How our placement help fits UC's clinical process

Where our work sits in UC's process

UC hands graduate students the search. Its Key Contacts page lists finding and securing preceptors who meet mandatory requirements among your duties, while the Clinical Site Coordination team vets the people and places you bring and handles the paperwork behind them. The 2026–27 Student Handbook also says every placement conversation with UC goes through the team member assigned to you.

We take on the two parts that eat the most time, the search and the preparation, and we do them the UC way: every candidate checked against your track's rules, every site asked about UC's agreement on the first call. You remain the person your CSC hears from, with a file that's complete before it lands in their inbox. The placement process page sets out UC's sequence stage by stage.

The steps, in UC's order

1. You share your track and term. Program, course number as UC writes it (for example ANNP8070 or ANW8060), the term, your city and state, the hours still ahead and any preceptors you have already used.
2. We check the limits before searching. UC's excluded states, the tracks open only to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana residents, the large systems UC wants cleared with your CSC before any approach, and whether your RN license covers the state where you'd train.
3. We search in person near you. We look for a clinician with the degree, certification, year in role and license UC asks for, in a setting and population that count for your course.
4. You speak with the preceptor. UC's own interview questions are a good script: weekly hours, patient volume, whether an affiliation agreement is needed, the onboarding platform and any fees.
5. The Preceptor Application goes in. You fill in the student section first. We help your preceptor with theirs, including license states, certification body, the site's administrative contact and, for midwifery, a CV. The preceptor then emails the packet to the address your CSC gives you.
6. The agreement and onboarding clear. Your CSC sends the Educational Affiliation Agreement to the site's administrative contact and supplies the school's letters, while you finish the site's own onboarding.
7. The welcome email arrives and hours begin. Your preceptor appears in eMedley, you log hours inside semester dates, and the preceptor verifies them every 14 days.

Timing: work back from the packet, not the term

The date that governs a UC search is the preceptor packet deadline. Fall packets are due on May's last Friday, spring packets on October's first Friday and summer packets on February's first Friday. UC's approval then arrives as a welcome email, roughly three to six weeks ahead of the term by the midwifery FAQ, or four to six by the FNP FAQ.

A request that reaches us months before the packet date leaves room for a first choice to say no. One that arrives after it is harder, because UC says it can't promise an agreement for a late packet, and the site still has to be secured by the end of week 2. We'll tell you which side of that line you're on, and when time is short we work several leads at once. The packet deadline page turns the Friday rules into dates, and need a preceptor fast covers short runways.

How the search shifts by track

Each program changes what we screen for. A few examples:

• FNP: outpatient settings only, at least three preceptors over the program, at least 60 hours with each, and a required spread of hours across women's health, pediatrics and adult primary care.
• AGPCNP: outpatient care for patients 13 and older, never at your employer, and at least 80 hours with each preceptor.
• PMHNP: a master's-level licensed psychotherapy provider for Internship I, then prescribers, with at least 100 hours in each age group.
• Nurse-midwifery: a CNM or CM for at least half the hours, and births in a hospital or an attached birth center.
• WHNP: WHNP, CNM or OB/GYN preceptors, with other NPs allowed in ANW8006.

Your track's page under programs holds the full rule set, and we read your clinical requirements PDF alongside it.

If a preceptor drops out

Plans fall through: a clinician changes jobs, a practice gets busy, a site's legal team won't sign. When that happens we restart the search for you straight away, and you tell your CSC the same day, since a replacement needs its own Preceptor Application, its own UC approval and possibly a new agreement.

Two things help most in that moment: keep your eMedley time logs verified so the hours you already worked are on record, and if the term has started, watch the week-2 cutoff, because a replacement has to clear before it. We'll give you a straight answer on the timing. Our page on a preceptor dropping out goes step by step.

Who does what, start to finish

A UC placement runs best when each part sits with the right person:

• We run the search, screen every candidate against your track's rules, and prepare the preceptor's side of the application and the site details.
• You complete and sign your own student section and keep your CSC up to date.
• UC's Clinical Site Coordination team approves the preceptor and site and puts the affiliation agreement in place.
• Faculty judge whether a setting suits the course and grade your practicum.

What the search costs depends on your track, location and timing, and the cost page covers what goes into a quote. When you're ready, send your track and term.