Asked to precept a Spring Arbor nursing student?

01What the student is asking of you

SAU's online NP students find their own preceptors, usually in their home state. The student who contacted you is asking to see patients alongside you for part or all of a practicum course, with you supervising the work and confirming their hours.

SAU's courses run one seven-week block at a time, and practicums run alongside them across a semester. Nothing is final when you agree: SAU's program faculty review and approve you and your site first, and the student should not begin seeing patients with you until they have.

By the time an MSN student reaches you, the 2023-24 catalog expects them to have passed advanced pathophysiology, advanced pharmacology and advanced health assessment (NUR 612, NUR 618, NUR 602), plus the four-day campus residency, NUR 602R, which includes a head-to-toe check-off. Course numbers may have changed since that catalog.

02Who SAU accepts as a preceptor

• Nurse practitioner practicums (FNP, AGPCNP, PMHNP, PNP-PC): a certified NP, a physician or a PA, local to the student and approved by program faculty, per the 2023-24 catalog.
• Nurse Educator and MSN/MBA practicum (NUR 780B): any of those, or a master's-prepared nurse in a specialty field. SAU's current pages describe it as 125 hours in a direct-care setting.
• Pediatric primary care: PNP-PC students work with preceptors within the pediatric NP scope, in pediatric primary care.
• Psychiatric-mental health: PMHNP students are told to plan on several placements over the practicum, so you may host one part of it.

SAU sets no published minimum for years in practice, and it says nothing about relatives or about precepting at the student's own employer. If any of those touches your situation, tell the student so they can ask faculty before paperwork goes in. SAU's preceptor requirements has more detail by track.

03How SAU's faculty stay involved

You are not left alone with the student. SAU's clinicals blog describes faculty sending the preceptor an outline of how the student's clinical work should progress, along with objectives for each rotation, and the preceptor keeping in regular touch with faculty. The catalog describes SAU clinical faculty as providing oversight of the preceptor-led experience.

The student's clinical course ends in a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory grade under the 2023-24 catalog. SAU does not publish the names of its evaluation tools or say whether faculty visit sites, so ask the student's clinical faculty what they will need from you and when. Clinical evaluations covers the student's side of that process.

04Paperwork you can expect

The 2023-24 catalog calls for three forms, a clinical agreement, an affiliation form and a preceptor verification, which must be in at least four weeks before the clinical course. Current form titles are not published, so the student will send you whatever SAU's checklist asks for. Expect questions about your license and credentials and some details about your site.

If your practice or employer has not worked with SAU before, the affiliation step may need someone with authority to sign agreements. Flag that early, because it is often the slowest piece. The clinical paperwork page lists what students gather.

05Hours and pace

An FNP student needs 625 clinical hours in total on SAU's current pages, and AGPCNP, PMHNP and PNP-PC students need 500, spread over more than one semester. The 2023-24 catalog counts an hour as time spent with a patient, caring for or working with them, and usually expects about one patient per hour. Your share may be a whole practicum or one semester of it.

Ask the student how many hours they need with you, over which weeks, and on which days. Agree on a schedule you can keep. A preceptor who has to cut back mid-semester leaves the student hunting for a replacement, with a fresh approval to wait for.

06What SAU publishes about preceptor recognition

Nothing specific. SAU's clinicals blog lists general benefits of precepting and notes that many nursing schools offer continuing-education or recertification credit, but it does not say SAU itself offers credit, a certificate, payment, an adjunct title or library access to its preceptors. SAU publishes no rule on paid preceptors either.

If recognition matters to you, ask the student to put the question to their clinical faculty before you sign anything, so you know what to expect.

07Before you say yes

• Does this student's track match what I can precept under SAU's wording?
• Can my practice give the hours they need in the weeks they need them?
• Will my employer sign an agreement with SAU, and who has to sign it?
• Who is the student's clinical faculty contact, and how will objectives reach me?
• What happens if I need to stop partway through the semester?

If you want to talk it through, the form below has an option for preceptors, or see the contact page for what to include. A placement advisor will answer promptly, and SAU's faculty remain the source for the university's expectations.