NP preceptors near campus: Jacksonville, Anniston, Oxford and Gadsden
Living in JSU's own corner of Alabama makes campus days easy, yet the preceptor search still turns on your course rather than your ZIP code. Calhoun and Etowah counties hold the region's hospitals and most of its practices, and the rural counties around them carry primary care shortage designations. We search this home market for a clinician who fits your JSU practicum or residency and hand faculty a complete file.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your JSU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your JSU course.
Home ground for JSU, and still a search
The School of Nursing works out of the JSU South Complex on Pelham Road South in Jacksonville, a building that began life as the town's hospital. If you live in Jacksonville, Anniston, Oxford or Gadsden, you are a short trip from the orientation, simulation and dissemination events JSU says its online graduate programs may hold on campus, an easy edge over classmates who drive in from farther away.
Living near campus does not pick your preceptor, though. Each JSU practicum runs alongside a lecture course with a set number of hours, and the DNP residencies call for one preceptor and one site across 16 months. Whether or not JSU has a hand in arranging your placement, we find a preceptor and site near home that meet its rules, timed to your plan of study.
RMC Health System in Anniston
RMC Health System, anchored by Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center in Anniston, runs through JSU's story in several ways. Its Jacksonville hospital closed in June 2018 and the building became the South Complex, where RMC and JSU run a student health center in the west wing. JSU's trustees have also moved ahead with RMC on a freestanding emergency department for the north side of campus, expected in spring 2028.
For graduate students, the published picture is narrower. RMC's student section covers Volunteens, a Student Nurse Residency and scholarships, with no page, portal or lead time for nurse practitioner students. Where RMC names JSU, the subject is RN and LPN residency opportunities and a tuition scholarship for RMC employees, and JSU's partnership page rules doctoral programs out of that scholarship. RMC announced on April 7, 2026 that it will join Orlando Health, with closing expected in the fall; no completion notice had appeared by late September. Its Stringfellow campus has been outpatient only since July 2024.
Read RMC as a map of where many Calhoun County clinicians practice.
Gadsden and Etowah County
Riverview Regional Medical Center, a Prime Healthcare hospital in Gadsden, posts a Students & Instructors page written for school-led clinical groups. It asks for an orientation manual and a Student-Instructor Profile sent by email or fax at least two weeks before the first clinical date, holds back anyone missing documentation, and leaves a line on the profile for a preceptor's name if there is one. No separate route for nurse practitioner students appears on the page.
Gadsden Regional Medical Center, part of Community Health Systems, had no public student placement page when checked. Beyond the hospitals, Quality of Life Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Gadsden, holds its own HRSA facility designation, and East Central Alabama AHEC, the area health education center nearest JSU, is based in the city.
Access across the surrounding counties
HRSA's shortage designations show how thin primary care coverage runs outside the two metro counties. Scores run from 0 to 25, and a higher score marks greater need.
| County | Designation type | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Calhoun (JSU's county) | Low-income population | 12 |
| Etowah | Low-income population | 13 |
| Talladega | Low-income population | 20 |
| Randolph | Geographic | 15 |
| Cleburne | Geographic | 14 |
| Coosa | Geographic | 14 |
| Cherokee | Geographic (proposed for withdrawal) | 11 |
| Clay | Geographic | 11 |
Calhoun and Etowah count as metro counties; the other six are nonmetro, and Cleburne and Coosa have no hospital in the Alabama Hospital Association directory. Mental health designations deepen the picture, with Talladega's high-needs area scored 19 and Calhoun's scored 17.
Smaller hospitals serve that ring: Baptist Health Citizens in Talladega, Coosa Valley Medical Center in Sylacauga, a rural emergency hospital in Clay County, and Tanner's East Alabama hospital in Wedowee, whose ACEMAPP application for advanced practice students opens only after a preceptor or sponsoring physician is secured. Rural rotations can also touch a preceptor's state taxes, covered in the Alabama practice guide.
