EKU clinical compliance: what you clear before a clinical course

The graduate checklist in EKU's most recent MSN handbook

For NSC 800, NSC 876 and NSC 886, the 2021-22 MSN Student Handbook (archived; EKU no longer posts it) names the documents that must be current and shown to EKU every semester you are enrolled, ahead of any clinical practice. Post-MSN certificate students work from the same list, because EKU's catalog applies all MSN policies to them.

Kept current every semester (MSN Handbook 2021-22)

• An RN license with no encumbrance in any state that has licensed you (license and Nursys)
• Professional liability insurance bought through EKU (the coverage year)
• "Other documentation and/or requirements as specific to the clinical site"
• The "Clinical contract and preceptor information form"
• The Clinical Waiver form
• The Telehealth Checklist, for FNP students taking NSC 800 or NSC 876

Nursys e-Notify is handled once, by consenting at admission, rather than each term. The three forms get their own preceptor information form guide; EKU has not published their contents.

Background checks, drug screens and agency extras

The notice appears on EKU's state authorization page and in the graduate catalog. Its list of what a collaborating organization can ask for is long: drug testing, criminal and sex offender registry checks, a search of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) exclusion records, federal fingerprints, immunization records, and certificates in OSHA, HIPAA and CPR. EKU is direct about the bill: "These tests are at the expense of the student."

The same notice cautions that a positive drug test or a criminal history can lead an agency to refuse the placement. If anything in your history could surface on a check, raise it with your faculty before a site is chosen, while there is still room to steer toward an agency whose policy fits.

Individual sites add their own layer. In St. Elizabeth Healthcare's published student guidelines, its Graduate Medical Education office onboards students rotating with credentialed providers through Clinician Nexus, with submissions due at least 14 days before the rotation, and Baptist Health Lexington's 2023 student packet marks Epic "Full Access" as required for students in preceptorships. Items like these are the site-specific requirements the handbook tells you to keep current.

DNP students, exposure plans and conduct at the site

The archived DNP handbook (revised June 2020) expects DNP students to hold an RN license carrying no board restrictions, EKU-purchased liability coverage and whatever the site itself requires. It adds one item the MSN list lacks, an EKU Photo ID, to be worn at all clinical sites. DNP Experience Hours cannot begin before the semester opens or before the onboarding paperwork is finished.

Every graduate student also works under two exposure plans at once. The MSN handbook's appendix on exposure and allergy policies has students follow the EKU Exposure Control Plan alongside the clinical agency's plan, and report an exposure "immediately to the clinical instructor and the Department Chair." Learn the site's procedure at orientation, since the agency's plan governs what happens inside its walls.

Add the handbook's social media policy to this checklist as well: keep patient and agency details off every platform, and keep relationships at the site professional.