Search alone, lean on FIU, or use a placement service?
Every Florida International University (FIU) NP student ends up at the same finish line: a site and preceptor approved by FIU's Office of Clinical Education and faculty, under a contract signed before the first clinical day. The routes there differ. Some students search alone, some rely on the clinical department, and many hand the search to a placement service; this page compares the three so you can choose one or combine them.
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.
One finish line, three ways to reach it
Whichever route you take, FIU's checkpoints stay the same. The site and preceptor go on the Preceptor Request Form with your faculty's signature, the Office of Clinical Education confirms the paperwork, and a site with no FIU agreement gets one through the clinical department before you start. Starting clinicals without approval or a contract counts as unprofessional conduct in FIU's graduate handbook.
So the real choice is narrower than it looks. It is about who finds the preceptor, who checks the fit against FIU's standards, who gathers the details the form asks for, and who picks up the phone when a preceptor withdraws in week six. The right answer turns on your track, your network, your address and the weeks you have left.
Route one: running the search yourself
Searching alone works best when you already know an eligible clinician. A nurse practitioner you worked beside at a former job, a pediatric practice that has hosted students before, or a physician whose clinic sees the right patients can turn into a site quickly, provided the person is not a relative or close friend and the rotation is not on the unit where you now work.
The costs are time and uncertainty. Calls to busy practices can go unanswered for days, a verbal yes can fade when the office manager sees the contract, and the details FIU needs have to be collected one email at a time. A site with no FIU agreement then needs 6-8 weeks, by the current handbook, before you can begin. The finding your own preceptor guide gives a full search method if you choose this route.
Route two: leaning on FIU's clinical department
FIU's clinical department is central to every route, because it sets up the contracts. What else it does depends on your track. For the hybrid FNP, PMHNP and AGACNP tracks, FIU's pages describe one-on-one placement help, and the graduate handbook makes the graduate nursing clinical coordinator the person who handles placements at selected sites and corresponds with preceptors along the way.
For the online AGPCNP and PNP tracks, the Clinical Education page is direct: identifying the clinical site is the student's job, done in partnership with the clinical department. The office can still tell you whether a practice appears on FIU's list of Clinical Site Contracts, and the request form has a box for preceptors already on FIU's approved list in Typhon. FIU's 2022 preceptor manual describes a more central process in which graduate students suggest sites, but the current web page is the live instruction for online-track students. The online versus hybrid tracks guide sets out each program.
Route three: a placement service
A placement service takes on the part FIU leaves to online-track students. We contact practices near your home whose patients fit your course, screen each clinician against FIU's standards and Florida's license rule, and find out before you commit whether an FIU agreement already covers the practice.
This route suits students with no clinical network where they live, students working full time who cannot spend weekday hours calling offices, students who have moved, and anyone whose practicum starts within weeks or whose preceptor has just withdrawn. Every field of the Preceptor Request Form arrives filled from our side, and your placement advisor stays on call through the semester. The approvals remain FIU's, and the request that reaches the office is complete and inside FIU's rules on the first submission.
The three routes side by side
The table compares the routes on the questions that decide how a semester goes. Read the last two rows closely: approval is identical on every route, while what happens after a withdrawal differs most.
| Question | Searching alone | FIU's clinical department | Our placement service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who contacts practices | You | The coordinator, at selected sites, mainly for hybrid tracks | Your placement advisor |
| Who checks FIU's preceptor standards | You, then FIU | FIU | Us first, then FIU |
| When the contract status is known | Once you ask the office | Known to the office | Before you commit |
| Who gathers the request form details | You | You | Us, for you to submit |
| Who approves the site and preceptor | FIU | FIU | FIU |
| If the preceptor withdraws | You restart | Ask the office | Replacement search starts at once |
Combining the routes
The routes are not exclusive, and the strongest plans often mix them. An online-track student can ask the clinical education office which practices near home already hold FIU contracts, then hand that list to us so the search starts where the paperwork is lightest. A student who has a promising lead of their own can bring it to us for screening and let us build a backup around it.
Hybrid-track students can keep working with the graduate nursing clinical coordinator while we look for an option closer to home, as long as the coordinator knows about any site you propose. Whatever the mix, keep FIU's office informed in writing through your FIU email, and never let two people approach the same practice for you at once.
How to decide
Four questions usually settle it.
- Is your track online (AGPCNP, PNP, their certificates, the post-BSN DNP online specialties) or hybrid (FNP, PMHNP, AGACNP)?
- Do you already know an eligible preceptor within a weekday drive who is outside your own unit and outside your family and friends?
- How many weeks remain before the practicum term begins, and does the site you have in mind already hold an FIU contract?
- Do you live outside Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe, where fewer practices may have hosted FIU students?
If your answers point to a hybrid track, a known preceptor and plenty of time, routes one and two may be enough. If they point to an online track, no lead and a close start date, the how it works page shows what we do next, and the cost page explains what shapes a quote.
Questions FIU students ask
Can FIU students use a placement service for clinicals?
FIU's online-track pages make identifying the site the student's job and do not prescribe how the search is done. Whichever way you find the preceptor, the site goes through FIU's normal review: the Preceptor Request Form, your faculty's signature, the Office of Clinical Education and, when needed, a new contract through the clinical department.
Will FIU's clinical department find a site for me on the online track?
For AGPCNP and PNP students, the answer on FIU's Clinical Education page is that the student names the site and the clinical department then helps put the contract in place. The office can still answer useful questions, such as whether a practice already holds an FIU contract, so ask early in the semester before your practicum.
Is searching on my own faster?
It can be, if you already know an eligible preceptor at a practice that holds an FIU contract. Without a lead, most of the time goes into calls, follow-up and, for a new site, the 6-8 weeks the current handbook allows for a contract. A search that starts with contracted practices usually moves fastest, whoever runs it.
What if the practice I found refuses FIU's contract?
It happens, and it is why a backup matters. FIU's 2022 preceptor manual warns that suggesting a site does not by itself secure a contract or a rotation there. Keep a second screened option in reserve, or ask your placement advisor to start one, so the semester is not riding on a single signature.
Should hybrid-track students use a placement service?
Some will not need one, since FIU's clinical department helps FNP, PMHNP and AGACNP students one-on-one. A service earns its place on those tracks in narrower cases: a wish for a site closer to home, a placement that collapses, or a calendar that has run short. Tell the graduate nursing clinical coordinator about any site you propose.
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.