How UC's clinical placement process works, from first ask to week 2

Who does what in a UC placement

UC puts the search on you. Its Key Contacts page lists, among a graduate student's duties, to "find and secure preceptors who meet mandatory requirements." The Clinical Planning page frames the same work as a collaboration, with the Clinical Site Coordination team and faculty beside you, and it encourages you to start networking with local health organizations in your first semester.

Approval sits with UC, never with you or your preceptor. The coordination team vets each preceptor and site, processes the paperwork and puts the agreement in place, while faculty and your program director judge whether a setting suits the course. The Clinical Site Coordinator page explains that role and how to work with it.

The 2026–27 Student Handbook adds a rule that shapes the rest: every placement conversation with UC runs through your assigned coordination team member. Keep that person in the loop on anything placement-related so your file lives in one place.

The path, in the order UC expects

Each stage leans on the one before it, which is why a slip early in the chain shows up later as a missed start. Here is the sequence as UC's Clinical Planning page, checklist and track PDFs describe it.

1. Read your track's rules. On admission, UC points you to your program's clinical requirements PDF, the Clinical Planning Checklist, a glossary, networking tips and email and phone outreach scripts.
2. Find and interview a preceptor. UC's list of interview questions asks about hours per week and patient load, whether an affiliation agreement is needed, the site's onboarding platform, and any preceptor fee. Check the person against UC's preceptor requirements before you ask.
3. Complete the Preceptor Application. You fill in the student section first. Your preceptor then completes theirs and emails the packet to UC.
4. Meet the packet deadline. Fall, spring and summer each have a fixed Friday due date about three months ahead of the term.
5. Wait for vetting. UC's approval arrives as a welcome email, and your preceptor appears in eMedley.
6. Let the agreement reach the site. Your CSC sends an Educational Affiliation Agreement to the site's administrative contact. It must be in effect before any clinical activity.
7. Clear the site's onboarding and any state forms. You finish the site's orientation and platform while your CSC supplies the school's letters. Clinicals in California, North Dakota or Wyoming also need state forms, which go to constateauth@uc.edu a week or more before the semester begins.
8. Be secured by week 2, then log hours. Hours go into eMedley, count only inside semester dates, and your preceptor verifies time logs every 14 days.

One term, counted backward

The two approval windows come from different UC FAQs, so ask your CSC which one fits your track. The Preceptor Guide also describes the packet as due three months before the term rather than on a set Friday; the packet deadline page sets the two side by side and turns the Friday rules into dates for the next few terms.

Where UC placements usually stall

Most delays come from paperwork you can't speed up on your own. When a site insists on its own contract, the agreement goes to lawyers on both sides, and UC says that can run six months or longer. A packet sent after the deadline leaves UC unable to promise the agreement will be ready in time.

Some large systems add a step before you even ask a clinician. UC tells students to contact their CSC first for Allina, Cleveland Clinic, Essentia, Nationwide Children's, Norton, The Little Clinic, Stanford Health Care and Summa Health. A few sites charge an administrative fee as well; Cleveland Clinic and Atrium Health build theirs into the agreement, and UC then collects it from you.

The third common snag is onboarding: modules, background checks and health records a site wants on its own platform, separate from what you cleared in CastleBranch. The site onboarding page lists what that tends to involve.

When networking doesn't turn up a preceptor

UC's fallback is your CSC rather than a roster of assigned sites. According to the Clinical Planning page, the coordinator can talk through other options, which may be beyond your preferred area and mean travel, and can share former UC preceptors and alumni living in your state. The handbook notes the college has clinical partnerships across the tri-state area of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, so outreach may point you there.

Two handbook lines deserve a careful read. Placement isn't based on your job, housing or family commitments, and turning down a placement the college has arranged means the college isn't obliged to find you another. The only program page found that promises preceptors is the AGACNP DNP, for local students in the Cincinnati area; the AGACNP MSN and certificate pages don't say the same.

The placement help page covers what your CSC can offer and how to ask for it.

Why UC students hand us the search

We take on the part UC hands to you and do it thoroughly: a preceptor and site that match your track's population, setting and hours, in person and as near home as your area allows. Then we help you gather what the coordination team reviews, including your finished student section, the preceptor's license and certification details, the site's administrative contact for the agreement and the onboarding platform the site uses.

UC approves every preceptor, site and agreement, and our work runs on its calendar: your packet assembled ahead of the Friday deadline, agreement questions settled early, and a replacement search under way the day a preceptor drops. Our page on choosing a placement service shows what to expect from us. When you're ready, send us your track and term.