Doing your EKU clinicals where you work

What EKU has said

The clearest statement comes from EKU, though not from a policy. In a September 2021 EKU Online blog post, a Rural FNP graduate from Alaska said she chose EKU partly because it "would allow me to perform clinicals where I worked." It is one graduate's account, in a story EKU published about its program, and it is five years old. It still shows that EKU has allowed workplace clinicals for at least one FNP student.

EKU says more about workplaces for its other online programs. The RN to BSN page tells students their clinical projects can be done at their current employer, and the DNP page says the doctoral project can take place in the student's own organization or community.

For the MSN and post-MSN tracks, no current EKU page, catalog entry or archived handbook sets a rule on employer sites: nothing on whether a different unit is needed, whether a different supervisor is needed, or whether hours during paid shifts can count. Under Kentucky's rule, EKU secures preceptors while you keep a voice in the choice, and proposing your employer is one way to use that input. The details come from your faculty, course by course.

What makes a workplace site work

These are the features that make a workplace site workable in practice. None is a published EKU rule for NP students; each is a question a careful reviewer is likely to raise.

• A different role, ideally in a different unit. You attend as an NP student, not as the RN on shift. A clinic or unit where you do not normally work keeps colleagues, patients and your own habits from pulling you back into the staff role.
• The right preceptor. Kentucky's regulation recognizes APRNs, physicians and physician assistants as preceptors. For FNP courses that means someone practicing family primary care; for PMHNP courses, psychiatric-mental health care. An RN manager, however senior, falls outside that definition. See preceptor requirements.
• Someone other than your boss, where possible. A preceptor who also rates your paid work has two roles to keep apart, and your faculty can tell you whether EKU wants them separated for your course.
• Clinical hours kept apart from paid hours. Schedule clinical days as clinical days and log them separately, as the next section explains.
• Room for the whole course. The site needs enough patients in the right population to carry the full clinical load. For NSC 876, the rural primary care internship, ask whether your workplace qualifies.
• Clearance as a student. Expect student onboarding to run apart from your employee file, and a site may ask for its own screening even for staff.

What to confirm with your faculty

Take these questions to your clinical faculty or program coordinator before asking your employer for anything. With EKU's answers in hand, your request to your manager can be specific.

• Can my employer serve as a site for this course, and for the internship as well as NSC 800?
• Does EKU want a different unit, clinic or department from the one where I am employed?
• May my preceptor be someone who supervises or evaluates my paid work?
• Can any time worked during a paid shift count, and how must clinical hours be logged?
• Is there an existing agreement between my employer and EKU, and if not, who starts one?
• For NSC 876, does my workplace meet the rural primary care focus of the internship?
• Does my employer's own student policy let staff train there as students?