NP preceptors in Phoenix and Tucson

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

The big Phoenix and Tucson health systems each publish how they take students, and nearly all of them expect the school, not the student, to ask, with a signed agreement and myClinicalExchange onboarding in place weeks or months ahead. For an NAU nurse practitioner student that leaves two routes: a preceptor in an independent or community practice that you arrange and bring to NAU on the Green Form, or a system site that NAU's placement staff request for you. Our desk builds the first and prepares the second.

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Find a preceptor in the Valley or Tucson

Share your NAU track, your ZIP code and your next practicum. Your placement advisor replies with options within a workable drive.

45 daysahead, when Dignity Health's Arizona Division wants a school's placement application

4 monthsbefore a start, the earliest Mayo Clinic Arizona takes an NP rotation inquiry

Two routes into a metro placement

The Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro area counted about 5.2 million residents in Census Bureau figures for 2025, and metro Tucson about 1.1 million, so the two areas carry a long roster of family, pediatric, women's health and psychiatric practices. NAU's North Valley campus in Phoenix and its Tucson site host BSN programs; the NP programs are online, so your practicum happens wherever your preceptor practices.

Route one runs through practices that decide for themselves: owner-run family offices, NP-owned clinics, community health centers and behavioral health groups. The preceptor says yes, the site confirms, and the Green Form goes in with the box marked to show the site approved the placement.

Route two runs through the large systems, which expect the school to ask. You name the site on the Green Form, check the box requesting help, and NAU's placement staff approach the system on its terms. Either way, the FNP Program Coordinator approves the preceptor and makes the final call, and an affiliation agreement must exist or be started. NAU's placement process walks through the full sequence.

What each system publishes

These are each organization's own published rules, drawn from its pages and archived copies reviewed in September 2026. None is a statement about NAU, which publishes no list of the sites it holds agreements with.

Student placement routes published by Phoenix and Tucson systems
System	Who makes the request	Onboarding	Published lead time
Banner Health	The student's faculty, to Banner's designated student coordinator	My Clinical Exchange	None stated on the pages reviewed
HonorHealth	Affiliated academic partners, after confirming an active agreement	myClinicalExchange	Request 30 days out; onboarding finished 3 weeks out
Dignity Health, Arizona Division	The school's placement coordinator, through the Learning Institute	My Clinical Exchange	Application 45 days out
Valleywise Health	The student's school program, under an affiliation agreement	myClinicalExchange	Request 4 weeks out; approval 3 weeks out
Mayo Clinic in Arizona	The NP program's clinical rotation coordinator, from affiliated schools	Not stated	Inquiries no earlier than 4 months out
TMC Health, Tucson	Students may write to its clinical student placement team	Not stated	Not stated

Banner calls its Banner Center for Health Careers the central team for student rotations across every Banner facility. HonorHealth says it weighs new affiliation agreements against strategic initiatives and business need, and Dignity reminds schools that sending an application and receiving a placement are separate steps.

What the system rules mean for an NAU student

Three things repeat across these systems: an affiliation agreement at the school level, a request from the school's coordinator, and a round of onboarding in myClinicalExchange on top of NAU's own documents. Banner and Valleywise both discourage students from cold-calling for preceptors or open rotations.

So a clinician you know inside a large system is a lead to hand NAU rather than a deal to close yourself. Put the site on the Green Form, check the assistance box, and ask the Clinical Placement Coordinator whether NAU already has an agreement there. The system's clock then stacks on NAU's: its onboarding window, plus NAU's two-month lead time for your clinical documents.

Being on a system's payroll does not replace its student process. NAU requires an agreement even at a facility that employs you, and your student role is handled as a student placement. Clinicals at your workplace covers NAU's side, and the Arizona health systems page compares systems statewide.

Independent and community practices across the Valley and Tucson

Outside the big systems, both metros have owner-run family offices, NP-owned clinics, community health centers, pediatric and women's health practices, and psychiatric groups. Arizona lets certified nurse practitioners practice without a physician agreement, so a practice owned by an NP can take you on with the owner as your preceptor, provided that NP meets the standard NAU uses.

