How our placement help fits Spring Arbor's clinical process

01Where we sit in SAU's process

Spring Arbor's online FAQ tells nurse practitioner students they will choose their own preceptor in their home state. That leaves the searching, the calls and the document gathering with you, on top of one seven-week course at a time. We take on that legwork for your track and your location.

Program faculty make the decision on every preceptor and every site, for every rotation, and we shape each search so what reaches them fits SAU's rules from the start. We also work beside SAU's own help, such as the program director's volunteer list and the Student Success Coach, adding leads to it. The full SAU sequence, including the steps that have nothing to do with us, is laid out on the Spring Arbor placement process page.

02The five stages, in the order SAU uses

1. Start the search earlySAU's own advice is to begin looking in the first few months of your program, well before your first practicum semester. We can start as soon as you know your track, your state and roughly which semester your clinical course falls in.
2. Line up a preceptor and a siteWe look for clinicians who fit what SAU accepts for your track and who practice within reach of your home. You speak with each lead before anything is agreed, so the fit is yours to judge too.
3. Get paperwork in before the four-week markThe 2023-24 Graduate Catalog wants the clinical agreement, affiliation and preceptor verification forms submitted no later than four weeks ahead of a clinical course. We gather what the preceptor and site must supply so you can submit early.
4. Wait for faculty approvalProgram faculty review the preceptor and site. If they ask for something more, we help you get it from the practice quickly. If they say no, we go back to searching.
5. Start and log your hoursFaculty send your preceptor the objectives for the rotation, and you begin. You log hours the way your course directs, and we stay reachable in case the placement falls through partway.

03What we ask you at the start

A good first message saves a week of back-and-forth. The form below asks for the basics, and a placement advisor follows up on the rest.

• Your SAU track and entry route: BSN-to-MSN, RN-to-MSN, post-master's certificate or DNP.
• Your home state and how far you can realistically drive on clinical days.
• Which practicum course comes next and the semester it starts, if you know it.
• Whether you have passed NUR 602R, the campus residency, and the other courses SAU lists before a practicum.
• Any leads you already have, including names from SAU's volunteer-provider list, so no office gets contacted twice.
• Where your compliance items stand: license, background check, drug test, immunizations and insurance.

Course numbers here follow the 2023-24 catalog, so confirm yours against your current course list in Brightspace or with your advisor. If you work in healthcare, tell us where. SAU publishes nothing specific about clinicals at your own workplace, which the employer clinical site page covers.

04How we match a preceptor to your track

The match starts with who SAU accepts. For the nurse practitioner practicums, the catalog names a certified NP, a physician or a PA. Nurse Educator and MSN/MBA students in NUR 780B may also be precepted by a master's-prepared nurse in a specialty field.

Then the setting. A PNP-PC student needs pediatric primary care within the pediatric NP scope. A PMHNP student should plan on several placements across the practicum, so we look for more than one psychiatric setting from the outset. FNP and AGPCNP students need primary care that fits the course they are in.

Finally, location. In-person hours near where you live are the main route, and SAU's course wording speaks of a local preceptor. Details by track sit on SAU's preceptor requirements page.

05The paperwork stage, where most time is lost

SAU does not publish the current titles of its clinical forms, so we work from the checklist your faculty or staff hand you. From it we collect every piece the practice has to provide: the preceptor's license and credential details, site information, and signatures on anything the site must sign.

Affiliation is often the slow part. If a practice already has an agreement with SAU, review can move faster; a brand-new agreement may need the site's legal or administrative sign-off. SAU's clinicals blog notes you can check whether nearby sites already have agreements, and the affiliation agreements page explains how that plays out.

You submit through SAU's channels as the student of record, with the practice's share already complete in your hands.

06After approval, and if something breaks

Once you start, SAU's clinical faculty oversee the preceptor-led experience and stay in contact with your preceptor. Your job is the patients and the log; ours is to stay on call, ready to act the moment you need us.

If a preceptor withdraws, a site changes policy, or you fall behind on hours, tell your faculty first and then tell us. We restart the search with the same track rules and help you assemble fresh paperwork. The preceptor dropped out page walks through that week.

What we charge depends on your track, hours and timing. A placement advisor puts a written quote in front of you before you agree to anything. The cost page explains what goes into that figure and what sits outside it, such as SAU's own charges.