The placement service built for Spring Arbor nursing students

01Who we are

Spring Arbor Preceptor is the placement service built around SAU's online nursing students and the way SAU runs clinicals, from home-state preceptors to paperwork due four weeks before a course. We are independent of the university, which keeps our whole attention on your side of the search.

Our work exists because SAU's online model leaves the finding to you. Its FAQ puts the choice of preceptor, in your home state, squarely with you. You may be fitting that search around a job, a household and one seven-week course at a time, and we take on the part of it that is mostly calls, emails and chasing documents.

We talk with you through the form, email and chat. Whichever you use, include your track, your state and your next practicum, so the first reply can be specific to you rather than a general overview.

02What we do

• Search for preceptors and clinical sites that fit your SAU track, in person, near where you live.
• Screen each lead against what SAU publishes for your track: a certified NP, physician or PA for the NP practicums, with a master's-prepared nurse also allowed for NUR 780B.
• Help you gather what the preceptor and site must supply for the clinical agreement, affiliation and preceptor verification paperwork.
• Keep that paperwork moving so it can reach SAU before the four-week mark set in the 2023-24 catalog.
• Stay reachable through the practicum and pick the search back up if a preceptor pulls out.
• Put a written quote and terms in front of you before you commit to anything.

The stages are laid out in order on how it works.

03What stays with you, SAU and the practice

• Approval of preceptors and sites, which SAU's program faculty give for every rotation. We make sure what they review is complete.
• The timing of that approval, and each practice's own yes. We put our effort into early starts and several leads at once.
• Your signature, your submissions and your hour log, which stay in your name, with the practice's share prepared in advance.
• Your case notes, coursework and conversations with faculty. We help you prepare the questions.
• SAU's own people: your program director, your clinical faculty and your Student Success Coach stay at the center of your program, and we work beside them.

That division is deliberate. A placement built this way holds up at an audit or an evaluation, which is exactly where you need it to hold.

04How we work alongside SAU

SAU's help is real, and we tell students to use it. The program director can share names of nearby clinicians who have offered to take SAU students. SAU's clinicals blog describes a way to check whether nearby sites already have affiliation agreements, staff guidance on documents, and a Student Success Coach who supports students through placement. FNP and PMHNP students can also raise the clinical partner network that SAU's 2026 program pages mention.

Our offer sits beside all of that: more leads, sooner, with the practice's share of the paperwork ready early. SAU support versus self-placement compares the routes plainly, including when SAU's help alone is enough.

05Who we serve

Our core is SAU's online nurse practitioner students in the FNP, AGPCNP, PMHNP and PNP-PC tracks, whether they entered with a BSN, came through RN-to-MSN, or are completing a post-master's certificate. We also help Nurse Educator and MSN/MBA students with the NUR 780B practicum, and DNP students whose practicum work calls for a site.

Two groups of SAU students are covered another way. The online RN-to-BSN embeds its clinical hours in the classroom, and SAU places its campus BSN and ABSN students near Spring Arbor, Michigan. Programs lists every track SAU runs online.

SAU describes nursing as a calling, and its online programs welcome students of any faith. We serve every SAU nursing student the same way.

06How we keep our guides accurate

Every guide on this site is built from SAU's own published sources: its program pages, FAQ, blog, state authorization page and catalogs. Where SAU's pages disagree, as with the RN-to-MSN Nurse Educator hours (225 on the program page, 125 on the tuition page), we flag the conflict and tell you who at SAU can settle it.

The current catalogs sit behind a verification check, so course numbers here come from the 2023-24 Graduate Catalog, and we flag that wherever it matters. Each page shows the date it was last checked. If you notice something that has changed, tell us through the form below. SAU's faculty and its current catalog always have the final word.