Questions Clarkson students ask us
The short version: we place Clarkson College graduate nursing students with preceptors and sites that fit their NRS course and Clarkson's rules, wherever Clarkson's state workbook says graduate nursing meets requirements. Start a term or two ahead, bring your track and next course, and lean on your Graduate Nursing advisor and course faculty for anything Clarkson has changed since its last public documents. The questions below cover ground the rest of this site leaves open.
Ask us about your placement
Send your track, next course and city. Your placement advisor replies with a plan for your next clinical.
Which Clarkson is this site about?
Clarkson College in Omaha, Nebraska, on the one-block campus at 42nd and Dodge: the college behind the online MSN, post-graduate certificate and DNP nursing programs, with a single campus weekend for nurse practitioner students. In Clarkson's own words, it is an educational partner with Nebraska Medicine.
A private university in Potsdam, New York, shares part of the name. That school is unrelated, and none of these guides describe it. If your catalog lives at catalog.clarksoncollege.edu and your courses carry NRS codes, you are in the right place.
Throughout the site we use Clarkson's own names: the Graduate Nursing Student Handbook, the Compliance office, the Clinical/Practicum Site & Preceptor Agreement Form, Typhon, Qualified First/Verified and the Graduate Weekend. When a document has left Clarkson's public site, we give its year so you can ask for the current version.
Which students and programs do you place?
Every Clarkson program in which the student brings the preceptor. In practice: every MSN nurse practitioner track (FNP, AGACNP, PMHNP), the certificate version of each, the three BSN to DNP tracks, and the two MSN specialty practicums, NRS 894 for Nursing Education and NRS 898 for Nursing Healthcare Administration.
DNP students also choose an External Subject Area Expert/Mentor for the scholarly project; Clarkson's 2023-24 DNP Hours Guide made finding that person the student's job, and we search for mentors with the advanced degree or project expertise the guide describes. RN to BSN students looking for an NRS 482 practicum site near home can use the same form.
Nurse anesthesia is the exception: that program places its residents at its own clinical sites, so our work centers on Clarkson's online programs. Every track and its hours sit on the programs hub.
Does a placement service fit within Clarkson's rules?
Nothing in Clarkson's published documents rules it out. The graduate handbook makes finding a preceptor the student's responsibility and sets the conditions the preceptor and site must meet; it says nothing about how you find them. Clarkson's official sources neither mention placement services nor forbid them. What Clarkson checks is the result: a preceptor and site that meet its rules, on an agreement filed on time.
The approval chain stays exactly as Clarkson built it. You start the Clinical/Practicum Site & Preceptor Agreement, and your Graduate Nursing advisor, the Compliance office and course faculty decide. Our part is to hand you a preceptor who fits Clarkson's rules, with details complete enough that the review moves cleanly. The options compared page sets our service beside the other routes.
How early should I reach out?
One to two terms before the clinical course starts. Clarkson's last published agreement dates were Nov. 1 (spring), Mar. 1 (summer) and Jun. 1 (fall), and when a site has no affiliation agreement with Clarkson, the Compliance office may need up to two months to put one in place. Some health systems open their windows earlier still: Nebraska Medicine's spring window for NP requests runs Sept. 1 to Oct. 1.
Since Clarkson allows one clinical course per term, the best moment to start the next search is while the current course is under way. Deadline only weeks away? Read need a preceptor fast for the short-notice plan, and keep clinical deadlines open for the full calendar. Earlier contact also leaves room for a second choice if the first practice says no.
What do you need from me to start?
Send these with your request
- Your Clarkson track and level: MSN, post-graduate certificate or BSN to DNP
- Your next clinical course by NRS code and the term it starts
- Where you live, plus each state your RN license covers, including compact privileges
- Your employer and department, so we keep your clinical outside your own unit
- Names of clinicians you have already asked, and their answers
- Your status in Qualified First/Verified, if you have set it up
That is enough for your placement advisor to begin. The form here is the quickest route; longer questions can go through the contact page. If you already know which practice you want, say so, and we check it against Clarkson's rules before looking further.
Where do I find Clarkson's current clinical rules?
In three places. The 2026-27 academic catalog online holds the course pages, hour figures and policies. The Graduate Nursing Student Handbook is available on request; Clarkson's certificate page tells students to ask to view it for current details. Your Graduate Nursing advisor and course faculty confirm the rest, including current deadlines and forms.
Clarkson took its graduate handbooks, preceptor handbooks and November 2023 clinical sheets off its public site after mid-2025. Every detail this site draws from those documents carries its year, so you can check it against the version your advisor gives you. Where two Clarkson sources disagree, such as the practicum hours or the DNP post-graduate minimum, our pages show both figures and name who settles them.
What if I move to another state during the program?
Before the move, speak with your program director. The permanent address in MyCC sets your state for Clarkson's licensure disclosures, and moving to a state where Clarkson's workbook says graduate nursing does not meet requirements can cost financial aid eligibility or the ability to finish. Twelve states carry that answer in the 2026-27 workbook.
If your new state is open, your clinicals move with you: a new site, a preceptor licensed in that state and an RN license effective there. We pick up the search in your new area, starting with the course you are in if the move lands mid-term. The state authorization guide lists every state's answer.
Questions Clarkson students ask
Can a coworker precept me?
Yes, with a limit. The 2021-22 handbook permitted clinicals with your employer as long as you trained outside your home department and kept paid and clinical time in separate records. A clinician elsewhere in your organization can work if they meet the preceptor rules; your own unit is the part to avoid.
Can a relative or family friend precept me?
A relative cannot. Clarkson's 2021-22 handbook ruled out family members, extended family included, and hours with them do not count. The family rule does not mention friends, but any preceptor still needs two years in practice, licensure where the clinical happens and a practice that fits the course, and your faculty approve the choice.
What does placement cost?
Your quote reflects your track, which course is next, your location and your start date. Your placement advisor gives it after reviewing your details, and the cost page walks through each factor. Clarkson's own program charges are separate and come from the college.
Does Clarkson's 1,000+ clinical sites line mean the college will place me?
Clarkson's nursing page markets access to more than a thousand clinical sites in 45 states, but it does not say who finds a graduate student's site. Clarkson's graduate handbook, and its 2023 clinical sheets after it, leave the search and the first step of the agreement to the student.
Do my preceptors have to be in Omaha?
No. Clarkson's program pages describe clinicals in or near your home community, and the graduate handbook notes that its students live throughout the United States. Your preceptor needs a license in the state you train in, and that state has to be one of those Clarkson's workbook marks as meeting requirements for graduate nursing.
What if my preceptor cancels partway through a course?
Tell course faculty right away, then send us your course, hours logged and dates. Clarkson's 2021-22 handbook expects the student to find an alternate promptly, and time with a replacement counts only once that person's paperwork is approved, so we start the replacement search as soon as we hear from you.
Related pages
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.