How a UCCS clinical placement works, from search to evaluation
Every UCCS nurse practitioner rotation follows the same path. You line up a preceptor near home, UCCS turns your Clinical Site Sheet into a signed Affiliation Agreement and preceptor letter, an email clears you to begin, and your hours, logs and evaluations run through Medatrax. This page maps the whole route and points to the guide for each stage.
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.
The route at a glance
UCCS splits the work cleanly. The college's graduate program pages put the preceptor search on the student, in the state where that student lives, and the college takes over once a name is in hand: it checks the site, writes the contract, supervises the rotation and grades it. Our guide to finding your own preceptor looks at what that split means day to day.
One rule sits behind every stage and shapes its timing: paperwork first, patients second. No hour counts until the agency has signed its contract, your preceptor has signed and returned the letter, and UCCS tells you to begin. Nor does any hour count outside a term when you are enrolled in the clinical course. Plan around that rule and the rest of the sequence falls into place.
The six stages, in order
- Secure a preceptor and site where you liveBegin months ahead. UCCS's handbooks want you searching well before the course opens, and the lead-time guide turns that advice into calendar dates. The preceptor has to meet UCCS's credential rules for your track, and the setting has to be one your course accepts.
- Send the Clinical Site SheetUCCS emails the current semester's sheet to clinical students. You type one for each site and each preceptor, give an exact hour figure, and route it to UCCS's Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing. The Clinical Site Sheet guide walks through its rules.
- UCCS reviews the siteThe Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator fields questions about whether a setting suits your course. While the sheet is processed, UCCS also works out whether the site uses myClinicalExchange for students; if so, you open an mCE account at your own expense.
- The agreement and preceptor letter are signedThe Graduate Nursing Department drafts an Affiliation Agreement with the agency and a preceptor agreement letter for your preceptor. A brand-new agreement can sit in legal review for weeks, and a few never clear. See Affiliation Agreements.
- The "good to go" email arrivesThe Academic Services Professional emails you at three points: as the agreement work begins, once it is finished, and when you may start hours. That final message is your start signal, and nothing before it counts.
- Hours, logs, a site visit and evaluationsYou log every patient in Medatrax, a site visitor checks in once you pass the halfway mark, and each preceptor whose time with you tops 24 hours fills out an evaluation that feeds your course grade.
Who owns each stage at UCCS
Titles shift over time. The 2024 handbooks called the agreement role the Affiliation Agreement Coordinator or Clinical Agency Liaison, so older emails may use those names. For a fuller description of each office and what to ask it, see who does what at UCCS.
| Stage | UCCS role involved | Your part |
|---|---|---|
| Preceptor search | The student's job; the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator can be contacted for assistance | Find and confirm a preceptor where you live |
| Clinical Site Sheet | Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing | Type and send one sheet per site and per preceptor |
| Site suitability | Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator | Ask before committing to an unusual setting |
| Agreement and preceptor letter | Graduate Nursing Department, with legal review | Tell the site who will receive and sign the documents |
| mCE and the start email | Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing | Register for mCE if the site needs it, then wait for the email |
| Hours, logs, evaluations | Lead faculty, site visitors, Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator | Log in Medatrax and prompt your preceptor to evaluate |
Where rotations stall
Most delays trace back to a short list of avoidable problems. Each has its own guide on this site; run through them before you send anything to UCCS.
- A preceptor who falls outside UCCS's credential rules, such as an NP without national certification or a clinician licensed in a different state. See preceptor requirements.
- A site sheet with a span of hours, or last semester's version of the form, which comes back to you instead of moving forward.
- A site whose contract terms UCCS's legal review cannot settle, which ends that option for good.
- A fourth brand-new agreement in one semester outside Synthesis, beyond UCCS's cap unless a written request is approved.
- A setting outside what your course accepts, for example hospital rounding or an emergency department for FNP and AGNP students.
- A relative or close friend as preceptor, or a clinic that employs you or a member of your family.
