What shapes the cost of your NAU placement
Four things set your quote: which Northern Arizona University track and how many practicums we take on, the town you train near, the distance to your Green Form cutoff, and how particular the clinical setting has to be. Your placement advisor prices your plan after one conversation and sets out in writing what it covers before the search begins.
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 each NAU quote is built for one student
Two NAU students rarely need the same search. A family nurse practitioner student in Flagstaff who wants all three practicums planned is a different project from a PMHNP certificate student in Yuma who needs one psychiatric site, or an MS student living in another state with its own license rules.
That is why this site prints no prices: any single figure would be wrong for most readers. Your advisor asks a handful of questions about your course, town and timing, then quotes the plan you actually need, with each piece of work named. You see the whole picture before you decide.
Your track and how many practicums you hand us
Coverage is the biggest lever. Both the MS with the FNP emphasis and the post-master's FNP certificate carry 780 clinical hours, spread over NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665. You can ask us to cover one practicum, two, or the whole sequence, and planning all three together often means fewer separate searches, because a good preceptor may carry more than one term.
PMHNP students need psychiatric preceptors for NUR 680, taken as 13 units in the MS and as 9 or 13 units in the graduate certificate, depending on your prior degree. NAU has not published PMHNP hour totals, so we price by practicum and setting and ask you to confirm the hours with your program coordinator. Current DNP students completing hours at NAU can ask for a mentor search too. The clinical hours page lists each program's figures.
Where you live and how far you will travel
Location changes how many clinicians are within reach. Metro Phoenix has many practices, but several of its large health systems publish student processes that run through the school's coordinator, so our search there centers on independent clinics. In rural and tribal communities across northern Arizona, family and psychiatric clinicians can be few within an easy drive, and the search radius has to widen.
Students outside Arizona face extra checks. The clinical state must recognize your RN license, some states impose rules of their own on students enrolled in schools elsewhere, and NAU's licensure table lists states where its NP programs do not meet education requirements. Your advisor checks those before approaching a clinic. Your state guide shows what applies where you live.
How close the deadline is
Timing moves a quote more than most students expect. A search that starts a semester ahead can wait for the right preceptor to call back. A search that starts three weeks before a Green Form cutoff means many calls in parallel and faster document collection, which takes more of the desk's time.
NAU's 2022-23 form sets its cutoffs at March 31 (summer), June 30 (fall) and October 31 (spring), and NAU wants your clinical file complete two months before rotations begin. If you are already inside those windows, the urgent placement page explains what a short timeline involves and how we compress the search.
How specific the clinical setting needs to be
A general family practice that sees children, adults and women's health visits is the simplest fit for an FNP practicum. Some plans need more. NAU's guidelines recommend about 100 pediatric and 100 women's health hours within the 780, specialty time of 75 to 150 hours, and minimum visit counts, for example at least five pelvic exams and five prostate exams. Filling those targets can mean a second site, which our hour mix guide explains.
Sites that have never hosted an NAU student need an affiliation agreement before you start. Your advisor flags that early and gives NAU the site's administrative contact, and the extra coordination is part of the plan you are quoted.
What your quote covers
Every quote names its parts. A typical NAU plan includes:
- a search for clinicians close to you whose practice suits the course
- verification that each preceptor meets R4-19-502, the Arizona rule NAU follows
- the clinic's written yes, together with the preceptor's resume or CV, license and specialty certification
- timing built around your Green Form cutoff and the two-month document rule
- an early heads-up when a clinic has no affiliation agreement with NAU, plus the name NAU should send one to
- a fresh search if your preceptor drops out partway through a practicum
- planning for the practicums that follow
Ask your advisor to walk through each line with you before you commit.
Clinical costs that sit outside our quote
NAU's 2022-23 FNP guidelines put clinical expenses on the student: "Students are responsible for all expenses related to clinical immersion activities, including transportation and housing." NAU's tuition and fees, the IVP Fingerprint Clearance Card, AHA Basic Life Support, immunizations, background checks and drug tests where a site requires them, your personal liability policy and the clinical tracking system are all separate from our fee.
This is where a near-home preceptor matters for your budget. The same guidelines warn that some placements may require overnight stays. A preceptor in your own town turns fuel, lodging and missed shifts into an ordinary commute.
Waiting carries a cost as well. NAU's guidelines say late clinical documents may end in administrative withdrawal from both the clinical course and its theory course, with a retake the following academic year. Our page on delayed graduation shows how that pushes back a finish date.
Questions NAU students ask
Is it possible to cover only my next practicum?
Yes. Many students begin with the next course, such as NUR 661 in summer, and add later terms once the first search is done. Your advisor can price the full FNP sequence alongside it, so you can compare one term at a time with planning all three together.
Is your fee part of my NAU tuition or fees?
No. Our fee is charged by an independent placement service and stands apart from anything NAU bills. NAU sets its own tuition and fees; your quote from us covers only the placement work it lists, which your advisor explains line by line.
Is a replacement included if my preceptor quits partway?
Replacement work belongs in every plan we write. Your advisor restarts the search right away and assembles a new package for NAU's approval. The quote spells out how a replacement is handled, so the answer is settled before your practicum begins.
I already have a preceptor lead. Does that change the quote?
It can. If a clinician has already said yes, the work shifts to checking them against Arizona's rule, collecting their documents and confirming the site's approval, and the quote reflects that. Mention the lead, the clinic and the course in your first message.
How do I get a quote?
Send your NAU track, town and next practicum using the form here. Your advisor comes back with the handful of questions that matter for pricing, then sends the quote in writing, listing each part of the plan and how the search will run. The contact page explains what to include.
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, FNP Clinical Guidelines AY 2022-23 (archived)
- Northern Arizona University catalog 2026-27, MS Nursing, Advanced Practice (archived)
- Northern Arizona University, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate
- 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.