Can't find a preceptor? A plan for NAU NP students

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

No preceptor yet, and the practicum is getting closer. NAU's process gives you more room than it feels like: you can bring a preceptor you have arranged, ask NAU's placement staff to help request a site you want, or take a placement NAU offers, which may involve travel. The plan below gets a stalled search moving within two weeks, and our placement desk can run the whole search for you.

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Hand us your preceptor search

Tell us your NAU track, your town and the practicum you need covered. Your placement advisor takes it from there.

Numbered steps. A two-week plan to get unstuck: 1 Write down your two dates; 2 Tell NAU where you stand; 3 Redraw your map; 4 Screen before you ask; 5 Ask with a complete packet. — A two-week plan to get unstuck: 1 Write down your two dates; 2 Tell NAU where you stand; 3 Redraw your map; 4 Screen before you ask; 5 Ask with a complete packet.

Why NAU searches stall

Most stuck searches run into the same few walls. An FNP site has to see all ages, since NAU recommends pediatric and women's health hours alongside adult care, and plenty of offices near you may see adults only. The clinician must also meet Arizona's preceptor rule as NAU applies it, which generally means at least a year of practice and, for nurse practitioners, national certification.

Large health systems add a wall of their own. Banner, Valleywise and Northern Arizona Healthcare publish school-led processes, and Banner and Valleywise discourage students from cold-calling for preceptors. Every site, including an employer, also needs an affiliation agreement with NAU, which can take days or months.

Then there is the calendar. NAU wants clinical documents on file two months before rotations, and each term has a Green Form cutoff. A search that starts late meets both at once, which is why the plan below starts with dates.

What NAU's process gives you to work with

NAU's 2022-23 FNP guidelines describe a shared model: students are invited to suggest preceptors, and the FNP Program Coordinator makes the final placement decision. The Green Form carries it out and offers two boxes. One tells NAU the site has already approved the placement; the other asks for help requesting a placement you are interested in.

That second box is the one to know when you are stuck. If you can name the clinic or system you want but cannot close it yourself, put it on the form and bring in the Clinical Placement Coordinator. NAU can also offer you a placement of its own, and the section on offers below covers how to weigh one.

Both routes reward the same habits: acting early, and arriving with a specific, qualified preceptor. Finding your own preceptor explains the shared model, and the Green Form page covers what the form asks.

A two-week plan to get unstuck

Write down your two datesNote your practicum, its term, the Green Form cutoff for that term and the date two months before rotations begin. Need a preceptor fast lays them out term by term.
Tell NAU where you standLet your course faculty and the Clinical Placement Coordinator know you have no preceptor yet. If there is a site you want, send it in on the Green Form with the assistance box checked.
Redraw your mapList every practice within a drive you can repeat on weekdays all term: owner-run family offices, NP-owned clinics, rural health clinics, community health centers and, for PMHNP, behavioral health agencies.
Screen before you askCheck each clinician's license, years of practice, population focus and certification, so you only ask people NAU can approve. For FNP, confirm the practice sees children and women's health patients.
Ask with a complete packetGive each candidate your course, total hours, term dates and weekday availability, plus what NAU will need from them: a CV or resume, license, certification and an online evaluation of you at the end.
Keep your own file movingBLS, immunizations, TB screening, the fingerprint clearance card and your liability policy are due two months ahead whether or not a preceptor has signed.

Waiting for a preceptor to turn up is the costly move: NAU's guidelines link late clinical documents to administrative withdrawal from both the practicum and its theory course.

PMHNP students: confirm the route first

The handbook that covered NAU's PMHNP tracks, the 2023-24 APRN Clinical Handbook, is no longer posted, and no archived copy could be found. The process NAU published in full is the FNP one, so students in the MS PMHNP emphasis and the PMHNP certificate should confirm with their program coordinator how preceptors are requested and approved today.

