Your EKU clinical course starts soon and no preceptor is settled

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the EKU Preceptor placement team

Start with EKU. Under Kentucky's rule the program is responsible for securing nurse practitioner students' preceptors, so your faculty and the Clinical Placement Coordinator are your first call this week. Then use the input the same rule gives you: put a strong, complete option forward through EKU's preceptor information form, widen the search, and bring in help if the weeks are short.

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Need a preceptor option this week?

Tell us your EKU program, the clinical course, its start date and where you live. Your placement advisor starts searching as soon as it arrives.

Numbered steps. Your plan for this week: 1 Email your course faculty today; 2 Ask who is handling your placement; 3 Clear your own file; 4 Put a strong option forward; 5 Widen the search. — Your plan for this week: 1 Email your course faculty today; 2 Ask who is handling your placement; 3 Clear your own file; 4 Put a strong option forward; 5 Widen the search.

First, know where you stand

A clinical course that is weeks away with no settled placement is a question for EKU before it is a problem for you. Kentucky's Board of Nursing requires Kentucky APRN programs, EKU among them, to secure the preceptors their students need, and it gives students a say in the process. The full regulation is on the Kentucky rule page.

So you are not behind on a job that was yours alone. What you control is how fast EKU hears from you, how complete your own clinical file is, and how strong an option you can put in front of the program. Almost everything below fits into the next few days, and none of it needs you to wait for someone else first.

Your plan for this week

Email your course faculty todayWrite from your EKU account and ask three things: where your placement stands, what EKU still needs from you, and the date your clinical documents are due. EKU does not publish form deadlines, so get the date from your course in writing.
Ask who is handling your placementFor DNP sites, the archived DNP handbook gives approval to the School of Nursing's Clinical Placement Coordinator. Ask your faculty whether that office or someone else is working on your MSN or certificate placement, and copy them on your status question.
Clear your own fileThe 2021-22 MSN Student Handbook, EKU's latest edition available in an archive, lists what must be current before clinical practice: an unencumbered RN license for each state that has licensed you, liability insurance purchased through EKU for the August-to-August coverage year, and your site documents. A placement can be ready while a student's file is not.
Put a strong option forwardIf you know a clinician willing to precept you, put their details on your clinical contract and preceptor information form so EKU can review them. Your own workplace can be part of that input: EKU Online has featured an FNP graduate who did her clinicals where she was employed.
Widen the searchStretch your driving radius, look at more settings and offer more clinic days; the next section shows where.
Check the calendar before any big decisionThe Colonel's Compass lists withdrawal dates for your part of term. Talk to your course leader before dropping anything: in the archived MSN handbook, leaving one MSN course means leaving the program.
Bring in the placement deskSend your program, course, start date and town through the form below, and your placement advisor begins the search right away.

Where to widen the search

Specialty first: FNP students need primary care that suits both NSC 800 and the rural primary care focus of NSC 876; PMHNP students need psychiatric-mental health practice for NSC 800 and NSC 886; DNP students need an organization that suits the project.
Settings: family practices, community health centers and rural health clinics for FNP students; outpatient psychiatric practices and community mental health centers for PMHNP students. The HRSA-funded Rural Health Information Hub counts 430 rural health clinics and 423 federally qualified health center sites in Kentucky alone.
Preceptor type: under Kentucky's definition, APRNs, physicians and physician assistants can all precept. EKU's own qualification rules sit in the MSN Student Handbook, so confirm the fit with your faculty.
Schedule: offering full days, different weekdays or a compressed block can open a busy preceptor's calendar.
Distance: a practice one county further out may be the one with room for a student this term.
State: before proposing a site outside your home state, check EKU's state authorization status for that state.

Moves that cost you time

Counting hours with a preceptor EKU has not approved. The archived DNP handbook bars DNP hours before the semester starts and before onboarding is done, and the MSN handbook asks for your documents before clinical practice each semester.
Withdrawing without a conversation. Under the archived MSN handbook, returning after a withdrawal takes a readmission request filed 60 or more days ahead of the term, and readmission is competitive.
Going quiet. Reply to faculty email the day it arrives; a short session leaves little slack.
Relying on secondhand claims about how EKU places students. Your course and your faculty are the authority.

