Your input on EKU preceptors, and how to make it count

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

EKU secures preceptors for its nurse practitioner students, and Kentucky's rule leaves room for your input. That input carries the most weight when it arrives early and complete: a named preceptor in the right specialty, a site ready to host you, and every detail EKU's form asks for. Here is why students offer it, what makes an option strong, and when to raise it.

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Build a strong preceptor option

Tell us your EKU track, your town and your first clinical term. Your placement advisor finds preceptors who fit and prepares the details for EKU's form.

Why EKU students propose a preceptor

Nobody has to. Kentucky's rule puts the duty to secure preceptors on EKU, as the Kentucky rule page explains. Students who offer input do it for reasons of their own, and four stand out.

Location. EKU's online NP programs need no campus visits, and students live across the country. A practice twenty minutes from home is worth a great deal across hundreds of clinical hours.
Specialty. FNP students want strong family primary care. PMHNP students want a psychiatric-mental health practice that can carry them from NSC 800 into NSC 886. Students often know which local practices do that well.
Schedule. EKU's 2021-22 MSN handbook flagged the heavy clinical hour load and urged students to factor it into their work plans. A preceptor who works the days you are off makes that load manageable.
Workplace. Some students can train at their own employer in a different role, as one FNP graduate featured by EKU Online in 2021 did. See clinicals where you work.

What makes a proposal strong

A strong option is one EKU can review once and approve. It answers a reviewer's questions before anyone asks them.

Checklist for a strong option

Specialty fit for the course. FNP students need family primary care, both in NSC 800 and in the rural primary care internship, NSC 876; PMHNP students need psychiatric-mental health care from NSC 800 through NSC 886. Ask your faculty how the rural element of NSC 876 applies where you live.
A qualifying preceptor. Under Kentucky's definition, preceptors are APRNs, physicians or PAs. EKU's own rules on experience and specialty matching are not public, so check the current handbook; our preceptor requirements guide sets out what is known.
A clean license in the site's state. Confirm the preceptor's license is active and unencumbered in the state where the site sits, and ask your faculty whether that state adds any licensing rule of its own for preceptors.
A site ready to sign and screen. EKU's form is named for a clinical contract as well as preceptor information, so the site should be willing to put an agreement in place. Sites may also run their own screening and ask for health and training records; EKU's catalog puts those costs on the student.
Enough clinical days. Map the preceptor's calendar against the course. EKU's archived curriculum plans spread clinical courses over 16 weeks, and a preceptor who can host only a few days a month will leave you short.
Complete details. Every item EKU's preceptor information form asks for, filled in accurately and matching the preceptor's license record.

When to raise it

Before NSC 800, not during it. The 2021-22 handbook scheduled the health assessment check for the term just ahead of NSC 800 and wanted all clinical paperwork, the preceptor form included, finished before clinical practice. That makes the health assessment semester the latest sensible point to have an option ready, and the term before it a better one.

Because EKU sets no public cutoff for proposals, ask your faculty or program coordinator when they want details for your cohort. Large health systems keep calendars of their own: UK HealthCare's Office of Advanced Practice, for example, takes requests for spring clinicals between October 15 and November 15. The internship is a second decision point. Planning a different site for the internship than for NSC 800? Bring it up well before that term.

The timing mistake to avoid: mentioning a preferred preceptor only once NSC 800 has begun. By then the documents were due, so bring your option to EKU while there is still a term to spare.

How to put your option in front of EKU

Use EKU's own channel. MSN and post-MSN students work through EKU's clinical contract and preceptor information form and a conversation with clinical faculty; DNP students use the per-course site approval request that the Clinical Placement Coordinator signs off. The preceptor information form guide covers each document.

Present the option as a proposal with its details attached, and say how flexible you can be if it does not work out. A second option, if you have one, gives EKU a fallback without starting from scratch. Keep a copy of everything you submit.

If EKU does not approve an option, you are back where every EKU NP student starts, with EKU still responsible for securing a preceptor. Ask what did not fit, whether specialty, license, site agreement or schedule, because the answer shows whether a second proposal is worth making and what it needs.

How we help you prepare it

Your placement advisor turns your preferences into an option EKU can act on. We search your area for preceptors who fit the exact course, family primary care for FNP and psychiatric-mental health for PMHNP, confirm the preceptor's license and the site's willingness to host you and sign, and collect the details EKU's form needs, checked against EKU's rules before you submit.

We work early, usually two terms before NSC 800, and keep a backup preceptor in view so a late change does not stall your start. Once your course is underway we stay on call, ready with a substitute and its paperwork if your preceptor has to stop. EKU makes the decision; we make sure the option in front of it is strong. Start with the form below.

Questions EKU students ask

Can I suggest a preceptor I already know?

Yes. An NP or physician you have worked alongside is exactly the kind of input Kentucky's rule allows. Give EKU their full details on the preceptor information form and be ready to explain how their practice fits your course. If that person also supervises you in your paid job, talk to your faculty about keeping the two roles separate.

Can I propose more than one preceptor to EKU?

EKU publishes no limit, and a backup often helps. Ask your faculty how they prefer to receive a second option: as a named alternative from the start, or held back until the first is decided. Either way, prepare the backup's details to the same standard as the first so it can move quickly if needed.

Will proposing my own preceptor delay my clinical start?

Not if it is early and complete. EKU publishes no approval timeline, but its documents make approval a condition of starting: no DNP hours before the coordinator's email, no MSN clinical practice before the paperwork is current. Missing details and a site still waiting on a contract are the obvious sources of delay, which is why we prepare both up front.

Can my preceptor be in a different state from EKU?

Yes, in the states EKU accepts online NP students from. EKU's graduate catalog has you report any clinical placement outside Kentucky, and a few states carry EKU conditions, such as short-term site contracts only in Missouri. Check your state on EKU's state authorization page before you propose a site there.

Do I have to give EKU any input at all?

No. Input is optional under Kentucky's rule, which makes securing a preceptor EKU's job and never yours. Leaving the search to EKU is always open to you. Our side-by-side comparison sets out what each route asks of you and which kinds of students each one tends to suit.

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 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.FormsPreceptor information formEKU's clinical contract and preceptor information form, Clinical Waiver, Telehealth Checklist, site documents and the DNP site approval request, explained.PreceptorsPreceptor requirementsKentucky's preceptor definition in 201 KAR 20:062, specialty fit for EKU's FNP and PMHNP courses, licensing where the site is, and what EKU checks.WorkplaceClinicals where you workCan EKU NP students do clinicals at their own workplace? What EKU has said, what makes a workplace site work, and what to confirm with faculty first.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.

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

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