No preceptor yet for your UCCS clinical course
UCCS leaves the preceptor search to you, in the state where you live, and it cannot share the sites it already has agreements with. A stalled search is common, and it is fixable. Below: why UCCS searches stall, which rules quietly shrink the pool, what to do this week, and how we take the search over and hand you a preceptor whose details are ready for the Clinical Site Sheet.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UCCS program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UCCS course.
Why the search stalls for UCCS students
Most stalls come from how UCCS sets up graduate clinicals. UCCS's program pages for the MSN, the RN to MSN and the certificate place the search with the student, in the place the student lives, and the 08/2026 practicum handbooks add that UCCS cannot give students its list of sites with agreements already in place. There is no roster to choose from and nobody assigns you a clinic, so every placement begins with your own outreach.
Timing is the other cause. The handbooks want the search under way a good 3 to 6 months ahead of the practicum course, yet many students begin only when that semester's site sheet lands in their inbox. By then the clinic, the college's Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing and any legal review all have very little room. The finding your own preceptor guide covers UCCS's exact wording.
The UCCS rules that shrink your pool
Before a clinician can say yes, UCCS's handbooks have already ruled many people out. Check every lead against this list first:
- FNP and AGNP: nurse practitioners, physicians (MD or DO) and physician assistants holding a license in your clinical state, each at least two years into practice. An NP must also be board certified nationally and hold full prescriptive authority.
- PMHNP: psychiatrists, or psychiatric NPs and CNSs, who hold full prescriptive authority. Licensed therapists may supervise a small share of hours if the Option Coordinator agrees.
- Setting: FNP and AGNP hours belong in primary care. Hospital, inpatient and emergency department time does not count.
- Relationships: no relatives by blood or marriage and no close friends, and no clinic that employs you or anyone in your family. Your own employer works only at another location or unit, and only once approved.
- Place: hours happen in your approved home state. Another state needs the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator's approval and a license valid there.
Each rule makes sense on its own. Stacked together, they can remove most of the clinicians you know, which is why a network that looked strong in the admission essay can come up empty. See preceptor requirements and the workplace and family rules for the full text.
What UCCS offers when you are stuck
UCCS offers direction rather than a list. The handbooks invite you to ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator for help, and they suggest where to look: community and faith-based clinics, the Department of Corrections, advanced practice groups near you, nursing school faculty in your state, and classmates who have already finished rotations. PMHNP students get two more ideas, mental health clinics and inpatient psychiatric hospitals.
Those leads are real, and they pay off with persistence. Each one means calls to an office manager, an explanation of what UCCS will send the clinic, and follow-up when the first answer is a maybe. That steady outreach is exactly what gets squeezed out by shifts, family and coursework, and it is the part of the process a placement service is built to carry.
A one-week reset
If weeks have passed without a name, stop widening the search at random and rebuild it in order.
- Pin down the course and cohortWrite down the course number, the semester and whether you started before Fall 2026 (630 practicum hours) or later (770), so every request names a real hour count.
- Draw your driving radiusList the towns you can reach on clinic days. UCCS counts hours in your approved state of residence, so a clinic across a state line is a separate approval.
- Screen before you callRun each lead through UCCS's credential, setting and relationship rules first, so any yes you get can actually be used.
- Ask for a defined commitmentOffer dates, a weekly schedule and a set number of hours, and explain that UCCS drafts the agreement and the preceptor letter itself.
- Gather the site sheet detailsWho the preceptor is, their credentials, license and board certification, plus the clinic's information and whoever can legally sign contracts for it. The Clinical Site Sheet guide lists every field.
If the week ends without a workable name, hand the search over instead of losing another month to it.
How we find your preceptor
This is our specialty. We search for preceptors who fit your UCCS course in the area you can reach, check each one against UCCS's rules before you hear the name, and confirm the clinic understands the agreement and letter UCCS will send. FNP and AGNP students get outpatient primary care; PMHNP students get psychiatric prescribers who suit the population each course covers.
When a preceptor agrees, you receive everything the Clinical Site Sheet asks for, including the site's signer and a fixed number of hours, so your sheet can reach UCCS early and the agreement process can start. The approval decision stays with UCCS; our part is making sure the details you send are whole and correct on the first pass. If a preceptor later drops, we line up the replacement. How it works walks through each step.
If your course starts within weeks, read need a preceptor fast first, because a brand-new contract with a clinic can sit in legal review for six to eight weeks or more when legal issues surface, and that reshapes the plan.
A preceptor's yes is not a start date. Nothing counts until UCCS sends its "good to go" message.
Questions UCCS students ask
Will UCCS place me if I cannot find a preceptor?
UCCS's program pages and handbooks do not describe placing graduate NP students. They put the search on the student, in the student's own area, and name the Clinical Practicum Coordinator as the contact for help. Reach out to the coordinator early, and keep your own search, or ours, moving at the same time.
Can a physician assistant precept a UCCS FNP or AGNP student?
Yes. PAs are on UCCS's list for those tracks alongside NPs, MDs and DOs, provided they hold a license in your clinical state and have practiced for two years. The handbook recommends at least 200 hours with a nurse practitioner across the program, so plan your rotations with that mix in mind. The PMHNP rules are narrower.
Can I use a clinic owned by the hospital where I work?
Possibly. UCCS rules out any clinic that employs you or a relative, but it makes room for your employer when the clinic is a separate location or unit and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator signs off. For FNP and AGNP, the clinic must also be outpatient primary care, since hospital and inpatient hours do not count.
How many preceptors will I need for the whole program?
At least one per clinical course, and often more. UCCS caps FNP and AGNP time with any single preceptor or site at 330 hours, major health systems aside, and women's health hours often come from a second clinic. PMHNP caps are 270 or 440 hours, depending on cohort.
Does it help to email every clinic in my city at once?
Volume without screening mostly produces yes answers UCCS cannot use. A short list of clinicians who meet the credential, setting and relationship rules, each asked for a fixed number of hours on known dates, gets much further. That screened, specific outreach is the heart of the search we run for UCCS students.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UCCS's catalog, practicum handbooks and college pages. Your degree plan, the handbook for your cohort and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
UCCS asks you to find your clinical hours where you live. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UCCS track, your next clinical course and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the details your Clinical Site Sheet needs, early enough for the agreement to be signed before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 6900, acute and chronic care forNURS 6915andNURS 6925, psychiatric prescribers forNURS 6801toNURS 6803 - Credentials, license, certification and the site's signer ready for the Clinical Site Sheet
- In Colorado Springs, along the Front Range, or in any of UCCS's approved states
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next clinical semester is all we need to begin.