The fastest placements reach EKU complete, with the preceptor's credentials, the practice details and every document the site requires sent together.

How we help at short notice

When the weeks are short, we move quickly without cutting corners. Your placement advisor searches near your home for preceptors matched to your exact EKU course, confirms their interest and the days they can offer, and prepares the preceptor, license and site details EKU's form asks for. You get an option you can put in front of EKU the day it is ready.

EKU still secures and approves the placement, and our job is to make that decision easy: a complete file, a clear specialty fit and clinic days that match your course dates. Should a preceptor leave partway through, your advisor starts on a replacement at once. See how it works, or compare putting your own option forward with waiting.

Questions EKU students ask

Do EKU nurse practitioner students have to find their own preceptors?

No. Under 201 KAR 20:062, a Kentucky APRN program secures its students' preceptors and cannot require a student to obtain one, while allowing students input. EKU is a Kentucky program. Using that input, for example by proposing a clinician near home, is your choice, and it can help EKU place you where you want to train.

What if my EKU clinical course starts before a placement is approved?

Tell your course faculty right away and ask what the course allows. The graduate catalog provides an In Progress grade for approved practicum courses, which has to be wrapped up within the same calendar year, and an Incomplete for extenuating circumstances when at least 60% of a course is already done. Which one applies, if either, is your faculty's decision.

Can I do my EKU clinicals where I work?

EKU has shown openness to it: an EKU Online story features an FNP graduate who trained at her workplace, and the RN to BSN capstone can be done at a student's employer. EKU's MSN rules for workplace sites are in the handbook, not online, so ask your faculty. The clinicals where you work guide covers the details.

How fast can EKU approve a new preceptor?

EKU publishes no turnaround time. What shortens any review is a complete submission: the preceptor's license and specialty, the site details and any site documents together. Some health systems keep their own clocks too; UofL Health's archived request form, for example, asked for requests at least eight weeks before the placement was needed.

Should I push my clinical course back a term instead?

Talk to your faculty before changing your plan. EKU's archived MSN handbook treats withdrawal from an MSN course as withdrawal from the program, readmission is competitive, and the graduate catalog requires students away for more than 24 months to reapply. Settling the placement first keeps all of those rules out of play.

Placement helpYour input vs waitingAn honest comparison for EKU NP students: putting your own preceptor option forward versus leaving the search to EKU, and who each approach suits best.Your inputYour input on preceptorsKentucky law lets EKU NP students have input on preceptors. Why students propose one, what makes a proposal strong, when to raise it and how we help.ProcessClinical placement processHow clinical placement works for EKU nurse practitioner students: Kentucky's preceptor rule, your input, EKU's approval, NSC 800 and the internship.Kentucky ruleKentucky preceptor ruleKentucky's 201 KAR 20:062 makes EKU secure preceptors for its NP students and lets students have input. The full rule text and what it means for you.Placement helpHow it worksSix steps from first message to last EKU clinical day: a preceptor matched to NSC 800 or your internship, state checks, EKU paperwork and backup on call.Placement helpBehind on clinical hoursBehind on hours in NSC 800 or an EKU internship? EKU's attendance rules, making time up, In Progress and Incomplete grades, and what to raise with faculty.

Last checked 2026-09-25

We check these pages against EKU's own catalog, program pages and handbooks, and Kentucky's regulations. The current MSN Student Handbook, your course and your faculty have the final word.

EKU secures your preceptor. Your input decides how well it fits your life.

Tell us your EKU program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors in your community who fit the course and prepare everything EKU reviews, so the option you put forward is ready to approve.

Preceptors matched to the course: family primary care for NSC 800 and NSC 876, psychiatric care for NSC 886
Preceptor, license and site details organized for EKU's preceptor information form
In your own community, wherever EKU enrolls students and you hold your RN license

Start your placement plan

Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.