From your first message to your first cleared hour
You tell us your JSU program, the course coming up and the town you live in. We search for a preceptor and site that fit that course, confirm them, and assemble what JSU's faculty review, so your semester opens with the placement ready for their sign-off. Here is each step, in the order it happens.
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.
Step one: tell us where you are in your JSU plan
Everything starts with four facts: your JSU program, the clinical course ahead of you, where you live and how far you are willing to drive, and the semester that course runs. A student heading into FNP 7869 in spring needs something different from one preparing for ANP 7873 in summer, and both differ from a Post-Master's student approaching DNP 8796.
Your placement advisor checks the course against JSU's 2026-27 catalog before the search opens: the practicum hours, the patient population the course names and the lecture course it is paired with. If you are unsure which course comes first in your plan of study, the first clinical course guide lays out the timing for each program.
The search and the match, step by step
Once your advisor has the course pinned down, the work runs in five steps. Each one ends with something you can see, so you always know where your placement stands.
- Map the clinicians near youWe look for nurse practitioners, physicians and practices within your driving range whose patients match the course: family practice across the lifespan for the FNP track, hospital and acute settings for AGACNP, an organization ready for a quality-improvement project for a DNP residency.
- Talk with the preceptorBefore your name goes forward, we confirm the clinician's interest, schedule and capacity for the hours your course sets, and whether the practice can host a student that semester.
- Confirm the siteWe gather the facility details a clinical contract calls for and note anything the site asks of students, such as its own orientation or badge steps.
- Prepare the clearance fileThe preceptor's license, certification and practice details go into one organized package, each document read for missing pages and lapsing dates first.
- Hand it to JSU's facultyJSU's faculty review and clear every preceptor and site. Our part is a file so complete and well matched that their review can move on the first pass.
Your side of the file: CastleBranch and malpractice first
Two items belong to you, and JSU wants them settled early. Your CastleBranch record holds immunizations, TB testing, flu, a yearly physical, American Heart Association CPR, health insurance, your license and several signed forms. JSU's graduate handbook adds a malpractice policy, purchased from the School of Nursing, that must be uploaded and cleared before the first call or email to any practicum or residency site.
We time our outreach around that rule. Before a single site conversation, your advisor checks with you that the coverage shows as approved and that nothing in CastleBranch is about to lapse mid-semester, like a flu shot or a CPR card. The CastleBranch guide lists every item JSU names.
Have your JSU malpractice coverage approved in CastleBranch before any practicum or residency site is contacted, including by us.
How the process changes for a DNP residency
A DNP residency asks for more than a single semester. JSU's DNP timeline calls for the same preceptor and clinical site across 16 months, three residency courses of 210 hours each, and a quality-improvement project that moves from proposal to on-site implementation to Dissemination Day on campus in July. The Post-Master's DNP follows the same residency pattern.
So the search weighs commitment as heavily as fit. We ask prospective preceptors about their plans for the full span, the project meetings they would host and the organization's appetite for a quality-improvement effort. JSU's timeline puts the pairing in late May during DNP 8796, with a smaller cohort starting in August; the residency pairing guide explains both tracks.
MSN, teaching and bachelor's practicums
The same steps fit JSU's other programs, scaled to each course. NU 5980 and NU 5985 in the MSN Population Health carry 254 practicum hours apiece, so we look for community and public health settings that can host population-level work across a summer and then a fall. For the Nursing Education concentration and certificate, NU 5982 is a 100-hour teaching practicum that JSU plans around a location convenient for the student, and we look for an experienced nurse educator in that setting.
STEP RN-BSN students complete clinical experiences in NU 456, and the traditional BSN ends with the NU 428 preceptor practicum. For both, your advisor starts from what your course faculty have asked of you and builds the search around it.
After the match: on call until your hours are done
A placement is finished when the hours are. Through the semester, your advisor stays reachable for schedule changes, a new site requirement or a preceptor whose availability shifts. You hear from the same advisor throughout. If a preceptor steps away, we begin the replacement search right away and prepare the new file with the same care as the first.
Any change that alters your clinical plan also belongs with JSU. If you move, change jobs or your planned clinical setting shifts, the graduate handbook has you notify JSU, including your course faculty and program coordinator, and hold off until the change is approved. For what to do in the moment, see when a preceptor drops out.
Questions JSU students ask
How far ahead of a JSU practicum should I contact you?
As soon as you know which semester the course falls in. Each NP practicum runs once a year in a set term, so a missed semester can push the rest of your sequence back a year. Earlier contact gives your advisor more clinicians to compare and more time to prepare the clearance file for JSU's faculty. If your course starts within weeks, say so on the form.
Do you work with JSU students who live in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi or Tennessee?
Yes. JSU's NP tracks consider residents of Alabama and those four states, and we search near wherever you live. Each state treats clinicals run by an out-of-state program in its own way, and some add steps the school takes first. The admission states guide covers what JSU publishes on each.
Who gives final approval to the preceptor you find?
JSU does. Its faculty review and clear each preceptor and site. Our role is the groundwork: the clinician's credentials and practice profile, plus the facility information a contract needs, organized so their review opens on a complete record. The approval guide explains how that review works at JSU.
What if part of my JSU placement is already arranged?
Then we build around it. Tell your advisor what is already in place and what is still open, whether that is a later practicum, a backup preceptor or the site paperwork for a residency. However your JSU placement comes together, the aim holds steady: a clinician and setting that suit your course and clear JSU's review.
Can my preceptor work at the practice where I am employed?
Possibly. JSU's graduate materials publish no rule on clinical hours at a student's own workplace, though its older BSN practicum materials barred precepting on a unit of employment. Raise it with your course faculty early, and see the workplace clinicals guide for what to ask.
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.