Doing JSU clinicals where you already work
JSU's public documents say almost nothing about completing a graduate practicum at your own employer. Two items come near it: the graduate handbook's policy on reporting changes in employment and projected clinical experience, and a retired undergraduate rule that kept BSN students off their own units. This guide lays out both and lists the questions to settle with your faculty before a workplace site becomes your plan.
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What JSU publishes, and what it leaves open
No graduate rule on precepting at your place of employment turned up in the JSU sources reviewed for this site: the graduate handbooks back to 2015-16, the 2026-27 catalog, the DNP and MSN program pages, the plans of study and the two clinical timelines. So the answer to a question like "can I do my FNP hours at my clinic?" is not on JSU's public pages. It comes from your course faculty and your track's clinical coordinator.
Alabama's nursing education rules explain why the decision sits with them. Rule 610-X-3-.02(14)(g) keeps nursing faculty responsible for planning, carrying out and evaluating every student clinical learning experience, so a workplace arrangement is a faculty call, however convenient it looks from your side.
What JSU does publish ties your job to your clinical plan in one place, and hints at an older view in another. Both are below.
The employment rule in JSU's graduate handbook
The 2024-25 Graduate Handbook has a State of Residence, Employment, and Projected Clinical Experience Policy. At enrollment, each graduate student completes and signs a statement about out-of-state residence. After that, a new home state, a new employer or a new projected clinical setting is reported to the faculty, the program coordinator and the Administrative Coordinator, Graduate Programs, and approved before it takes effect.
Read plainly, JSU links your employer to your clinical plan on paper. Taking a job at a hospital you hoped would host you is a reportable change. So is leaving the employer whose clinic was going to be your site. The handbook also cautions that an approved change can still affect your progression.
The policy does not say whether your employer may serve as your clinical site. It only makes sure JSU knows about the connection. The 2024-25 edition is the newest graduate handbook JSU posts, so ask whether a later version has changed the wording.
The retired BSN rule on units of employment
A 2021 archive copy of JSU's former BSN practicum pages told NU 428 students that they could not precept with relatives or friends or at a unit of employment. The same pages had the preceptor sign the student's clinical time log daily, and time before the preceptor arrived or after the preceptor left did not count.
That page is retired, and it covered the undergraduate senior practicum, not graduate NP or DNP courses. It is not current graduate policy. It also does not prove the graduate rule is different. Use it as a reason to ask the question directly, and ask early, before you promise your manager anything.
If your graduate course applies something similar, the practical issue is separation: student hours on a different unit, or with a different supervisor, from your paid shifts. Your faculty will tell you where that line falls.
Questions to settle before you plan on your employer
Send these to your course faculty or track clinical coordinator in one GEM email, and keep the reply with your clinical records.
- May my practicum take place at my employer, and on the unit or in the clinic where I work?
- May my preceptor be someone who supervises me in my job, or a coworker on my team?
- How are student hours kept separate from paid hours, and do any paid hours count?
- Does my employer need a contract with JSU even though I am already on staff?
- Does my role there fit my track's population: pediatric through geriatric care for FNP, late adolescent through older-adult acute care for AGACNP?
- If I change jobs mid-program, what happens to a site that depended on my employment?
- For DNP residents: may my quality-improvement project run at my own facility, and who there serves as preceptor?
Preceptor qualifications are a separate question with their own guide: see JSU preceptor requirements. For which title handles what, see JSU clinical roles.
Program by program: where the workplace question comes up
JSU's wording on clinical settings differs by program. None of it answers the workplace question outright, but some of it leaves more room for a setting you already know.
| Program | Clinical course | JSU's wording |
|---|---|---|
| BSN-DNP FNP and AGACNP | FNP 7869-FNP 7877, ANP 7869-ANP 7877 | Hours earned while working with a licensed preceptor; no workplace rule found |
| DNP residency (both DNP routes) | DNP 8797-DNP 8799 | One preceptor and site for 16 months; JSU invites organizations to engage DNP students on quality-improvement work |
| Post-Master's DNP entry | NU 5841 | Practicum hours may also be completed with organizational leaders |
| MSN Population Health, all concentrations | NU 5980, NU 5985 | Clinical experiences designed around the student's individual learning needs |
| MSN Nursing Education, Nursing Education certificate | NU 5982 | Teaching practicum set up with the student in a setting the student chooses |
| STEP RN-BSN | NU 456 | Experiences designed around the individual learning needs of the working RN |
The teaching practicum has its own guide, NU 5982, and the DNP route is covered in DNP residency pairing.
Your employer's student process still applies
Being on staff and being a student in the same building can run through different offices. Where regional systems publish an NP student process, it runs through the student side, with its own paperwork and timelines.
Huntsville Hospital asks NP students to complete learning modules and a clinical student registration, and its form requires a current affiliation agreement with the school. Atrium Health Floyd in Rome, Georgia, requires an agreement with your school, compliant status in ACEMAPP and a Floyd clinician who agrees to precept before you apply. JSU is on Floyd's NP agreement list; the system has paused new agreements with other schools.
If you work inside a larger system, ask its student placement contact, not only your manager, whether employees follow the same path. A yes from your unit is the start of the process, not the end of it.
When a workplace site is not the answer
Whether JSU helps with your placement or not, we find you a preceptor and site that fit JSU's rules, including when your faculty steer you away from your own unit. JSU students choose us because we build the whole file around JSU's process, not a generic checklist.
- We look for a preceptor near home but outside your chain of command, matched to your FNP or AGACNP course.
- We assemble the preceptor's credentials and practice information plus the contract details for the site, so your faculty see a complete file.
- Your tracker requirements and malpractice approval get checked first, before anyone calls a site.
- If your employer path is still open, we keep a second option ready in case it stalls.
Our steps are set out in how it works, or send your course and start term through the form below.
Questions JSU students ask
Can JSU nurse practitioner students do clinicals at their own job?
JSU's public pages and handbooks contain no graduate rule either way. Under Alabama's nursing education rules, faculty are responsible for planning every student clinical experience, so ask your course faculty or track clinical coordinator in writing. A retired JSU page barred BSN practicum students from their own unit, which is a reason to ask early rather than assume.
Can my manager be my preceptor for a JSU practicum?
JSU does not address supervisors as preceptors on its public pages. Alabama defines an advanced practice program preceptor by license and role, which the preceptor requirements guide covers. Whether someone who manages you can also evaluate you as a student is a question for your course faculty before anyone signs on.
Do I have to tell JSU if I change jobs during my nursing program?
Yes. The 2024-25 Graduate Handbook lists a job change among the changes graduate students must report, alongside moving states or a new projected clinical setting, and names the faculty, program coordinator and graduate programs' administrative coordinator as recipients. The change must be approved, and the handbook notes it can affect your progression.
Do paid work hours count as JSU clinical hours?
JSU does not publish a graduate rule on paid hours. The retired BSN practicum pages counted only time spent with the preceptor present, signed daily. For NP and DNP courses, confirm with your course faculty how student hours are kept separate from employment before you log anything.
Can my JSU DNP project take place at the facility where I work?
JSU's clinical-partner page asks organizations to host DNP students for quality-improvement projects, and the residency asks for one preceptor and site for 16 months. It does not say whether that may be your employer. Ask the DNP Clinical Coordinator and your DNP Chair before the late-May pairing.
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.
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