Some points are settled. NUR 680 is marked in the catalog as needing in-person engagement and direct patient care, so look for psychiatric settings where you are on site: community behavioral health agencies, psychiatric practices, or primary care clinics with a psychiatric NP on staff. NAU prints no PMHNP hour total. Applying NAU's graduate ratio of 60 hours per unit to the 13-unit NUR 680 suggests about 780 hours in the MS, but that is our inference, not NAU's figure. The NUR 680 page has more.

If NAU offers a placement far from home

An offer from NAU is a real option, and it deserves a real look. NAU's guidelines say the program tries to keep travel down but that overnight stays may be needed, and transportation and housing fall to the student. Before you answer, count the time: the drive or the stay repeats on every clinical day of the term.

If a closer preceptor is realistic, raise it quickly and specifically. The guidelines also say a student who declines an offered placement over travel preference is not owed an alternate, so turning one down without a qualified, site-approved preceptor in hand is a gamble. A named preceptor with documents ready gives the FNP Program Coordinator something concrete to weigh, and placement options compared sets the routes side by side.

How our placement desk takes over the search

When you hand us the search, your placement advisor works the map for you: practices within your drive, clinicians screened against Arizona's rule as NAU applies it, and sites that see the patients your course needs. We make the ask, confirm the site's approval, collect the CV, license and certification, and find out who signs the affiliation agreement, so your Green Form goes in complete and ahead of the cutoff.

For FNP students we plan NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665 together, so the next term's search is underway before this one ends. If a preceptor later leaves, your advisor is already reachable and the replacement search begins at once. Tell us where you are and which practicum is next.

Questions NAU students ask

Does NAU place students who have no preceptor?

NAU's guidelines describe a shared process rather than a promise either way. The Clinical Placement Coordinator can help request a placement you are interested in, NAU can offer a placement of its own, and the FNP Program Coordinator decides. An offered site may involve travel or overnight stays, so a qualified preceptor near home keeps more of the outcome in your hands.

Can I start my practicum late if a preceptor says yes after the term begins?

NAU's guidelines say students are told when they may begin, and that clinical documents belong on file two months before rotations. A late start also squeezes 180 or 300 hours into fewer weeks, with weekend and break clinicals needing prior approval. Ask course faculty and the FNP Program Coordinator what is possible before you count on it.

Is it better to ask a nurse practitioner or a physician?

Either can qualify. Arizona's rule as NAU applies it accepts physicians and advanced practice nurses who have practiced for at least a year with a comparable population, and nurse preceptors also need national certification. For FNP hours the deciding factor is usually the patient mix: an office that sees children, adults and women's health visits covers more of NAU's recommended split.

What if my employer's clinic offers to host me?

That can be one of the quicker routes, but NAU requires an affiliation agreement with the facility even when it employs you, and the preceptor must meet the same rule as anyone else. Start the agreement early and keep your student role distinct from your job; clinicals at your workplace covers what NAU's documents say.

PreceptorsFinding your own preceptorNAU encourages NP students to suggest preceptors. How the shared model works, why a preceptor near home matters and how to line one up for the Green Form.FormThe Green FormWhat NAU's FNP Preceptor/Agency Green Form asks, its two boxes, where to find it, who files it, and the term cutoffs on both versions of the form.Deadline closeNeed a preceptor fastA Green Form cutoff or NAU's two-month document rule is close. The dates by term, what takes longest, and how to get a complete preceptor request in on time.Placement helpPlacement options comparedFour routes to an NAU preceptor compared: arrange one yourself, ask NAU for help, use your workplace, or hand the search to a placement service like ours.Placement helpHow it worksStep by step: how our desk finds an NAU nurse practitioner preceptor near home, checks R4-19-502, secures site approval and readies your Green Form early.Northern ArizonaFlagstaff and northern ArizonaHow NAU NP students find preceptors around Flagstaff, the Verde Valley, Tuba City and rural northern Arizona, and how the region's systems take requests.

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.

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

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Track, town and next practicum is all we need to begin.