Who to ask at Spring Arbor about clinical placement

01There is no published placement office

None of SAU's current pages names a graduate clinical placement office, a placement coordinator or a placement email address. A "SONHS Clinical Coordinator" appeared on SAU's site in 2023-24, but only for the campus programs, which SAU places itself. The 2023-24 catalog, the last graduate catalog that could be read in full, does not name one for online students either.

That doesn't mean nobody handles placement. It means the work sits with your program's faculty and leadership, and with the support staff every online student has. Knowing which role covers which question saves you from waiting on the wrong inbox.

All of this sits inside the School of Nursing, Health, and Sciences, led by its dean. SAU says the School exists "to glorify God" through the education it provides, and its online programs welcome students of any faith.

02The roles SAU publishes

Titles are as SAU shows them on the School's page, read in September 2026. SAU does not publish which of these roles reviews placements day to day, so read the second column as a starting point, not SAU's own division of duties.

03Your course faculty and clinical faculty

For anything about a specific rotation, start here. Program faculty sign off on each rotation's preceptor and site, brief the preceptor on what the rotation must cover, and stay in touch with them throughout. Oversight of the preceptor's teaching also sits with SAU's clinical faculty. Whether a particular clinician fits, whether your forms arrived, and how a rotation is going are all questions for them first. Raise a problem early in the course rather than in its final week, so the answer arrives in time to be useful.

The approval side of their work is on preceptor approval, and grading and evaluations on clinical evaluations. If you are not sure which faculty member owns your clinical course, the course shell in Brightspace is the place to look.

04Your academic advisor and the nursing department

Your advisor helps with the calendar and the gate. Under the 2023-24 catalog, you are cleared to begin clinicals only after a look at your grades and prerequisites and a joint sign-off by your advisor and the nursing department. Your advisor is also the person to ask which catalog year applies to you and whether course numbers have changed since 2023-24.

The nursing department holds your compliance records. The catalog says students keep current records with the nursing department, and SAU's library tells students to contact the Nursing Department if UpToDate access fails. SAU names no outside compliance vendor, so ask the department where and how to submit documents. The list itself is on clinical compliance.

05The Student Success Coach

Every online student has a Student Success Coach, and SAU lists support during clinical placement among the things coaches do. A coach is a good first contact when you don't know who to ask, when a problem touches both coursework and clinicals, or when several threads need to keep moving at once.

What a coach cannot do is approve a preceptor or move a deadline; those decisions sit with faculty. Use your coach to route the question and keep it from stalling, and copy them in whenever a placement problem could affect your progress through the program.

If a placement problem might change your course sequence, say so to your coach plainly and ask whether your advisor should be brought in. Sequence changes are easier to plan before a course starts than after it has begun.

06Matching common questions to a person

When you are not sure where a question belongs, this rough guide should get it to the right desk on the first try. It reflects SAU's published roles, not an SAU chart, so adjust it once you learn how your own program works.

• Is this clinician acceptable for my track? Course or clinical faculty, then the director for your track.
• Did my clinical forms arrive, and are they complete? Your course faculty.
• Which catalog year and course numbers apply to me? Your academic advisor.
• Where do my TB result and insurance proof go? The nursing department.
• Can I use the partner network? The Director of the Nurse Practitioner Program or the Assistant Director for PMHNP.
• I don't know who to ask. Your Student Success Coach.

07Systems help, and putting it in writing

For login and system problems, the SAU Help Desk supports online students and is listed on SAU's current-students page. Brightspace (D2L) is the learning platform, reached through the MySAU Portal; some online pages still label the link "Blackboard", which is out of date. More on Brightspace and MySAU.

Whoever you ask, use SAU email. It is the university's official channel, and the catalog notes that course changes are sent through it. A written question with a dated reply is what you will want if an answer is questioned later, and it hands your coach or faculty the full thread if the matter has to be passed along.

Our placement desk works on your side of these conversations: we help you frame the question and gather what the person you ask is likely to need, so the answer comes back faster.