FIU clinical clearance: every item and every renewal cycle
At Florida International University (FIU), clinical clearance has to be complete before your rotation starts; the graduate handbook sets that as the deadline rather than a fixed number of weeks. The handbooks call the clearance account Complio, with checks ordered through American Databank, while FIU's web pages call it FIU Express. Below is the full list, how often each item comes due, and how to keep clearance from holding up a site you worked hard to secure.
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.
What clearance does in an FIU rotation
Clearance is the proof, held in one account, that you meet the health, background and training conditions FIU sets before a student sees patients. The Graduate Nursing Student Handbook 2025-2026 treats a background check as a condition of both enrollment and clinical placement, so clearance is part of being a student in the program, not a step you can leave for later.
It runs next to the site search, not after it. A signed contract and an approved preceptor give you a place to train; a complete clearance account is what lets you start there. If you are still assembling the site, read the placement process for the order of steps and site contracts for why a new site takes weeks to approve.
If you are in one of FIU's online primary care tracks, adult-gero or pediatric, you feel this most: you identify your own site, so the contract clock and the clearance clock run side by side.
Complio or FIU Express: FIU names the system two ways
FIU's own documents disagree on the name of the clearance system. The 2025-2026 graduate handbook and the BSN handbook tell you to create a Complio account and order the background check, drug screen, employment verification and FBI fingerprinting through American Databank. The MSN, DNP and DNP Nurse Anesthesia Clinical Education pages, and the college's Clinicals & Fieldwork page, call the system FIU Express instead.
FIU does not explain the difference in any of these documents. Treat the name and link in your own admission instructions as the ones that count, and save every upload confirmation so you can show what you submitted if a question comes up later in the program.
Before you pay for any package, confirm with your course faculty or the Office of Clinical Education which system name and link apply to your admission term.
The full clearance list
The handbook groups the items into Admitted Packages, an Immunization Compliance Package, other required items and one-time forms. This table gathers them with the renewal cycle FIU gives for each.
| Item | Where FIU lists it | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Background check (through American Databank) | Clearance account | Every three years |
| FL VECHS FBI Fingerprint Search | Admitted Packages | Once |
| 7-Year Employment Verifications | Admitted Packages | Once |
| 13 Panel Paperless Drug Screen | Admitted Packages | Every two years |
| Influenza | Immunization Compliance Package | Every year |
| Varicella, MMR and hepatitis B (doses or titer) | Immunization Compliance Package | Once each |
| Tdap | Immunization Compliance Package | Every 10 years |
| TB: 2-step PPD or QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus | Immunization Compliance Package | Every year |
| Physical examination form | Immunization Compliance Package | Once |
| AHA BLS Healthcare Provider card | Other required items | Every two years |
| Major medical health insurance | Other required items | Proof every year |
| Performance Standards, Consent/Release, Student Attestation, COVID-19 Attestation | One-time forms | Once |
Each group has its own guide: the background check and fingerprints, the drug screen, immunizations and TB, and insurance and BLS, which also covers the disagreement over liability coverage.
Forms the college posts for every program
Beyond the handbook list, FIU's nursing college keeps a set of college-wide documents on its Clinicals & Fieldwork page. Download the current versions there rather than reusing a copy a classmate sent you, since forms get revised.
Posted on the Clinicals & Fieldwork page
- NWCNHS Student Consent Form for Clinical Placement
- NWCNHS History & Physical Form
- NWCNHS TB Annual Screening Form
- NWCNHS Drug Use and Clearance
- AHC Health Clinical Placements COVID Acknowledgment
Two of the handbook's one-time items need someone else's signature or input. A clinician's signature goes on the FIU Performance Standards Form, and the physical examination form needs an exam. Booking one provider visit that covers both, plus any titer draws, saves you a second appointment. Keep a scanned copy of every signed page as well, because each consent and attestation form needs your own signature and is easy to leave half finished.
Deadlines and how long clearance takes
For graduate students, the handbook's rule is simple: clearance is complete before the clinical rotation starts. It names no number of weeks, which makes the real deadline the day your preceptor expects you.
Other FIU documents give a sense of scale. The BSN handbook sets clearance due 3 weeks before the semester for Traditional and Accelerated students. FIU Online's 2021 package for RN to BSN students estimates four to six weeks, at minimum, for Complio clearance, and it lists final-semester placement dates of April 1 (Summer), August 1 (Fall) and December 1 (Spring).
For an NP student, the practical window is the semester before your practicum, the same window FIU uses to set up rotations. The current handbook allows 6-8 weeks for a brand-new contract, so start the clearance orders the week you start the site search. The semester-before plan maps the two side by side.
Renewals that come due in the middle of a program
Clearance is not a one-time event. Items run on four different clocks: yearly (influenza, TB, proof of health insurance), every two years (drug screen, BLS), every three years (background check) and every ten years (Tdap).
Before each practicum semester, compare every expiration date with the last day of that term. For 2026-27 the main terms end December 12 (Fall 2026), May 1 (Spring 2027) and July 30 for Summer Session C. An item that lapses in week ten of a rotation is as much trouble as one that was never done.
Longer programs meet more renewals. The post-BSN to DNP, begun in Fall, takes ten semesters, which outlasts a single three-year background cycle, and time away on a Leave of Absence, or a course you must retake, pushes any plan further out.
Why FIU students choose us for clearance timing
Our placement advisors plan the match around your clearance dates. Every site we bring you comes with its onboarding list attached: which platform it uses, how many days ahead it wants your file, and whether it adds screening you would pay for, so you decide with the whole picture in front of you.
The preceptor side gets the same care. We collect the details FIU's request needs, from the preceptor's specialty and license to the clinic address and weekly hours, and tell you early if the site would need a new FIU contract. Approval belongs to your faculty and FIU's Office of Clinical Education, and the file they receive is complete. If a preceptor steps back mid-semester, we line up a replacement and check the new site's onboarding the same way. Start from how it works, or tell us about your practicum in the form at the bottom of this page.
Questions FIU students ask
Is FIU Express the same thing as Complio?
FIU's documents do not say. The graduate and BSN handbooks name Complio, with checks ordered through American Databank, while the Clinical Education pages and the Clinicals & Fieldwork page name FIU Express. Use the link in your own admission instructions, and check with the Office of Clinical Education or a course faculty member before you order anything.
Who pays for FIU clinical clearance?
The handbook places background checks and drug testing, including repeat tests, on the student, plus whatever added screening an individual facility asks for and your own health insurance. FIU does not publish fixed amounts for these, so budget for them early. Our placement costs guide explains who pays for each piece.
Can a clinical site ask for more than FIU's clearance list?
Yes. FIU's handbook expects that some facilities require extra screening and puts that cost on you. One example: on its student rotations page, Baptist Health South Florida wants each student's Complio profile ten or more business days ahead of the start, and it keeps students off site until its clearance email goes out.
Do I redo clearance every semester at FIU?
No. One-time items, the fingerprint search and the employment verification stay on file. The yearly, two-year and three-year items do come due during the program, so check expiration dates against the end of each practicum semester and renew before anything lapses mid-rotation.
What happens if clearance is not finished when my rotation should start?
The rotation waits. The handbook's rule is that every clearance item is finished before day one, and starting clinicals without approval counts as a conduct violation. Any clinical hours you lose must be made up later, so a late clearance can squeeze the rest of your semester.
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.