Finding an NP preceptor in Denver and along the Front Range
Denver is by far Colorado's largest metro, yet two of its best-known institutions publish limits on student requests. For a UCCS student, the metro's real openings are its outpatient practices, urgent care centers and psychiatric settings, approached one at a time. Here is how the Denver landscape looks through UCCS's rules, and how we work it for you.
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.
Same university name, different campus
UCCS is one campus of the University of Colorado, and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora is another, accredited on its own. For clinical placement, the shared name carries no special standing. You are a student of the Johnson Beth-El College in Colorado Springs, and every request for your hours goes out under UCCS's process, UCCS's agreements and UCCS's rules.
The difference matters most at University of Colorado Hospital. The CU School of Medicine's Office of Advanced Practice, which handles advanced practice student placement there, says it is temporarily unable to take new or additional student placement requests, and adds, "This is not a permanent closure." The notice covers every school, not UCCS in particular. It was live when this guide was written, so check the office's page before you plan around it.
Denver Health, flagged in UCCS's own handbook
UCCS names one Denver system directly. The 08/2026 FNP and AGNP practicum handbook cautions that Denver Health may restrict students, its own employees among them, and accept students only from select universities. The 2024 PMHNP handbook went further and named two other programs as the only ones it took. Neither edition places UCCS on an accepted list, so build your Denver plan on other practices.
Employees face a second layer. UCCS already bars hours where you or a family member work, allowing your employer only at a different location or unit with the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator's approval. A Denver Health nurse therefore meets both the system's limit and the college's rule. The workplace and family rules page quotes the policy in full.
The other systems on the metro map
Many metro hospitals belong to a handful of systems. A 2023-24 statewide flu document from the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence groups them this way, and for a few it shows how student compliance was handled that season:
- UCHealth's metro group: Longs Peak, Broomfield, Highlands Ranch and University of Colorado Hospital. A 2016 UCHealth article said NP students had traditionally found their own preceptors, which is history rather than policy.
- HCA HealthONE: Presbyterian/St. Luke's, Rose, Swedish, North Suburban, Sky Ridge, Spalding, the Medical Center of Aurora and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. Its entry had flu records uploaded to mCE and said students without documentation could not be accepted.
- Intermountain Health's Colorado hospitals, including Saint Joseph, Good Samaritan, Lutheran and Platte Valley.
- AdventHealth's Porter, Littleton, Parker, Castle Rock and Avista hospitals.
- CommonSpirit's St. Anthony, St. Anthony North, Longmont United and OrthoColorado.
- Kaiser Permanente Colorado, which listed a flu shot or a declination with a mask, plus a primary COVID series, for students.
None of these pages names UCCS, and none of the sources behind this guide shows a route built for UCCS NP students. Treat each clinic as its own request. Site extras such as a COVID series sit on top of UCCS's list; see immunizations and compliance.
Where FNP and AGNP hours fit in Denver
UCCS keeps FNP and AGNP hours in primary care and away from hospitals and emergency departments, so the metro's towers matter less than the clinics around them. System-owned primary care networks, independent family and internal medicine practices, pediatric offices, urgent care centers and NP-owned clinics in Aurora, Lakewood, Littleton, Westminster, Thornton and Boulder make up the working pool.
Size helps under one UCCS rule. Hours with the same preceptor or site are capped at 330, unless the site is a major health system, so a large network may carry you further at one location; the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator decides how that applies. Specialty clinics such as dermatology, orthopedics or cardiology count only in Synthesis, up to 110 hours. The full list is on what counts for FNP and AGNP.
Psychiatric options for PMHNP students
PMHNP students have more room in Denver, because UCCS encourages both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric time and counts group and individual therapy, TMS and ECT. Psychiatric hospitals and units, community mental health programs, private psychiatric practices and integrated behavioral health clinics are all worth approaching. Preceptors must be psychiatric NPs, psychiatric CNSs or psychiatrists with full prescriptive authority; a licensed therapist may cover a limited number of hours if the Option Coordinator approves.
Plan the three population courses together: NURS 6801 for adults, NURS 6802 for older adults and NURS 6803 for children and adolescents, with 60 patients in each age group by the end of the program. A practice that sees all ages can serve more than one course, so line up the child and adolescent lead first. See psychiatric NP preceptors.
Commutes, backups and the ACE cycle
Students in Douglas County towns such as Castle Rock and Parker sit between the two metros and can search both; the Colorado Springs guide covers the southern half. Whatever the drive, hours count only inside a registered semester and after the college's "good to go" email, so a distant clinic that is slow to sign costs more than it saves.
With so many clinics in reach, a long list of backups is tempting. UCCS allows no more than three new Affiliation Agreements per semester outside Synthesis, so choose sites likely to sign; the agreements guide explains the limit.
You may also hear about the Alliance for Clinical Education, the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence's statewide request cycle. It serves pre-licensure group placements rather than NP preceptorships, as the answer below explains.
How we run a Denver search for you
We work the metro practice by practice, from Boulder to the southern suburbs. We shortlist primary care, urgent care, pediatric or psychiatric settings that match your course, screen each clinician against UCCS's preceptor rules, and ask each site up front who signs clinical agreements and whether it uses mCE. You receive a preceptor whose details are ready for the Clinical Site Sheet, with exact hours rather than a range.
UCCS approves every site and preceptor and signs the agreement; we make sure the file reaches the college complete and correct the first time, and we stay on call to replace a preceptor who drops. Tell us your course and start term with the form below, or read how it works.
Questions UCCS students ask
Can UCCS students do clinicals at University of Colorado Hospital?
For now, the CU School of Medicine's Office of Advanced Practice, which handles advanced practice student placement there, says it cannot take new or additional requests, and it calls the pause temporary. The notice applies to every school. Check the office's page for updates, and remember that FNP and AGNP hours belong in primary care, not hospital units.
Does Denver Health accept UCCS nurse practitioner students?
UCCS's own handbook warns that Denver Health may restrict students, even employees, to select universities, and an earlier UCCS handbook named two other programs as the only ones it took. No source lists UCCS as accepted. Build your Denver plan around other practices, and raise any Denver Health lead with the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator.
Can I live in Colorado Springs and do my hours with a Denver preceptor?
Yes, if the clinic fits your course and UCCS approves the site. UCCS ties hours to your approved state of residence, not to one city. Weigh the drive against the number of clinic days your hours require, and expect the same site sheet, agreement and "good to go" steps as any other Colorado site.
Does the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence place NP students?
Its Alliance for Clinical Education runs a yearly request cycle, with school requests due February 15 and facility answers by April 15, but the process is built for pre-licensure group placements. No source shows it arranging individual NP preceptorships, and UCCS does not appear on its sample request spreadsheet, so the NP search runs through you or through us.
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.