Hours worked before the "good to go" email are lost, however willing the preceptor is. Wait for the email.
Hours, logs and the end of each rotation
Your hour total depends on when you started: 630 practicum hours for students who began before Fall 2026 and 770 for Fall 2026 starts and later, with a further 45 in NURS 6730 for both groups. Our clinical hours guide, linked below, breaks those totals down course by course.
Each patient encounter is logged in Medatrax using the codes set for your track, and UCCS fixes minimum encounter counts for each FNP and AGNP course. Missing or wrong entries can cost you an incomplete, so log each day rather than rebuilding a week from memory.
Once you are past the halfway point of a course's hours, expect a single site visit, in person or by phone if you are FNP or AGNP, and by phone if you are PMHNP. Preceptors rate you in Medatrax, and you complete a preceptor and site evaluation plus a self-evaluation. Site visits and evaluations explains the scale and timing.
Why the cycle repeats every semester
A UCCS placement is not a one-time event. Each semester needs a fresh Clinical Site Sheet, even when you return to the same preceptor, and each rotation needs a signed agreement and preceptor letter in place before hours start. Most students also train with several preceptors over the program, since no single preceptor or site may supply more than 330 of an FNP or AGNP student's hours, major health systems excepted.
Synthesis is the exception on paperwork volume. The three-new-agreements cap does not apply to NURS 6980 or NURS 6985, which helps when a large block of hours has to be spread across more than one site. If a preceptor pulls out partway through a course, UCCS has a written request process and an incomplete-grade route; when a preceptor falls through covers both.
Why UCCS students choose us for the search
The stage UCCS hands to you is the one that decides everything after it, and it is the stage we are built for. We search for a preceptor and site that fit your UCCS course, your track's credential rules and the settings that course counts, in person and close to your home.
Next comes the material the college's process runs on: the site's details, the preceptor's license, certification and credentials, the name of the agency's authorized signer, and an exact hour figure. Your Clinical Site Sheet can then go in early and complete, so the agreement starts without anyone chasing missing details. Approval of every site and preceptor rests with UCCS; we see to it that the file the college receives is complete and within its rules on the first pass.
We stay on call for the whole semester, too. If a preceptor has to step away, we start on a replacement at once so your next site sheet is ready. Tell us your track, start term and next course in the form below.
Questions UCCS students ask
How long does the UCCS placement process take from start to finish?
UCCS publishes no single figure. Its handbooks ask you to begin searching three to six months before the course, and legal review of a first-time agreement with an agency can run six to eight weeks, sometimes more. A site with a UCCS contract already on file can move faster, but you still send a new site sheet each semester.
Can I begin clinical hours while UCCS processes my paperwork?
No. UCCS's handbooks bar any hours while paperwork is being processed, and hours done before the agreement and the preceptor letter are signed are not counted. Wait for the Academic Services Professional's email saying you may begin, and confirm that your semester has started and you are registered for the course.
Does UCCS assign clinical sites to nurse practitioner students?
No. UCCS's graduate program pages place the search for primary care and psychiatric hours with the student, in the student's home state, and no UCCS source promises placement. Assigned clinicals belong to the campus BSN in Colorado, where UCCS's undergraduate placement staff arrange rotations with partner facilities.
Is the process different for PMHNP students?
The stages match: site sheet, agreement and preceptor letter, the start email, Medatrax logs and evaluations. The preceptor rules differ, since PMHNP students work mainly with psychiatric prescribers, and PMHNP site visits happen by phone. UCCS publishes separate PMHNP practicum handbooks for the 630-hour and 770-hour cohorts, and those set the details.
What does UCCS need from my preceptor before I start?
A signed preceptor agreement letter, which UCCS drafts from your site sheet, and a preceptor who meets UCCS's credential rules for your track. UCCS also requests the preceptor's resume where there is one. The Affiliation Agreement is signed on the agency's side, often by someone other than the preceptor, such as a manager or administrator.
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.