How our UCCS preceptor search works, step by step
UCCS expects its online NP students to line up clinical hours in the state where they live, and it keeps its list of contracted sites to itself. We run that search for you. Here is each step, from the first call about your course to the email from UCCS saying you are good to go, and what we keep doing once your hours begin.
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.
Who does what in a UCCS placement
A UCCS clinical placement has three moving parts. The college reviews every site and preceptor, drafts the legal paperwork and tracks your compliance and patient logs in Medatrax. The clinic agrees to host you through whoever can sign contracts on its behalf. The piece in the middle, finding a qualified clinician who says yes and collecting their details, is the part UCCS hands to the student.
That middle piece is our whole job. We carry the search, the screening and the preparation, so that when your details reach the Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing, they are complete and already fit the handbook for your track. UCCS gives the final approval and signs the agreement; we make sure what it receives is right the first time. The college's side of the sequence is mapped in the UCCS clinical placement process.
Our six steps, from first call to first shift
Every search runs in the same order. The order matters, because UCCS counts no hours until its paperwork is finished.
- A conversation about your courseYour placement advisor starts with what decides everything else: track, course number, start term (630 or 770 practicum hours in total), home location, driving range and the days you can give a clinic.
- A map of realistic sitesWe list clinics within your radius whose setting fits the course: primary care offices for FNP and AGNP rotations, inpatient or outpatient psychiatric services for PMHNP. Settings UCCS excludes for your track come off the list here.
- Screening before you hear a nameEach clinician is checked against the handbook: an accepted role, a license in your state, two years in practice, national certification and full prescriptive authority for nurse practitioners, and the family and workplace limits.
- A firm commitment from the preceptorWe settle dates, a weekly schedule and an exact hour total, and explain what UCCS will send: the agreement, the preceptor letter, a Medatrax evaluation once you pass 24 hours together, and a site visit after the halfway point.
- Site sheet details, ready to typeYou receive the preceptor's name, credentials, license and certification, the site's information, the person authorized to sign, and the precise hours. You enter them on that semester's Clinical Site Sheet and send it in.
- UCCS's review, with us on callWhile the college processes the sheet, drafts the agreement and opens a myClinicalExchange request where a site needs one, we keep the clinic's questions answered. Hours begin when UCCS emails that you are good to go.
What lands in your hands before the sheet goes in
A yes from a preceptor only helps if it survives UCCS's review, so our handoff is built around the Clinical Site Sheet. UCCS emails that form to clinical students each semester and wants it typed, one sheet per site and per preceptor. Here is what you get from us:
- The preceptor's full name, role and credentials, with license and national certification details
- Confirmation of two years in practice and, for a nurse practitioner, full prescriptive authority
- The site's name, address and main contact
- The person at the site with legal authority to sign an agreement, who is often someone other than your preceptor
- An exact hour count for the semester, since UCCS turns down ranges
- A heads-up when the site uses myClinicalExchange, so the student account comes as no surprise
Our Clinical Site Sheet guide explains each field. With these details in hand, sending the sheet takes minutes instead of another round of phone tag with a busy front desk.
When to bring us in
Earlier is better, and UCCS's own timing shows why. The practicum handbooks suggest starting the preceptor search 3 to 6 months ahead of the course and ask for the site sheet before the semester preceding your practicum whenever possible. A first-time Affiliation Agreement can sit in legal review for 6 to 8 weeks or longer.
There is also a ceiling. Outside of Synthesis, UCCS accepts no more than three new Affiliation Agreements from one student in a semester. Starting early leaves room to swap in a second option without bumping into that limit. The lead time guide turns these rules into a working calendar.
Already close to the semester? Need a preceptor fast shows how a late search runs.
Once your hours begin
Our part continues past the good-to-go email. Hours count only in a semester you are registered for, only after the agreement and preceptor letter are signed, and only with a preceptor named on a processed site sheet. We help you keep those lines clear and stay reachable if a schedule shifts or a clinic changes staff.
If a preceptor has to step away mid-rotation, we begin the replacement search right away and prepare new site sheet details. UCCS lets a student explain in writing why a preceptor could not finish and ask for an exception to the three-agreement limit that semester; when a preceptor drops out walks through that path.
Why UCCS students choose us
We are built around UCCS's process, not a generic template. Every step above uses the college's own forms, names and limits, so the preceptor you meet already fits the handbook for your track and the details you submit already match what the college asks for.
The work is thorough where it counts: in-person clinicians close to home, screening before any name reaches you, exact hours, and planning across the whole program so a same-preceptor hour cap never catches you off guard. One placement advisor follows your file from the first call onward.
The cost page explains what shapes a quote. To begin, share your course, state and semester through the form below.
Questions UCCS students ask
Do I still submit the Clinical Site Sheet myself?
Yes. UCCS emails the sheet to clinical students each semester and expects the student to complete it and send it to the Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing. We give you every detail it asks for, checked and in the right form, so filling it in is quick. The sheet goes in under your name, exactly as UCCS intends.
Which UCCS programs do you help with?
Mostly the online graduate NP programs: the MSN FNP, AGNP and PMHNP tracks, the RN to MSN once you reach an NP track, the Post-Graduate NP Certificate and the NP courses inside the BSN to DNP. We also help DNP students find a project site and RN to BSN students find a community site for NURS 4450. UCCS assigns campus BSN clinicals itself.
Can you plan all my rotations at once?
Yes, and it often takes the pressure off later semesters. We can line up preceptors across your remaining courses while staying inside UCCS's limits, such as the three new Affiliation Agreements allowed per semester outside Synthesis and the caps on hours with one preceptor or site. Each semester still needs its own site sheet.
What happens if UCCS's legal review cannot clear a site?
UCCS's handbooks note that legal issues with an agreement occasionally stay unresolved, and then the student cannot use that site. When that happens we move straight to the next screened clinician in your area and prepare fresh site sheet details, so the search keeps moving while you stay focused on coursework.
Will my preceptor be in person or remote?
In person, close to home. UCCS expects hours to happen where you live, in an approved state, and FNP and AGNP students may count only 45 telehealth hours across the entire program. PMHNP telehealth counts when you sit in the office with the provider. We search within the driving distance you set on the first call.
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.