Finding NP preceptors in Florida: what health systems ask of schools
A Florida preceptor for a Florida International University (FIU) NP student has to satisfy three sets of rules: the state's, FIU's and, inside a large health system, the system's own. The systems that publish student rules, such as Baptist Health South Florida and Cleveland Clinic Florida, route requests through the school rather than the student, and that shapes where a student-led search begins.
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Tell us your FIU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your FIU course.
Three layers of rules
The first layer is the state's. Rule 64B9-4.001(13) of the Florida Administrative Code lists who may serve as an NP student's qualified preceptor and requires a Florida license for any preceptor at a Florida site; the Florida APRN practice guide covers the rule and the protocol system around it.
The second layer is FIU's: twelve months or more of experience in the specialty, a current license and national certification, with relatives, close friends and your own unit ruled out. The preceptor requirements guide has the full list.
The third layer belongs to the practice. An independent office answers to its owners, while a clinic inside a large system answers to that system's student-placement office, which may insist on a school-level agreement, its own onboarding platform and a set number of days' notice. Knowing which kind you are approaching tells you who can say yes.
Baptist Health South Florida, on its own page
Baptist Health South Florida's page on college and university student rotations sets out a school-first process. It will look at a rotation request only when it comes from a school it partners with, and only after that school and Baptist have fully signed two documents, a Master Agreement and a Program Letter of Agreement.
The student arrives at the request stage with the placement and preceptor already confirmed. The page says the school's coordinator can help with that, or the student can find a willing Baptist clinician independently by way of Baptist's website. Each rotation then needs a Complio profile, covering up to four months, submitted at least 10 business days before the start date, and the office takes clinical requests through Complio alone.
Two further lines matter to working nurses. Baptist staff cannot log clinical hours at their own facility, and no student may be on site until the clearance email has arrived. The page does not list its partner schools, so whether a Baptist rotation is open to your FIU program is a question for FIU's clinical department.
Cleveland Clinic Florida, on its own page
Cleveland Clinic Florida's onboarding page for advanced practice provider education is even more school-centered. It requires an affiliation agreement with the school and states that placements can only be arranged by an academic representative once that agreement is fully executed.
The onboarding request form is completed by the school, not the student, and APRN and PA partnerships run through the system's Office of Advanced Practice, with the school attesting to background checks. The page describes an electronic onboarding process without naming a platform.
For an FIU student, the practical reading is simple: a Cleveland Clinic Florida rotation cannot be self-arranged. If a clinician there is willing to precept you, the next step is a conversation between you and FIU's clinical department about whether the school-level agreement exists or can be pursued in time.
Systems whose pages describe other programs
Some large South Florida systems publish nursing pages that speak to their own staff and trainees rather than to outside NP students. Jackson Health System's nursing site describes a Jackson Nurse Preceptor program that has trained more than 250 of its own staff as preceptors, along with a one-year post-master's NP certificate run with the University of Miami. UHealth's nursing page presents advanced-practice fellowship content. Memorial Healthcare System's student page offers scholarships tied to enrollment in an affiliated BSN program.
None of those pages sets out a request route for an NP student from another school. The question of whether a practice inside one of these systems can host an FIU rotation belongs with FIU's clinical department, before you promise the clinician a start date.
Where a student-led search has the most room
Because system rules run school to school, the practices a student can approach directly sit outside those student offices: privately owned internal medicine, family and pediatric primary care practices, physician groups, and community clinics. FIU still approves the site and the clinical department still handles any new contract, but the practice itself can decide.
Community settings have an added reason to consider students. The 2024 law SB 7016 set up TEACH (Training, Education, and Clinicals in Health), a state program that can reimburse rural health clinics, FQHCs, certified community behavioral health clinics and community mental health centers for student clinical hours they host, when the legislature funds it. The money goes to the facility rather than to any one clinician, and it covers students of accredited programs based in Florida who train under Florida-licensed preceptors.
Questions to answer before you commit to a system site
- Does the practice belong to a health system with its own student-placement office?
- Does that office require a school-level agreement, and does FIU's clinical department already hold one that covers your program?
- Which onboarding platform does the system use, and how many business days' notice does it want?
- Are you employed anywhere in that system, and does its policy bar employees from clinical hours at their own facility?
- Is there an independent practice nearby that sees the same patients, as a backup?
- Has the system's page been checked recently? Onboarding rules change, so read the current version before relying on it.
Answering these early spares you the worst outcome: a willing preceptor and a system office that cannot process the request. The site contracts guide explains how FIU handles a site with no agreement.
How we search across Florida
We start from your course and your address. Your placement advisor sorts candidate practices into independent and system-owned, checks each clinician's Florida license and national certification, and flags which practices already hold FIU agreements. System sites are raised only with a clear note of what the system's own page requires, so you and FIU's clinical department can judge the route before anyone invests weeks in it.
You receive preceptors whose patients fit your practicum and every detail the Preceptor Request Form needs. Approval comes from FIU, through the clinical education office and your faculty, and the request they review is complete and inside FIU's rules at first submission. Regional detail lives in three guides: Miami-Dade preceptors, FIU's other home counties and Florida beyond South Florida.
Questions FIU students ask
Does Baptist Health South Florida take FIU NP students?
Baptist's own page says it accepts rotation requests only from partner or affiliate schools that have signed a Master Agreement and a Program Letter of Agreement, and it does not list those schools. Ask FIU's clinical department whether such an agreement covers your program before you approach a Baptist preceptor.
Can I arrange a Cleveland Clinic Florida rotation myself?
Not according to its onboarding page. Placements there are arranged only by an academic representative after a fully executed affiliation agreement, and the school completes the onboarding request form. If a Cleveland Clinic Florida clinician agrees to precept you, take it to FIU's clinical department as the next step.
Can I do FIU clinical hours at the health system where I work?
FIU rules out your own unit but permits a separate unit within a large institution. A system can be stricter: Baptist Health South Florida's page bars employees from clinical hours at the facility where they work. Check both rulebooks, and get the system's answer from its student-rotation office in writing.
Are Florida preceptors paid for teaching NP students?
In FIU's 2022 manual, precepting is volunteer work. Florida statutes give preceptors no tax credit, and the PRECEPT Nurses Act (H.R. 392) is a proposal before Congress that has not become law. TEACH, the state program, reimburses eligible facilities for the hours they host, depends on funding each year and sends nothing directly to the clinician.
Which onboarding platform do Florida hospitals use for students?
It varies by system. Baptist Health South Florida's page names Complio and accepts clinical requests through it alone, while Cleveland Clinic Florida's page describes an electronic onboarding process without naming one. FIU's graduate handbook also uses Complio for your own clearance, but a system's profile is a separate submission.
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.
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