Precepting a Northern Arizona University NP student

Q: How many hours a week would a student spend with me?

That depends on the course and your schedule. A summer NUR 661 student needs 180 hours across the session; fall and spring students need 300. Your advisor settles a weekly pattern with you before the student's Green Form goes to NAU, so the plan fits your clinic days.

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

If you are a licensed physician or advanced practice nurse with at least a year in practice, and your patients match a family or psychiatric focus, you can very likely precept a Northern Arizona University nurse practitioner student. NAU asks for your CV or resume, license and certification, an affiliation agreement with your practice, and direct supervision while the student is with you. Our desk handles the matching and the paperwork so the arrangement takes little of your clinic's time.

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Offer to precept an NAU student

Tell us your specialty, your clinic's town and the days a student could join you. A placement advisor follows up with a student whose course fits.

Table. NAU FNP practicum hours (Graduate Student Handbook AY 21-22 and 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines): NUR 661 Family Primary Health Care Practicum I, Summer; NUR 663 Family Primary Health Care Practicum II, Fall; NUR 665 Family Primary Health Care Practicum III, Spring. — NAU FNP practicum hours (Graduate Student Handbook AY 21-22 and 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines): NUR 661 Family Primary Health Care Practicum I, Summer; NUR 663 Family Primary Health Care Practicum II, Fall; NUR 665 Family Primary Health Care Practicum III, Spring.

Who can precept an NAU student

The standard comes from Arizona's Board of Nursing: rule R4-19-502, reprinted in NAU's 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines. In plain terms, you qualify if you supervise the student directly, your RN or physician license (or compact privilege) is current and clean in the state you practice in, you have practiced for a year or longer as a physician or APRN, and your patients resemble the population the student's program trains for.

APRN preceptors add a current national or board certification matching their role and patient population. Clinicians employed by the federal government may use any current U.S. license. Physicians are welcome: the 2021-22 version of NAU's Green Form offered MD and DO as credential choices next to FNP. NAU has not published separate rules for PMHNP preceptors, so the student's program coordinator confirms those. Our preceptor requirements page quotes the rule in full.

What NAU asks of you

The paperwork is light and comes once. You supply a CV or resume, your professional license and any specialty certification. Your practice's administrative contact, often the office manager, receives NAU's affiliation agreement if one is not already in place, and NAU requires that agreement even when the student is your own employee. The affiliation agreements page explains how that runs.

In clinic, the student works under your direct supervision and stays out of the clinical setting unless you are present. NAU's course faculty provide indirect oversight and act as the link between the university and your practice. At the end of the rotation you evaluate the student online; the 2022-23 guidelines used Typhon for this, later NAU documents mention Exxat, and course faculty send you the current link.

How many hours a student needs

NAU's FNP students complete 780 clinical hours across three practicums, one each in summer, fall and spring:

NAU FNP practicum hours (Graduate Student Handbook AY 21-22 and 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines)
Course	Term	Clinical hours
`NUR 661` Family Primary Health Care Practicum I	Summer	180
`NUR 663` Family Primary Health Care Practicum II	Fall	300
`NUR 665` Family Primary Health Care Practicum III	Spring	300

PMHNP students complete NUR 680, a psychiatric clinical practicum that NAU's catalog says requires in-person engagement. NAU lists it in units rather than hours, so the student's coordinator confirms the hours for each term. Weekends, holidays and university breaks are off-limits for clinical time unless NAU's FNP Program Coordinator has said yes beforehand. The pacing page shows what these totals mean week by week.

What the student arrives with

Before an NAU student reaches your clinic, NAU's 2022-23 guidelines expect these to be in place:

an RN license in good standing where your clinic is located
an Arizona DPS IVP Fingerprint Clearance Card
American Heart Association Basic Life Support, with online-only certification not accepted
immunizations and TB screening
a personal professional liability policy
a background check and drug test where your agency requires them
NAU's HIPAA training

FNP students also arrive watching their hour mix. NAU suggests roughly 100 hours each in pediatrics and women's health, so tell us if your practice sees children or offers women's health visits.

Why clinicians precept NAU students

Precepting is volunteer teaching, and preceptors are unpaid. Arizona's state grant for volunteer graduate preceptors (A.R.S. 36-1806) received no money in fiscal 2026 or 2027, and the statute is marked for repeal at the start of 2027.

The reasons to say yes are closer to home. Many NAU students are working RNs in rural Arizona and tribal communities, and a student who trains in your clinic may be the colleague you hire next. The MS PMHNP even ends with NUR 689, a capstone built around a health need in a rural community. Teaching a student from your own region builds the workforce your patients will depend on.

What our desk handles for you

We send you a student whose course fits your practice, build the rotation around your clinic days, and gather everything NAU needs from you in a single request. We connect your office manager with NAU's agreement process and keep one advisor as your contact if anything changes during the term.

To offer a placement, use the form on this page with "I'm a preceptor (not a student)" selected, or write through the contact page. Include your license, specialty and population focus, your clinic's town, and the days and hours a student could join you.

Questions NAU students ask

Do I need an Arizona license to precept an NAU student?

The rule NAU prints asks for a license valid in the state where you practice, or any current U.S. license for federal employees. Some states add conditions for out-of-state programs; Nevada, for example, expects APRN preceptors there to hold a Nevada license. Ask us about your state before you commit.

Can a physician assistant precept an NAU NP student?

The Arizona rule NAU applies names physicians and advanced practice nurses. NAU's 2021-22 Green Form did include an "Other" credential box, but NAU has not published what it covers, so any other credential is the FNP Program Coordinator's call. Tell us your credential and we will put the question to the student's coordinator.

Does my practice need a contract with NAU?

Yes, an affiliation agreement. If your site has none with NAU, NAU starts one from the details on the student's Green Form and sends it to your administrative contact. NAU's 2021-22 form said the process can run anywhere from days to several months, so an early start helps everyone.

Can I precept a student who works for me?

NAU's DNP handbook bars a student's immediate supervisor from serving as mentor. The FNP guidelines publish no such exclusion, but the FNP Program Coordinator reviews every preceptor. Our who cannot precept page sets out what NAU has and has not written down.

How many hours a week would a student spend with me?

That depends on the course and your schedule. A summer NUR 661 student needs 180 hours across the session; fall and spring students need 300. Your advisor settles a weekly pattern with you before the student's Green Form goes to NAU, so the plan fits your clinic days.

RulesPreceptor requirementsWho can precept a Northern Arizona University NP student: Arizona rule R4-19-502 as NAU applies it, from license and experience to focus and certification.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.RulesWho cannot precept youNAU's DNP rules bar relatives, partners, direct supervisors and fellow DNP students as preceptors. What the FNP rules leave open and how to screen a candidate.FNPNUR 661: Practicum INUR 661, Northern Arizona University's first FNP practicum: 180 summer clinical hours, its prerequisites, the spring paperwork dates and choosing a preceptor.HoursPacing clinical hoursHow to spread 180 or 300 NAU practicum hours across a term: weekday math, break and weekend rules, late starts and how a preceptor's schedule sets your pace.Placement helpContactMessage our NAU placement desk: what to include about your track, course, town and deadlines so your placement advisor can start the preceptor search right away.

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.