For FNP students, the best metro sites see every age, so pediatric and women's health hours build alongside adult care. If your main site leans adult, a second preceptor in a pediatric or women's health office can fill the gap, with its own Green Form and approval. For PMHNP students, look for psychiatric care delivered in person, since NUR 680 calls for in-person engagement.

Distance still matters in a metro area. Clinical days fall on weekdays during the term, so a clinic across the Valley from home means peak-hour driving on every one of them. A qualified preceptor near home or work usually beats a better-known name across town.

Timing a metro placement against NAU's calendar

Line the system windows up against NAU's own cutoffs. On NAU's 2022-23 Green Form, the summer request is due by the end of March, fall by the end of June and spring by the end of October; the 2021-22 form set each a month earlier, on the first of March, June and October. Confirm this year's dates with the Clinical Placement Coordinator.

Take a fall 2027 practicum that begins with the term on Aug. 23, 2027. Mayo would accept a coordinator's inquiry from about late April. NAU wants your clinical documents on file by about late June, two months before rotations. HonorHealth expects the request at least 30 days ahead and Dignity 45 days ahead. A preceptor settled in spring gives each of those clocks room to run.

When those dates are already close, need a preceptor fast has the backward plan.

Why Phoenix and Tucson students choose us

Your placement advisor searches the practices within a drive you can repeat all term, across the Valley or greater Tucson, and vets each clinician on the four points of Arizona's preceptor rule: license, a year of experience, a matching population focus and certification.

We get the site's yes, gather the preceptor's CV, license and certification for NAU, learn who signs the affiliation agreement, and time everything against NAU's cutoff and the two-month document rule. FNP students get all three practicums mapped as one sequence, with a pediatric or women's health preceptor added where the main site needs it. When a preceptor leaves mid-term, your advisor is already looking for the next one.

Send us your ZIP code and track to begin.

Questions NAU students ask

Can I call a Banner or Valleywise clinic myself to find a preceptor?

Both systems ask students not to cold-call for preceptors or rotation openings. Banner routes requests from a student's faculty to its designated coordinator, and Valleywise schedules rotations through the school program under an affiliation agreement. Put the site on your Green Form, ask for assistance there, and leave the approach to NAU's placement staff.

How does Mayo Clinic in Arizona handle NP rotation requests?

Mayo's page for its Arizona nurse practitioner clinical rotation says the student must be in a master's-level accredited NP program at an affiliated school, and that inquiries come only from the program's clinical rotation coordinator, no sooner than four months before the start. Whether NAU is affiliated is a question for NAU's Clinical Placement Coordinator.

What is myClinicalExchange, and will I need it?

It is the scheduling and onboarding platform Banner, HonorHealth, Dignity Health's Arizona Division and Valleywise name in their student processes. If your practicum lands in one of those systems, you complete that system's requirements there, such as immunizations, a drug screen and BLS, alongside NAU's own documents. Valleywise also lists a DPS Level One fingerprint clearance card or a cleared background check.

Is a Tucson placement handled differently from one in Phoenix?

The route depends on the organization, not the city. TMC Health in Tucson invites students who need a preceptorship to write to its clinical student placement team, and its medical education program includes advanced practice nurses in training. Independent and community practices in Tucson follow the same NAU steps as anywhere: Green Form, agreement, preceptor documents and approval.

Health systemsArizona health systemsBanner, HonorHealth, Dignity, Valleywise and Northern Arizona Healthcare each run a school-request route. How it shapes an NAU preceptor plan.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.WorkplacePracticum at your workplaceCan an NAU NP student do clinicals at their own job? Yes, with an affiliation agreement, a qualified preceptor, hours kept apart from shifts and NAU's approval.AgreementsAffiliation agreementsWhy every NAU clinical site needs an affiliation agreement, your own employer included, how long a new one can take, and who at the site signs it.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.Arizona lawArizona NP practice rulesArizona lets certified nurse practitioners practice and prescribe without a physician agreement. What that means for NAU students and who can precept them.

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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