What shapes the cost of a UCCS preceptor search
Your quote is built from four things: your UCCS track, the course in front of you, where you live and how much time remains before the semester. Those vary so widely that a flat price list would fit almost nobody. Below are the factors, what every quote covers, and the separate clinical costs UCCS itself asks students to carry.
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 every quote is individual
Two UCCS students can need very different amounts of work. A 45-hour NURS 6730 rotation with a primary care preceptor near a city is one kind of search. Synthesis, which carries 360 or 440 hours depending on your start term, in a rural corner of Wyoming or Alaska is another, and it may take more than one preceptor to stay inside UCCS's same-site limits.
Most of the effort behind a placement is outreach and screening: finding clinics that suit the course, reaching the clinicians, checking each against UCCS's handbook, settling a schedule and gathering what the Clinical Site Sheet needs. Your quote reflects how much of that your situation calls for, and your placement advisor walks you through the reasoning.
The factors that shape your quote
These are the details your placement advisor asks about first, because each one changes the size of the search.
- Track. FNP and AGNP rotations need primary care preceptors. PMHNP rotations need psychiatric prescribers with full prescriptive authority, which limits the search to psychiatrists and psychiatric NPs and CNSs.
- Course and population. Pediatric primary care for
NURS 6900, older adults forNURS 6950or a child and adolescent psychiatric caseload forNURS 6803each narrows the pool in its own way. - Start term. Students who began before Fall 2026 work toward 630 practicum hours and later starts toward 770, so one course can carry different hour counts.
- Location. Your approved state, your driving range and whether you live near a city or out in rural country all change how many clinics are within reach.
- Timeline. A search that starts months ahead can be selective. One that starts weeks before the semester has to move fast around a legal review that can run 6 to 8 weeks or longer for a new agreement.
- Site requirements. Clinics that use myClinicalExchange or add their own onboarding steps take extra coordination.
Hours by course and start term are laid out on the clinical hours page.
One course or a whole-program plan
You can ask for a single rotation or a plan that runs through Synthesis. A single-course quote suits students who already have most of their preceptors and need to fill one gap, such as a geriatric rotation or the 30 to 45 hours of women's health that FNP and AGNP students fit into a rotation other than NURS 6900.
A program plan suits students who want the remaining semesters settled early. It spreads new Affiliation Agreements across terms, since UCCS accepts at most three new ones per semester outside Synthesis, and keeps each preceptor within the caps on hours at one site: 330 for FNP and AGNP unless the site belongs to a major health system, and 270 or 440 for PMHNP depending on your handbook. Your placement advisor can quote both ways so you can compare.
What every quote covers
Whatever the scope, the heart of the service stays the same. Every quote includes:
- An in-person search within your driving range, in your approved state
- Screening of each preceptor against UCCS's handbook for your track before you hear a name
- A confirmed schedule and an exact hour count for the semester
- Every detail the Clinical Site Sheet asks for, including the site's authorized signer
- Contact with the clinic while UCCS processes the agreement and preceptor letter
- A placement advisor on call through the rotation, and a replacement search if a preceptor has to leave
Your quote spells out the scope, the courses included and how a replacement search works, so you know what you are getting before the search starts. The full sequence is on how it works.
Clinical costs that come from UCCS
Some costs of clinical training come with the program itself and are paid by you directly, whoever finds your preceptor. Knowing them early helps you budget the whole semester.
- A CastleBranch background check and drug screen, which UCCS's handbook says graduate students complete at their own expense
- A myClinicalExchange account, which you register for and pay for when a site requires it
- Personal health insurance, a BLS card that includes hands-on skills, and the immunizations and yearly TB and flu items on UCCS's list
- Any extra immunizations or onboarding a particular site adds beyond UCCS's own list
The background check and drug screen and myClinicalExchange pages explain how each one works.
What a missing preceptor can cost you
The most expensive outcome is usually a semester with no preceptor. UCCS grants an incomplete only when you are passing the didactic side of the course, two incompletes keep you out of the next clinical course, and an incomplete left unfinished for a year becomes an F. An incomplete in certain earlier clinical courses also blocks entry to Synthesis.
Any of those rules can push graduation back and add a term of enrollment. Starting early, with room for UCCS's review, is the simplest way to stay clear of them. Delayed graduation explains what happens when the timeline slips.
How to get your quote
Send us your track, the course you need covered, your start term, your city and state, and the semester you are aiming for. The form below asks for exactly those details, and nothing about them is generic: each quote is built on UCCS's own forms, timing and preceptor rules for your track.
Your placement advisor reviews them, asks any follow-up questions about setting or schedule, and replies with a quote built for your situation. If you are weighing options, choosing a placement service lists what thorough UCCS placement help should include.
Questions UCCS students ask
Why is there no price list on this site?
Because the work behind a UCCS placement varies so much. A primary care rotation near Denver and a child and adolescent psychiatric rotation in rural Montana call for very different searches, and one list would be wrong for most students. A quote built on your track, course, location and timeline is the fair way to price it.
Is a PMHNP search priced differently from an FNP or AGNP search?
It can be. UCCS limits PMHNP preceptors to psychiatrists and psychiatric NPs and CNSs with full prescriptive authority, and each population course needs a matching caseload. That can mean a wider search than a primary care rotation in the same area. Your placement advisor explains how your track affects the quote.
Does starting early change the quote?
Timeline is one of the factors. An early start gives the search room to be selective and leaves time for UCCS's legal review, which can take 6 to 8 weeks or longer for a new agreement. A search that has to wrap up within a few weeks means more concentrated work. Either way, the quote explains the reasoning.
Are the background check and myClinicalExchange part of the quote?
Those stay with you, because they are UCCS program requirements rather than part of the search. The handbook has graduate students complete the CastleBranch background check and drug screen at their own expense, and a site that uses myClinicalExchange means a student account you register for and pay for yourself.
Can I get a quote for just one course?
Yes. Many students need help with one rotation, such as Synthesis or a pediatric or geriatric course, while their other preceptors are already arranged. Put the course number and semester on the form below and your placement advisor will quote that rotation on its own, with a program-wide option alongside if it helps you compare.
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.