course is all we need to begin.