Planning your FIU rotation the semester before, month by month
Florida International University (FIU) arranges each clinical rotation in the semester before the course, as a joint effort between you and your faculty. That leaves roughly one semester to find a preceptor, file the request, get a contract through if the site is new, and finish clearance. Here is how to spread that work across the months, using FIU's 2026-2027 dates.
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.
Why FIU's clock starts a semester early
FIU's graduate handbook has each rotation arranged during the term ahead of the clinical course and calls it shared work: your faculty weigh your past experience when judging which site suits you. On the online tracks the finding part is yours, so the semester before is when the search has to happen.
The slowest pieces sit outside your control: a new site agreement, which the handbook estimates at 6-8 weeks, and the clearance items that must post before day one. Everything else, from shortlisting practices to agreeing on weekdays, needs to be done early enough to leave room for those two. Rotations also run only inside official semester periods, so a late start eats straight into the term rather than spilling over into a break.
Where your practicum semesters fall
Under the full-time MSN plan (5-2026 revision), the Adult-Gerontology and Pediatric Primary Care practicums fill semesters 4, 5 and 6: fall, spring and summer of the second year. The online certificates follow the same pattern, and on the post-BSN to DNP the first NP practicum lands in semester 4 of the Fall-start plan and semester 6 of the Spring-start plan. MSN tracks admit in Fall only, and stepping out for a term requires a formal Leave of Absence.
That means three practicum semesters in a row, and each has its own semester-before. While you log hours in NGR 6201L or NGR 6301L, you are also lining up the site for the next course, since a new site each term is allowed under the handbook. FIU publishes no hour figure per practicum, so ask your clinical faculty what each term requires; program totals are on the clinical hours page.
FIU's 2026-2027 dates to plan around
FIU does not say whether the practicums follow the full semester or one of the shorter A and B sessions, so confirm your course dates with your clinical faculty. Holidays that land on a clinical day are replaced with a make-up day you arrange with the preceptor, and breaks are closed to clinicals unless your faculty approve by email beforehand. The academic calendar guide lists the other deadlines.
| Term | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | August 24 to December 12, 2026 | Session A Aug 24-Oct 10; Session B Oct 19-Dec 5 |
| Spring 2027 | January 11 to May 1, 2027 | Spring break March 1-7 |
| Summer 2027, Session C | May 10 to July 30, 2027 | Summer Sessions A and B split the same weeks |
| Fall 2027 | Begins August 23, 2027 | First practicum for the Fall 2026 MSN cohort |
The month-by-month plan
This is our working plan, counted back from the first day of the practicum semester. FIU fixes the 6-8 week contract estimate, the manual's 8-week notice and the clearance rules; the spacing around them is what keeps those fixed pieces from colliding.
- Four to five months outConfirm
NGR 6002C,NGR 5141andNGR 6172will still sit inside FIU's three-year window, list the practices you can reach on weekdays, and ask the Office of Clinical Education which already hold FIU contracts. - Three to four months outApproach preceptors with your course, dates and weekdays, screen each against FIU's rules and keep a second candidate warm.
- About three months outComplete the Preceptor Request Form with preceptor, facility, schedule and license details, and get your faculty's signature.
- Two to three months outIf the site is new to FIU, the contract clock is now running; both the handbook's 6-8 weeks and the manual's 8 weeks' notice should fit before day one.
- Six to eight weeks outReview your clearance in Complio or FIU Express: flu, TB, BLS, insurance and any background or drug screen renewal falling due.
- The final monthConfirm the contract is in place, finish any site EHR training, settle the detailed schedule and assemble the preceptor folder.
- First week of the semesterYour clinical faculty needs the day-by-day schedule during week one of clinical seminar; have Typhon ready too, since each day must be logged within 7 days.
Two worked examples from today's calendar
Say your next practicum starts with Spring 2027 on January 11. Counting back the manual's 8 weeks puts the latest safe date for a request at a new site on November 16, 2026, inside Fall 2026 Session B. Working back further, preceptor conversations belong in September and October 2026, while you are still in your current courses.
Now take the Fall 2026 MSN cohort, whose first practicum begins with Fall 2027 on August 23. The same arithmetic puts a new-site request by June 28, 2027, during Summer Session C, which is also when NGR 6743, the clinical education seminar, sits on the plan. The search itself belongs in the spring before, with the site contracts guide explaining why a practice with an existing FIU agreement shortens every one of these dates.
The common mistake is treating the practicum semester as the start line. By FIU's own process the rotation is arranged during the semester before, so a search begun in week one of the practicum is already late.
When the plan slips
If the search runs late, FIU's rules narrow the fallbacks. Taking a term out is only possible through a Leave of Absence, any clinical hours you miss must be recovered, and an Incomplete requires you to be passing with at least half the course work done, then finished within two consecutive terms. Those rules are why a slipped search can push graduation back; the delayed graduation page covers the sequence.
The quickest recovery is usually a practice FIU already has an agreement with, which takes the contract wait out of the equation. If you are already inside the semester without a site, start with the need a preceptor fast page and tell your clinical faculty the same day. They share the setup work under FIU's joint process, so keep them informed at every step of the recovery.
Why FIU students start their plan with us
We work to this calendar for every FIU student we help. Tell us your track, your practicum semester and your area, and we begin the search in the semester before, find preceptors who fit your course and have agreed to your weekdays, and flag at once whether each practice is already under an FIU agreement.
From there we keep the dates in front of you: the request timed to the notice period, the contract window, clearance renewals coming due, the schedule for your clinical faculty and the 7-day Typhon rule once you start. The same planning repeats for your second and third practicums. The approvals remain with FIU; our part is delivering each request to them complete and ahead of the deadline. The form below starts it.
Questions FIU students ask
When should I start looking for an FIU preceptor?
In the semester before your practicum at the latest, since that is the term FIU's handbook uses to arrange rotations. For a practice with no FIU contract yet, leave at least 8 weeks between the request and your first clinical day, and more if you can, because the agreement, your clearance and your faculty's approval all have to be complete first.
Can I do clinical hours during winter or spring break?
Only with approval. Clinical days belong inside the official semester, so a break day needs an email from your faculty approving it in advance. Spring 2027's break runs March 1-7. A holiday that falls on one of your clinical days is made up on a replacement day agreed with your preceptor.
Do FIU practicums run the full 16-week semester?
FIU's calendar leaves that open for the NP practicums. Its Fall and Spring terms run a 16-week main session alongside two shorter sessions of roughly 7 weeks, while Summer's Session C lasts about 12 weeks. Check the syllabus for your course on FIU SharePoint and confirm the dates with your clinical faculty.
What if my pre-clinical courses are more than three years old?
Under the handbook, your grades of B or better in NGR 6002C, NGR 5141 and NGR 6172 stay valid for three years before a clinical course. A course older than that has to be taken again, which may delay the practicum, though you can appeal by email to the department chair. Raise it well before your planned start.
How far ahead should DNP students plan residency hours?
On the same principle, with a mentor instead of a preceptor. Identify your organizational mentor, then allow for FIU's mentor approval process and a new contract if the site lacks one, which the handbook puts at 6-8 weeks. The post-MSN plan places NGR 7940C in semester 4, so the mentor search belongs in semester 3.
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.