Questions FIU nursing students ask us
These are the broad questions that come up before a Florida International University (FIU) student starts a placement with us. FIU's detailed rules each have their own guide, linked where they apply; the answers here cover the service itself, the decisions FIU keeps, and what happens when a plan changes partway through a program.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your FIU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your FIU course.
Which FIU students do you work with?
Our core students are the ones FIU asks to identify their own clinical site: the online MSN Adult-Gerontology Primary Care and Pediatric Primary Care NP tracks, the matching online post-graduate certificates, and the online specialties of the post-BSN to DNP. Post-MSN DNP students come to us for an organizational mentor, and RN to BSN students for a preceptor when their own facility cannot host them.
Hybrid-track students in FNP, PMHNP and AGACNP work with FIU's clinical department, which helps them one-on-one with placements; they turn to us when they want a site nearer home or a gap opens mid-program. FIU assigns clinical sites in the Nurse Anesthesia program and the Traditional and Accelerated BSN, so our help for those students begins later, when a graduate track asks them to find a site. The online and hybrid tracks guide sorts every program.
What should I have ready before I contact you?
A short list is enough to start, and every item speeds up the first shortlist.
- Your plan of study, or at least your track and the term each practicum falls in.
- The course number that needs a site, such as
NGR 6202LorNGR 6303L. - Your home city or ZIP code and how far you can drive on a weekday.
- Your employer and unit, so no one proposes a site FIU would rule out.
- Any clinician or practice you have already approached, and their answer.
- Where your Complio or FIU Express clearance stands, and when items renew.
- Anything FIU has told you in writing about your site, including a site outside South Florida.
Missing pieces are fine. Your placement advisor fills gaps during the first conversation and tells you which ones FIU will ask about.
Does your work replace anything FIU does?
Our work comes before FIU's review and feeds it; it complements FIU's roles rather than standing in for any of them. FIU's clinical department negotiates agreements with clinical partners. The Office of Clinical Education rules on whether a site and preceptor carry all the contracts and paperwork FIU requires. Your faculty sign the Preceptor Request Form and, once the rotation runs, approve your Typhon entries. Every one of those decisions stays with FIU, and none of them can be skipped or delegated.
What we take on is the part FIU places on the student for the online tracks: finding the preceptor, confirming the fit with FIU's standards, and gathering the details FIU needs to review the site. When the request reaches the office complete, its review can move straight to the contract question. The Office of Clinical Education guide explains what the office asks of students.
Can I keep the same preceptor for my next practicum?
Sometimes. Under FIU's graduate handbook a new site and preceptor each semester is allowed, not required, which leaves room to stay put when the fit is right. Each practicum is its own course with its own Preceptor Request Form, so the question for the next term is whether the same clinician suits that course and is willing to continue.
If you want to stay, raise it with your preceptor and your clinical faculty before the current term ends, since the next rotation is arranged during this one. If you would rather move, or the preceptor cannot continue, we search for the next site while you finish the current practicum, which keeps the gap between terms as short as possible. The second adult-gero practicum guide weighs the choice in detail.
What if I move during my program?
Tell FIU and tell us early. FIU Policy 1370.001 sets your learner location from the information you gave at enrollment and changes it only when you formally report a move, and it counts clinicals as educational activity. A move to another state raises questions FIU's pages leave open, such as whether a clinical site there is possible at all, so send them to the clinical education office in writing before any preceptor search starts in the new state.
A move within Florida is simpler: the online tracks may train beyond Monroe, Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties once a contract is in place. We restart the search around your new address and check whether practices near it already hold FIU agreements. The learner location guide covers the reporting step.
What if something goes wrong mid-semester?
Preceptors change jobs, practices close and schedules collapse. When that happens, tell your clinical faculty first. FIU's handbook says hours you miss must be made up, and your faculty decide how the rest of the term runs, including whether an Incomplete is worth discussing if the semester runs short. Keep logging every completed day in Typhon within 7 days, so the hours you already have are safe.
Then message your placement advisor. A replacement search starts at once, with priority on sites that already hold an FIU agreement, because a new contract takes weeks the semester may not have. You get candidates in order of how fast each could realistically start. The preceptor dropped out and behind on clinical hours guides cover the conversations to have with FIU while the search runs.
Questions FIU students ask
Can you find an organizational mentor for the FIU DNP residency?
Yes. FIU's handbook asks for a mentor who is ideally doctorally prepared and expert in the field, and who is not your regular work supervisor. Hours at your own workplace count only beyond your regular duties. The DNP Program Director and the Clinical Education Department approve the rotation, and FIU holds the contract.
Can a physician be my preceptor at FIU?
Yes, within limits. FIU's Clinical Education page names both NPs and physicians as preceptors, and the handbook expects nurse practitioners to precept most rotations. That handbook also states that preceptors need a master's degree in nursing, and FIU leaves the two statements unreconciled. Get your clinical faculty's approval of a physician before you accept.
Do you help FIU RN to BSN students?
Yes. FIU's BSN handbook points RN to BSN students to their own facility first. The preceptor must hold a BSN, the site needs a current contract with FIU's nursing college, and your own unit is excluded. For NUR 4945L, an NP or CNS who works solely as a primary care provider does not qualify, and our search follows that rule.
Can you find me a preceptor in another state?
We search wherever FIU approves your site. FIU's pages allow online-track clinicals beyond its four home counties but do not say whether that reaches other states, so the first step is a written answer from the Office of Clinical Education. The clinicals outside South Florida guide lists the questions to send.
How do I start?
Send a short message through the form at the foot of this page: which FIU program you are in, which NGR or NUR course comes next, where you live and when that course opens. A placement advisor answers with a plan, a written quote and a few questions. The step-by-step overview shows what follows.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against FIU's own graduate handbook, preceptor manual, plans of study, catalog and licensure pages. Your plan of study, your course faculty, your clinical faculty and FIU's Office of Clinical Education have the final word.
FIU asks you to identify your clinical site. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your FIU track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, check early whether the site already holds an FIU contract, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NGR 6201L, pediatric primary care forNGR 6301L, an organizational mentor forNGR 7940C - Preceptor, facility, license and schedule details ready for the Preceptor Request Form, weeks ahead of the contract clock
- Across Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe, or beyond them where FIU approves your site
Start your placement plan
Track, city and semester is all we need to begin.