Who does what in an FIU clinical rotation
Florida International University (FIU) spreads a clinical rotation across several offices and roles. On the online NP tracks you find the site and preceptor, a faculty signature goes on the Preceptor Request Form, the Office of Clinical Education handles the contract and the final check, your clinical faculty follows you through the term, and your preceptor teaches and grades you in the clinic.
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.
The short version
FIU's graduate handbook, its 2022 preceptor manual and its web pages name these roles. Titles appear as FIU writes them. The people in each seat change over time, so ask for help by title rather than by name.
| Role | Its part in your rotation |
|---|---|
| You (online tracks) | Find the site and preceptor, file the Preceptor Request Form, clear Complio, hand over the preceptor folder, keep Typhon current, schedule your evaluations |
| Preceptor | Teaches you in clinic, signs off on your documentation, signs the time sheet as the weeks go by, grades you midway and at the close |
| Office of Clinical Education | Arranges agreements with clinical partners and judges whether each site and preceptor has its paperwork complete |
| Graduate nursing clinical coordinator | The handbook's hub for placements at selected sites, in contact with preceptors and sites while a placement is arranged |
| Faculty | Plan rotations jointly with students a semester ahead, sign the request form, approve Typhon entries |
| Clinical faculty | Assigned one per student per term; takes your schedule, visits the site, stays in touch with your preceptor |
| Director of Clinical Education | Takes preceptors' Certificate of Participation requests (2022 manual) and handles BSN clinical group changes |
| Graduate Nursing Department Chair | Decides appeals of clinical probation, which have a five-business-day window |
The clinical education side
The college's clinical education office appears under three names in FIU's documents: the Office of Clinical Education, the Clinical Education Department and the designated clinical department. Its work is the agreements with clinical partners and the judgment on whether a site and its preceptor are fully documented. For an online-track student, this is the office that turns a site you found into one FIU can use. The Office of Clinical Education page covers what it asks of you.
Alongside it, the graduate handbook describes a graduate nursing clinical coordinator who serves as the go-to person for placements at selected sites and who keeps up the correspondence with preceptors and sites while a placement comes together. The handbook also lists a Clinical Site Coordinator, the 2022 manual lists a Director of Clinical Education, and the Office of Academic Affairs joins the clinical education office in choosing sites.
The faculty side
Faculty and students plan each rotation together in the term before the clinical course, according to FIU's handbook, and faculty look at your earlier experience to judge which site suits you best. A faculty signature goes on the Preceptor Request Form, and once your preceptor has signed off on your documentation in clinic, faculty approve the matching entries in Typhon.
The 2022 manual pairs each student with one clinical faculty member per term, in addition to the course faculty. That clinical faculty member expects your detailed schedule in the first week of clinical seminar, sets up visits with your preceptor and watches you work on two or more clinical days, then writes a site visit evaluation; the evaluations and site visits page covers that stretch. Any clinical day during a campus break needs this faculty member's email approval first.
Above the courses, the 2022 manual names a track program leader for each NP track and a director over the NWCNHS Advanced Practice Nursing Programs. FIU's MSN FAQ also lists a Graduate Nursing Advisor and a Director of Admissions and Student Services for Nursing.
DNP roles
Residency hours bring a different cast. FIU's graduate handbook names a DNP Program Director, DNP residency faculty, a DNP Project Advisor and the organizational mentor, and the whole team is written onto one approval form for the DNP project and its team.
Choosing the mentor is your task. FIU prefers a mentor with a doctorate and real depth in your field, and the person you report to at work cannot hold the role. For post-MSN DNP students, both the DNP Program Director and the Clinical Education Department have to sign off on the rotation, the site agreement goes through the Clinical Education Organizational Mentor Approval Process, and FIU keeps the contract. The organizational mentor page covers who qualifies. At admission, a form verifying your post-baccalaureate practice hours also shapes how many residency hours you owe, as the DNP residency page explains.
When something goes wrong: who decides
Who handles what, by FIU title
- Appeal of clinical probation: the Graduate Nursing Department Chair, filed within five business days
- Recency appeals for
NGR 6002C,NGR 5141andNGR 6172: an email to the department chair - Switching graduate nursing programs: a transfer request that the department chair reviews with the program leaders
- Leave of Absence (policy 380.048): sign-off from the program director or chair, the college dean and the dean of the Graduate School
- Records of where you study (Policy 1370.001): kept by the Office of the Registrar
- Remediation after weak clinical performance: a plan the site and faculty write, stored in PantherSoft
FIU's MSN FAQ also points students to the NWCNHS Student Services office. For how leave and time limits work, see incompletes, leave and time limits.
RN to BSN, BSN and Nurse Anesthesia roles
Undergraduate programs use their own titles. FIU's BSN handbook names a Chair of Undergraduate Nursing and a Director of Clinical Education, who is the person for BSN clinical group changes. The 2021 RN to BSN information package, still linked from FIU Online, names an RN-BSN Program Coordinator and a Clinical Education Program Specialist, and asks students living outside Florida to identify themselves to the coordinator. The RN to BSN page covers that track.
The DNP Nurse Anesthesia manual, dated 2022, names a Program Chair, a clinical coordinator for the program and, at every affiliate, a site clinical coordinator who is either a CRNA or an anesthesiologist. Residency sites in that program are assigned by the clinical coordinator and faculty. FIU also places Traditional and Accelerated Option BSN students itself, in instructor-led clinical groups at facilities chosen at faculty discretion.
Where we fit alongside FIU's roles
We take on the piece of the work that FIU's current Clinical Education page hands to online-track students: finding the site and preceptor. We search for clinicians who suit the course and the patients it calls for, confirm they are willing, and pull together what the Preceptor Request Form needs, so the packet you give your faculty and the clinical education office has no gaps.
We also watch the calendar for you: setup in the semester before, a new contract that may need 6-8 weeks, Complio or FIU Express clearance, and the seven-day Typhon window. Every approval still sits with FIU's own roles on this page, and our work is to put a clean, rule-ready request in front of them. Tell us your track and start term in the form below.
Questions FIU students ask
Who is my main contact for clinical placement at FIU?
It depends on your track. On the online AGPCNP and PNP tracks you find the site yourself and work with the clinical department, the Office of Clinical Education, on the contract. On the hybrid tracks, the graduate handbook points you to the graduate nursing clinical coordinator for placements. DNP residency rotations go through the DNP Program Director and the Clinical Education Department.
Who signs the FIU Preceptor Request Form?
Faculty. The form sits in Appendix A of FIU's preceptor manual (revised 3/31/2022) and carries a line for faculty approval. FIU staff then fill in when the site was last evaluated, plus the preceptor's license and when it expires, and the clinical education office checks that every contract and document is on file.
Who approves a DNP organizational mentor at FIU?
For post-MSN DNP students, FIU's graduate handbook requires sign-off from both the DNP Program Director and the Clinical Education Department, and the contract stays with FIU. The site agreement is checked through the Clinical Education Organizational Mentor Approval Process, and the mentor is named on the approval form for your DNP project team.
Who do I appeal clinical probation to at FIU?
The Graduate Nursing Department Chair, and the handbook gives you five business days to file. Probation comes after a written warning for unprofessional conduct, which you can answer in writing inside 48 hours, and it carries a written improvement plan. If that plan does not work out, the handbook allows course failure, removal from the rotation or dismissal.
Who keeps my learner location on file at FIU?
The Office of the Registrar holds learner-location records under FIU Policy 1370.001. FIU sets your location from the details you gave at enrollment and updates it only after you formally report a move, which matters if your clinicals might happen outside Florida. The learner location page explains the policy.
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.