Fitting the search to your JSU course
What we look for in this region depends on where you stand in your plan of study.
- FNP: primary care practices for the four FNP practicums, which begin with
FNP 7869in the spring of year two and run four semesters in a row. - AGACNP: acute care preceptors, since the region's hospital medicine and specialty services are where most of that practice happens. The AGACNP practicum guide lists the hours.
- DNP: a preceptor and organization ready to host a quality-improvement project from the late-May pairing in
DNP 8796through July results, as the residency pairing guide explains. - MSN: a setting for the 254-hour population health practicums,
NU 5980andNU 5985, and for Nursing Education students, the 100-hour teaching practicum inNU 5982.
An Oxford office that suits Practicum I may lack the patient volume for a 250-hour fall term, so we check the fit course by course rather than once.
How we run a northeast Alabama search
- Your course and your townTell us your JSU program, the course ahead and whether you live in Jacksonville, Anniston, Oxford, Gadsden or a surrounding county. We work from your plan of study.
- Your clearance firstWe confirm your CastleBranch items are current and your JSU malpractice coverage is approved before any site hears from us, as JSU's graduate handbook requires.
- The matchWe look for a clinician whose practice, schedule and patients fit the course, reaching into the surrounding counties when closer practices are already committed.
- The file for facultyWe gather the preceptor's license, certification and practice details and the site's details for a contract, so JSU's faculty review a complete file. Their approval is the final word.
- On call to the last hourIf a preceptor steps away mid-term, we start the replacement search and keep the paperwork moving.
See the full process or send your details through the contact form.
Questions JSU students ask
Does RMC in Anniston take JSU nurse practitioner students?
RMC publishes no placement page, portal or lead time for nurse practitioner students. Its student section covers teen volunteering, a nurse residency and scholarships, and where it names JSU the topic is RN and LPN residencies and an employee tuition scholarship. Many Anniston clinicians practice within RMC, so it belongs on the map, but JSU's faculty clear any site for your course.
Will RMC joining Orlando Health change clinicals in Anniston?
RMC announced its agreement to join Orlando Health on April 7, 2026, and expected the deal to close in the fall. No completion notice was posted by late September 2026, and RMC has published nothing about student rotations under new ownership. If your preceptor practices within RMC, watch for any change in the paperwork a site asks for.
How often will I need to come to the Jacksonville campus?
JSU says its online graduate programs may include some campus events, naming orientation, on-site simulation and the dissemination of scholarly projects, and the DNP timeline sets Dissemination Day in July. The number and dates of the other events are not published. Living nearby makes these days simple; ask your program coordinator for your cohort's schedule.
Can I do clinical hours at a rural clinic near Jacksonville?
You can if the practice fits your course and JSU's faculty approve it. Cleburne, Randolph and Clay counties carry geographic primary care designations, and Alabama's preceptor tax credit covers only rotations in medically underserved rural areas taught for programs based in the state. Whether JSU is registered with the credit's AHEC program office is not published.
Where is the JSU School of Nursing?
At the JSU South Complex, 1701 Pelham Road South in Jacksonville. The main building once housed RMC's Jacksonville hospital, and the annex, formerly the Brookstone Medical Center, holds the college's high fidelity and low fidelity simulation labs. The main building also holds the college's classrooms, offices and nursing laboratories.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against JSU's 2026-27 catalog, nursing handbooks, program pages and licensure disclosures. Your course faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
Whether JSU helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your JSU program, your next practicum or residency and the town you train near. We find preceptors and sites that fit the course and gather what JSU's faculty need to clear them, early enough for the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice across the lifespan, adult-gerontology acute care, DNP residencies
- License, certification and site details ready for JSU's clearance, with your CastleBranch and malpractice items in order
- Across Alabama and in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee
Start your placement plan
Your program, your town and your next clinical semester is all we need to begin.