Preceptors for UC's adult-gerontology acute care NP

How UC's AGACNP runs

The adult-gerontology acute care NP is UC's hybrid NP track. All but one course is online, and you come to Procter Hall on the Uptown campus once a week: for one semester of advanced health assessment and for two semesters of hands-on labs. UC lists skills such as suturing, airway management, ultrasound-guided lines, lumbar puncture, FAST exams, cricothyrotomy, chest tubes and pericardiocentesis.

Every version starts in fall. The MSN runs about two years over five semesters at 45 to 50 credits; for Fall 2027 the application opens Nov 1, 2026, closes Jul 1, 2027, and classes begin Aug 23, 2027. The DNP places the same practicums in semesters 6 to 8 of a roughly three-year plan. The post-master's certificate uses internships ANNP8026 to ANNP8028, 168 hours each, and UC prefers one of them in cardiology and another in an ICU.

All three versions accept only residents of Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana, so AGACNP placements center on the tri-state area and the hospitals within reach of your weekly lab day.

The practicums and the SICU option

Each practicum carries 168 hours, 504 in total. Course-level detail is on AGACNP practicums.

The intensive SICU month is optional and capped at 168 hours. UC's requirements PDF prints the Practicum III cap as 1608, which looks like a typo, and its footer reads Revised 06/2022 although the file is dated 2026. Ask your CSC whether a newer version applies to your cohort.

Who can precept AGACNP students

UC prefers nurse practitioners for this track and also accepts MDs and DOs. The college-wide standards on UC preceptor requirements apply first: a master's degree or higher, certification from a body UC accepts such as ANCC or AACN, a year or more in the role and an unencumbered license in the state of the clinical. The AGAC rules add these.

• At least 80 hours with each preceptor.
• At least 100 of your 504 hours with an NP.
• No single preceptor across all three semesters.
• No relatives, and no preceptor from your own department.

UC's telehealth allowance names six tracks, and AGACNP isn't one of them. Plan to complete all 504 hours in person, at an approved site, with your preceptor present.

The local preceptor promise, read carefully

UC's AGACNP DNP page says local students receive preceptors in the Cincinnati area. It's the only UC nurse practitioner page we found that makes a placement promise of that kind. The MSN and certificate pages for the same specialty don't include it, and UC's pages don't make clear whether it extends to those students.

The college-wide rules sit alongside it. The Student Handbook says students are expected to accept placements the college arranges, and that the college doesn't have to offer another if you turn one down. It also says placement in a preferred area isn't promised.

So ask your CSC early, ideally in your first semester, whether the college is arranging your AGACNP preceptors, whether you should network on your own, or both. If the answer is that you find your own, everything else on this page applies. UC placement help covers what the CSC can do when a search stalls.

Where acute care placements get complicated

Hospitals take longer to line up than clinics. UC Health lists NP students among the disciplines it hosts but requires an affiliation agreement with the school and says requests for specific departments or preceptors may be limited. TriHealth asks the school for an existing student affiliation agreement and a certificate of insurance. St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky needs a separate contract with St. Elizabeth Physicians and uses Clinician Nexus to onboard students with its credentialed providers at least 14 days before the start.

Some systems must go through your CSC before you contact them, including Cleveland Clinic, Norton and Summa Health. Cleveland Clinic writes an administrative fee into its agreement that UC collects from the student. Cincinnati clinical sites and Kentucky and Indiana clinicals cover the regional systems in more depth.

Your schedule is the other constraint. Weekly campus labs in two semesters mean your clinical shifts have to work around a fixed day in Cincinnati.

Timing your AGACNP paperwork

1. Ask how placement works for your version. Raise it with your CSC in the first semester, because the DNP, MSN and certificate pages describe placement differently.
2. Target a unit and a person. Name the service line, such as ICU, cardiology, hospitalist or ED, and an NP or physician there who can give you 80 hours or more.
3. Meet the packet deadline. Fall packets are due the last Friday in May, spring the first Friday in October and summer the first Friday in February, with your section of the Preceptor Application done before the preceptor's.
4. Budget for the agreement. If a hospital wants its own contract rather than UC's standard Educational Affiliation Agreement, UC says legal review can take six months or longer; the standard agreement usually needs at least six weeks.
5. Finish onboarding before day one. Complete the site's modules and badge steps. If you live or train in Ohio, UC requires a fingerprint-based background check. Your site has to be secured by the end of week 2.

Where we fit: if your CSC confirms you're finding your own preceptors, we search for acute care NPs and physicians in the tri-state area, help you gather the application and agreement details, and keep working with you if a preceptor withdraws. UC still vets and approves every preceptor and site. How it works has the details.