Finding your own preceptor as an FIU online-track student
Florida International University (FIU) puts the site search in your hands on its online primary care tracks. FIU's MSN Clinical Education page says "it is the student's responsibility to identify the clinical site and work with our clinical department", which then helps set up the contract with the practice. Here is what that asks of you, and how to run a search that ends with a site FIU can approve.
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 FIU's sentence asks of you
The sentence splits the work in two. You find a practice and a preceptor willing to take you, then pass their details to FIU; the clinical department works out the contract with the practice, and no rotation may begin before that contract is in place. The search is yours, while the agreement and the approval stay with FIU.
Who it covers: MSN students in adult-gerontology or pediatric primary care, the matching online certificates, and post-BSN to DNP students in an online specialty, where the DNP overview repeats the same expectation in its own words. Those students may also train beyond the four counties FIU has long relied on for clinicals, which is part of why the search sits with them. Other programs work differently, as the online versus hybrid tracks guide shows.
What a site has to offer your course
Match the site to the practicum before anything else. The Adult-Gerontology practicums on the 5-2026 plan (NGR 6201L, NGR 6202L, NGR 6203L) call for adult and older-adult primary care, and the Pediatric practicums (NGR 6301L, NGR 6302L, NGR 6303L) call for pediatric primary care. A family practice may see both groups, so ask how much of its patient load fits your track before you commit.
Then check the rhythm of the week. Primary care rotations at FIU are weekday, daytime work according to the handbook, so a practice that can only offer evenings works against that pattern and is worth raising with your faculty first. FIU publishes no hour figure for each of these practicums; program totals, including the 770-versus-630 question, are on the clinical hours page, and your clinical faculty sets what each semester needs.
Running the search, step by step
- Start with what FIU already hasAsk the Office of Clinical Education whether a practice you are weighing appears on FIU's list of Clinical Site Contracts, and whether any clinician there already appears in Typhon as an approved NWCNHS preceptor. Every existing agreement you find saves weeks.
- Draw a realistic radiusList primary care practices you can reach on weekdays. On the online tracks that can mean outside South Florida, but confirm any site beyond the four home counties with the office first.
- Screen each preceptorA year or more in the specialty, current licensure, national certification, and no family or close-friend relationship; the preceptor requirements page has the full list.
- Make a clear askName the course, the semester and the weekdays you need, and explain that FIU's clinical department handles the contract with the practice.
- Collect the form detailsName, facility, specialty, address, email, license and expiration, plus the days and times you agreed: the fields of the Preceptor Request Form.
- Keep a second candidateA practice can decline the agreement or be slow to sign it. A backup you have already screened keeps the semester on track.
Where to look first
Independent primary care practices, community clinics and pediatric offices make natural starting points, because a single practice can agree to host you and sign one agreement with FIU. Large systems publish school-level conditions instead. Baptist Health South Florida takes rotation requests only from schools with a Master Agreement and Program Letter of Agreement, though its page says a student may find a Baptist preceptor on their own; Cleveland Clinic Florida says only an academic representative can arrange placements, after an affiliation agreement is signed.
Whether FIU has signed either system's agreement is not stated on their pages, so check with the office first. Your own employer is another option to weigh carefully, because your own unit is excluded even though a large employer may have another unit that qualifies; working where you work draws that line.
What to tell a preceptor before they say yes
Preceptors decide faster when the request is specific. Give the FIU course, the semester dates and the weekdays you can offer, and describe the paperwork honestly: a folder of course objectives and evaluation forms at your first meeting, a time-sheet log to sign as the weeks go by, an evaluation at mid-rotation and another at the end, and a faculty member observing you on two or more days.
It also helps to mention what FIU offers in return. The 2022 manual describes preceptors as volunteers and sets out ANCC preceptorship documentation and a tuition-fee Certificate of Participation once enough hours have been supervised; the preceptor recognition page has the thresholds. A preceptor who knows all of this before agreeing is far less likely to be surprised in week three.
Agreeing on start dates with a practice before FIU confirms the contract is the classic misstep: no rotation may begin until the contract is in place, whatever the practice's own calendar says.
Why FIU students let us run the search
The search is where most of the semester's effort goes, and it is what we do every day for FIU students. We look for preceptors who fit your practicum and your track's patients, in person and within reach of where you live, and we screen each one against FIU's preceptor rules before your name goes anywhere.
You get a preceptor who has already agreed to your course, days and times, every detail the request form needs gathered in one place, and an early read on the practice's contract status with FIU. Your faculty and the Office of Clinical Education then make the call, with a complete request in front of them from the start. Tell us your track and semester in the form below, or weigh your options on searching alone versus getting help.
Questions FIU students ask
Does FIU give online-track students a list of preceptors?
FIU publishes no public list of affiliated sites or preceptors. The graduate handbook mentions a Clinical Site Contracts list, and the request form asks whether your preceptor is already approved in Typhon, so the clinical education office is in a position to say whether a practice or clinician is familiar to FIU. Ask before you start calling practices.
Can I use a preceptor outside South Florida?
FIU's Clinical Education page allows online-track clinicals beyond FIU's four home counties, with the contract rule unchanged. Other states go unmentioned, as does the license you or your preceptor would need there, so get the office's answer in writing first; the outside South Florida guide has a question list.
Is a physician acceptable as my preceptor?
FIU's handbook and web page allow nurse practitioner or physician preceptors, though NPs will supervise the bulk of your rotations. The complication is the handbook's separate line requiring a nursing master's degree of preceptors, which FIU never squares with the physician allowance, so clear a physician with your clinical faculty before filing.
How early should I contact practices?
Aim for the first half of the semester before your practicum, the term in which FIU arranges rotations. The 2022 manual asks for at least eight weeks' notice before the clinical start, and a new contract runs 6-8 weeks under the current handbook, so a practice new to FIU needs the longer runway.
What if every practice I call says no?
Widen the radius, include community clinics and practices that already work with FIU, and ask your clinical faculty, then the clinical education office, for ideas. Keep a record of every practice you contacted and the answer, which helps if you need to explain a delay. If the semester is getting close, our placement desk can take over the search.
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.