About NAU Preceptor
NAU Preceptor is an independent placement desk that serves one school's nursing students: Northern Arizona University's. We arrange preceptors and clinical sites near home for NAU's nurse practitioner students, following NAU's own steps from the Green Form to the FNP Program Coordinator's approval, and each guide here is drawn from NAU's own published documents.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your NAU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Why we work with a single school
Every nursing school has its own forms, deadlines and approval chain, and small differences decide whether a placement goes through the first time. NAU's are specific: a Green Form with two boxes, cutoffs tied to each term, clinical documents due two months ahead, preceptors measured against Arizona rule R4-19-502, and an FNP sequence of 180, 300 and 300 hours.
Serving only NAU students means our advisors carry those details in their heads. When a clinic asks what NAU will need from it, the answer is ready, and when your Green Form goes in, it holds what the FNP Program Coordinator looks for. Depth in one program's rules is the reason our packages arrive complete.
Who you work with
Each student gets one placement advisor: the person who reads your first message, builds your plan and stays with you across every practicum. Behind your advisor, the placement desk makes the calls to clinics, collects preceptor documents and tracks each site's answer. Because the same advisor carries you from your first practicum to your last, nobody has to relearn your town, your schedule or the preceptors who have already said yes.
You always know who to ask. Your advisor handles questions about the search, your course faculty handle questions about the course, and NAU's coordinators handle approval. We keep those lines distinct so nothing falls between them, and your advisor tells you which of NAU's offices a given question belongs to.
What we think a good NAU placement looks like
Four qualities guide every search our desk runs:
- Close to home. NAU's guidelines note that some placements may need overnight stays and that travel costs fall on the student. A preceptor within easy reach of home and work spares you both.
- Matched to the course. Family primary care across all ages for FNP, with room for pediatric and women's health hours; psychiatric care for PMHNP.
- Ready for NAU's review. A preceptor who meets the Arizona rule, a site that has agreed, and documents complete before the cutoff.
- Planned ahead. The next practicum is in motion before the current one ends.
How we work alongside NAU
NAU's process gives students a real part to play: its FNP guidelines encourage students to suggest preceptors, and the Green Form accepts a preceptorship the student has already arranged. We work inside that design, respect every role NAU sets, and treat NAU's staff as what they are: the people who make the final call.
You complete and submit the Green Form, as the form asks. NAU's Clinical Placement Coordinator handles the rotation and any affiliation agreement, course faculty oversee the clinical experience, and the FNP Program Coordinator decides on every preceptor. Our job is to make each of those steps easier by giving NAU a complete, qualified placement to review. The coordinator roles page explains who does what at NAU.
How we write and check this site
Every NAU fact here traces to an NAU source: pages on nau.edu and in.nau.edu, NAU's catalog, and NAU's own clinical guidelines. NAU has taken its graduate clinical handbooks offline, so we cite the newest ones anyone can still read, chiefly the 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines, and we date them wherever we rely on them.
When NAU's documents disagree, as its two sets of Green Form deadlines do, we present both versions and point you to your program coordinator. When NAU is silent, as on PMHNP hour totals, we say so plainly. Every page carries its review date and a source list, and the NAU clinical systems hub gathers every guide in one place.
Where we search
Across Arizona and beyond it, wherever an NAU student needs a clinic within reach. Our desk arranges placements in Flagstaff and northern Arizona, around Phoenix and Tucson, in Yuma, and in the rural and tribal communities where many NAU students live and work. The Flagstaff guide and the Phoenix and Tucson guide describe how clinics and health systems there handle student requests.
Many NAU students live in other states. For them, your advisor checks NAU's licensure table and the rules that state applies to students of schools based elsewhere, before approaching any clinic, then searches locally once the path is clear. NAU publishes no rule on graduate clinicals outside Arizona, so that final question always goes to your program coordinator.
Questions NAU students ask
Is NAU Preceptor part of Northern Arizona University?
No. NAU Preceptor is an independent placement service. NAU's own staff and coordinators run its clinical process and approve every preceptor and site. Our desk prepares placements that fit that process and hands them to you for submission on the Green Form.
Where can I read reviews from NAU students?
On our reviews page. It carries only genuine reviews from NAU students we have placed, published with their permission, alongside their NAU track, the state where they completed their clinicals and the date. Nothing on it is written by us.
Can clinicians contact you too?
Yes. Physicians and nurse practitioners who would like to teach an NAU nurse practitioner student can reach the placement desk through our preceptor page. We match each clinician with a student whose course fits the practice, work around the clinic's days, and handle the paperwork NAU needs from the site.
How current is the NAU information on this site?
Look for the review date near the top of each page and the source list at the bottom. Because NAU no longer posts graduate handbooks, some process details come from the 2022-23 guidelines, and the page says so where that applies. Your program coordinator and course faculty confirm the current rules.
What is the first step?
Use the form here, or our contact page, to tell us your NAU track, where you live and which practicum comes next. A placement advisor replies with questions or a plan and a written quote, and the search begins once you agree to it.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Northern Arizona University's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your program coordinator and course faculty have the final word.
- Northern Arizona University, Maria and Steve Sanghi College of Nursing
- Northern Arizona University, FNP Clinical Guidelines AY 2022-23 (archived)
- Northern Arizona University, Student handbooks page listing the APRN Clinical Handbook (archived)
- Northern Arizona University, Professional licensure by state
NAU welcomes a preceptor you arrange. We arrange one close to home.
Tell us your NAU track, your town and your next practicum. We line up preceptors who fit the course and Arizona's preceptor rule, confirm the site's approval, and gather the CV, license and certification the Green Form needs, well before NAU's cutoff.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages family primary care for FNP, psychiatric settings for PMHNP
- License, experience and certification checked against the rule NAU applies, before the Green Form goes in
- All three FNP practicums planned together, near home instead of a long drive away
Start your placement plan
Track, town and next practicum is all we need to begin.