Preceptors in Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and the rest of Florida
Students on Florida International University's (FIU) online primary care tracks can take their clinicals past the four counties FIU has long trained in, provided FIU has signed a contract with the site first. If you live in Tampa Bay, greater Orlando, Jacksonville, Tallahassee or a small town hours from Miami, this guide covers what that means for the search, the contract, campus trips and faculty visits, and how we find preceptors where you actually live.
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.
Who can train beyond South Florida
The permission comes from FIU's MSN Clinical Education page and applies to the online tracks. In practice that means AGPCNP and PNP students, whether in the MSN, an online certificate or an online post-BSN DNP specialty. You choose the practice, FIU's clinical department prepares the agreement with it, and your clinical days wait for the signatures.
That wording leaves out FNP, PMHNP and AGACNP, the hybrid tracks, so students on them should take any distant site to the graduate nursing clinical coordinator. Whether the permission stretches past Florida's borders is something FIU leaves unstated; that question, and the learner-location policy behind it, belong to the clinicals outside South Florida guide. This page stays inside Florida, the one state where FIU says its licensure programs meet the requirements.
What changes with distance, and what stays the same
FIU's process barely changes with the clinic's location; the differences are time, travel and whether the practice knows FIU.
| Item | In the four home counties | Elsewhere in Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Who may train there | Students on every track, per their track's placement rules | Online-track students, with a contract in place |
| FIU contract | Ask whether the practice already holds one | Plan for a new one, 6-8 weeks in the current handbook |
| Preceptor's license | Florida license under rule 64B9-4.001(13) | The same Florida license rule |
| Faculty site visits | At least two observed clinical days (2022 manual) | Same rule; ask your faculty how it works at a distance |
| Campus visits | 1-3 a semester may be required on online tracks | The same, with a longer trip to Miami |
| Travel to the site | The student's cost, per FIU's catalog | The student's cost, per FIU's catalog |
Tampa Bay, Orlando and Jacksonville
Florida's three largest metros outside South Florida are large markets in their own right. The Census Bureau's 2025 estimates put Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at 3,418,895 residents, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford at 2,957,672 and Jacksonville at 1,785,500. Metros that size hold many primary care and pediatric practices, which gives a search room to be selective about specialty fit and commute.
They also hold large health systems with student offices of their own. The two systems whose public pages spell out advanced-practice student rules, Baptist Health South Florida and Cleveland Clinic Florida, both route requests through a school-level agreement, and a system in another metro may work the same way; the Florida NP preceptors guide shows what that looks like. In these metros a student-led search has the most freedom with privately run primary care and pediatric offices and community clinics, while any clinic owned by a system goes past FIU's clinical department first.
Smaller cities and rural Florida
In Tallahassee, Gainesville, Pensacola or a rural county, the pool of practices within a weekday drive is smaller, so each one matters more. Rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers and community mental health centers are worth a direct approach, and HRSA's shortage-area finder shows whether an address sits in a designated shortage area.
A state program gives some of those clinics a reason to say yes. Under s. 409.91256, the TEACH program (Training, Education, and Clinicals in Health) can pay an eligible facility, a rural health clinic or an FQHC for example, for the hours it spends teaching students, in any year the legislature appropriates money for it. The payment goes to the organization, the precepting clinician must hold a Florida license, and only students from accredited Florida-based schools count, a description FIU fits. The preceptor recognition guide lists what FIU itself offers preceptors.
Campus trips and faculty visits from far away
The MSN FAQ calls the two primary care tracks predominantly online, with a caveat: a student may be asked onto campus between one and three times per semester. From Jacksonville or Pensacola, that is a long trip to the Modesto A. Maidique Campus, and FIU's catalog places transportation costs on the student. Put the course's campus dates on your calendar first, then build clinic days around them.
Faculty site visits are the other distance question. Under FIU's 2022 preceptor manual, your clinical faculty has to see you working on a minimum of two distinct clinic days with the preceptor alongside, and the handbook adds calls and visits whenever needed. Nothing FIU publishes explains how that happens for a practice in the Panhandle, so put the question to your clinical faculty while the site is still only a proposal, and mention the visits to the preceptor before they agree.
Timing a search far from Miami
FIU arranges rotations during the term before each clinical course, and a practice several hours from Miami may never have signed an FIU agreement. Budget the whole 6-8 week contract window from the current graduate handbook, and treat the older preceptor manual's request for 8 weeks' notice as the safer figure. A backup practice, screened in parallel, keeps one slow signature from costing you the term.
Two examples from FIU's calendar: Summer 2027 Session C opens May 10, 2027, so a distant site for a summer practicum should be confirmed early in the Spring term. Fall 2027 begins August 23, 2027, so a Fall practicum site belongs on paper during Spring or the start of Summer. The semester-before plan gives the month-by-month version.
How we search where you live
We start from your address and your course, not from Miami. For an adult-gerontology practicum we look for internal medicine, family and senior-focused primary care clinicians within a realistic weekday drive; for a pediatric practicum, pediatric primary care offices; for DNP residency hours, an organizational mentor near you. Every name on the shortlist holds a Florida license and national certification and has practiced at least a year in the specialty.
Distance raises the contract stakes, so each practice's agreement status is settled before you say yes. The Preceptor Request Form details come to you complete, and if a preceptor pulls out mid-term, a replacement search begins at once. FIU's faculty and clinical education office make the approval, and the paperwork in front of them is accurate and within FIU's rules. Start by sending your town and practicum term through the form below.
Questions FIU students ask
Is Orlando an option for FIU AGPCNP clinicals?
On the online AGPCNP track, FIU allows clinicals outside its four home counties once a contract with the site is in place, and Orlando is inside Florida, where FIU says its programs meet licensure requirements. Your preceptor needs a Florida license, and the site still needs approval from FIU's clinical education office and your faculty.
Does a rural clinic need a contract with FIU before I start?
Yes. A clinic with no FIU agreement has to sign one before you see a single patient there, and FIU's clinical department arranges it. FIU's handbook puts the timeline at 6-8 weeks, so a rural clinic that has never hosted an FIU student belongs in your plan well before the practicum term.
Do I have to come to Miami during my practicum?
Possibly. Online primary care students can be asked to campus up to three times a semester, per the MSN FAQ, and training elsewhere in Florida does not change that. Check each course's campus dates early and schedule clinic days around them, since the trip from north Florida is a long one.
Is TEACH funding paid to my preceptor?
No. The program pays eligible organizations, not people: a rural health clinic or FQHC, for instance, can be reimbursed for student hours in a year the legislature funds it. Preceptors get nothing from it personally, and FIU's 2022 manual treats precepting as volunteer service.
Can hybrid-track students train in Tampa or Jacksonville?
FIU's permission to train beyond the four home counties is written for the online tracks. FNP, PMHNP and AGACNP students rely on the clinical department's one-on-one placement help, so ask the graduate nursing clinical coordinator directly before looking for a site far from South Florida.
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
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