Who does what in UCCS's graduate clinical process
Four UCCS titles run most of your clinical semester. The Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing moves the paperwork, the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator rules on sites and exceptions, your Option Coordinator settles track-specific requests, and lead faculty own each course. Writing to the right one first saves days.
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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 four titles at a glance
UCCS's 08/2026 practicum handbooks name offices by title, and titles are what you will see in emails and forms. This table maps each one to the part of your clinical path it controls.
| UCCS title | What the role handles | Write to them when |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing | Receives Clinical Site Sheets; drafts and tracks Affiliation Agreements and preceptor letters; submits myClinicalExchange requests; sends the "good to go" emails | You are sending a site sheet or checking where an agreement stands |
| Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator | Site suitability; out-of-state hours; banking; employer-site exceptions; incompletes and evaluations; also the Medatrax coordinator | You need a ruling on whether a site or plan fits the rules |
| Option Coordinator (Family Practice, Psychiatric Mental Health, Adult/Gerontology) | PMHNP therapist hours and remote telehealth; injury reports; requests for extra agreements; simulation alternatives | The request is specific to your track |
| Lead faculty | The course itself and its grade; told about any incomplete | Your hours or standing in a course are at risk |
The paperwork desk: Academic Services Professional
Everything with a signature line passes through the Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing. Your Clinical Site Sheet goes here, and from it this office drafts the Affiliation Agreement and the preceptor agreement letter, then tracks both until they are signed.
While processing a sheet, the same office decides whether the site uses myClinicalExchange and, if it does, submits the rotation request there. You get an email when the agreement process starts, another when it is complete, and a final one telling you hours may begin.
Two naming traps are worth knowing. The 2024 handbooks called this role the "Affiliation Agreement Coordinator / Clinical Agency Liaison," so older documents may use those words. A separate title, the Academic Services Senior Professional (Graduate Nursing), handles degree plans and admissions questions, along with NURS 4450 forms and badges for the RN to BSN.
The rules desk: Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator
When the question is whether something is allowed, it goes to the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator. The handbooks send every question about a site's suitability here, and the 2024 editions said outright that each clinical site had to be approved by this role.
The coordinator also approves the exceptions that change a plan: hours in a state other than your permanent residence, banked hours for FNP and AGNP students, and hours at your own employer when the location or unit differs from yours. Incompletes and preceptor evaluations are handled here too, and the same person serves as Medatrax coordinator.
UCCS will not share its list of contracted sites, but the handbooks do say the coordinator can be contacted for assistance. Some handbook passages use the shorter title Clinical Practicum Coordinator; if a document leaves you unsure which office is meant, ask.
Get the coordinator's approval before you act on an exception such as out-of-state or employer hours, not after the hours are logged.
Track and course decisions: Option Coordinators and lead faculty
UCCS has an Option Coordinator for Family Practice and one for Psychiatric Mental Health; the Graduate Program Director, also called the Graduate Program Coordinator, serves as the Adult/Gerontology Option Coordinator. They approve PMHNP hours with an LCSW, licensed counselor or psychologist, approve remote telehealth for PMHNP students, and receive injury reports.
They also review written requests for more than three new agreements in a semester when a preceptor cannot finish, along with the Academic Services Professional and the practicum coordinator. FNP and AGNP students who cannot reach the on-campus simulation or skills lab ask their Option Coordinator for alternatives.
Lead faculty own each course and its grade. If a rotation stalls and you need an incomplete, lead faculty and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator both have to hear from you. Above them, the Chair of the Department of Nursing decides eligibility after a positive background or drug screen finding and is the last step in escalations.
Site visitors, DNP mentors and university offices
A few more titles appear once your rotations are running, when you move into a DNP project, or when a question leaves the nursing department entirely.
- Site visitors: university faculty or contracted visitors who check in once per clinical course after you pass the halfway mark. See site visits and evaluations.
- DNP Project Course Faculty and the DNP Project Institutional Mentor, an outside professional at your project site whom you recruit yourself. See DNP experience hours.
- Office of Disability Services: medical exemptions from immunization requirements.
- Dean of Students: religious exemptions, which UCCS notes apply to UCCS only; a site can still refuse.
- University Risk Management, part of the CU system: workers' compensation claims, which have a 10-day window.
- Office of the Registrar: state authorization and SARA questions.
Undergraduate students work with different titles
Campus BSN students have their clinical sites assigned, so they deal with an Undergraduate Clinical Placement Coordinator and a Clinical Facilities Coordinator, who requests hospital EHR codes 45 days before each semester. A Department of Nursing Academic Services Professional reviews their compliance documents, and the undergraduate side has its own Nursing Advisors and Option Coordinators for the Traditional, Accelerated and RN-BSN options.
RN to BSN students in NURS 4450 work mainly with course faculty, who also hold a few reserved community sites in Colorado Springs. Every other student in that course secures a site on their own, with faculty approval. The undergraduate handbook also explains why assigned seats are tight: limited clinical placement slots mean UCCS uses a prioritization system.
Where we fit alongside UCCS's team
UCCS's titles check, contract and supervise. The search that comes before all of that is ours: we find a preceptor and site that fit your course where you live, then collect what the paperwork needs: credentials, license and board certification, site details, the name of whoever can sign a contract for the practice, and your hours down to the exact number.
That means the Academic Services Professional receives a site sheet that can move straight into an agreement, and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator gets clear answers if a site question comes up. Approval always stays with UCCS; what we control is the quality of what lands on each desk. When your preceptor wants to know what UCCS will send them, from the agreement letter to the Medatrax evaluation, we explain it before your first shift. Start with the form below.
Questions UCCS students ask
Who receives the Clinical Site Sheet at UCCS?
The Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing. That office turns your sheet into the Affiliation Agreement and preceptor letter, decides whether the site needs myClinicalExchange, and emails you as the agreement moves forward. Questions about whether the site itself suits your track go to the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator instead.
Who approves clinical hours outside my home state?
The Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator. You can only do hours in states listed on the college website, and you need the right RN license there: a multistate license in a compact state, or that state's own RN license in a non-compact state. The approved states page has the list.
What is the Clinical Agency Liaison at UCCS?
It is an older title. The 2024 practicum handbooks used "Affiliation Agreement Coordinator / Clinical Agency Liaison" for the role the 08/2026 handbooks call the Academic Services Professional for Graduate Nursing. If an older form or email uses the old wording, it means the same paperwork desk.
Who approves PMHNP hours with a therapist?
The Psychiatric Mental Health Option Coordinator. The PMHNP handbooks allow a limited number of hours with an LCSW, licensed counselor or licensed psychologist, and only with that approval. The same coordinator approves remote telehealth for PMHNP students. The full preceptor list is on PMHNP preceptor rules.
Who do I ask about my UCCS degree plan?
The Academic Services Senior Professional (Graduate Nursing), who handles degree plans and admissions questions. Each student gets an individual degree plan at admission, and UCCS limits students to three degree plans unless a written reason supports another. Your degree plan also settles which hour rules and courses apply to you.
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
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