Students will complete over 650 clinical practice hours during their program of study. The hours are completed during four clinical courses and with four different clinical preceptors. Please review the qualifications preceptors must meet in order to be approved for the clinical experience.
Preceptor Qualifications
- Must hold a current advanced practice license to practice in the state where the practicum site is located.
- Nurse practitioner preceptors should hold a graduate degree in Nursing from an NLNAC or CCNE accredited program, hold national certification, and have at least one year experience.
- Physician preceptors must hold a medical or osteopathic degree from an accredited program and should be board certified in a primary area of practice.
- Physician Assistants should be Master’s prepared, certified by a nationally recognized certifying body and have a minimum of one year of full-time clinical experience in the area of preceptorship .
- Masters or doctorally prepared Social Workers and Psychologists, should be licensed and have a minimum of one year of clinical experience in area of preceptorship for Psychiatric NP students.
- The student’s immediate supervisor at his/her place of employment may not serve as the student’s preceptor. It is highly recommended that the practicum experience not be in a setting where the student has previously or is currently functioning in the RN role.
- Students must spend at a minimum one semester during the course of their program with an advanced practice nurse as a preceptor.
Considerations in Selecting a Preceptor and Site
What is the practice environment like?
- Consider the geographic location and case mix (including age, proportion of acute episodic illnesses to chronic diseases, mental health, health screening, and ambulatory or inpatient services).
- Consider what the practice site setting is: public health, long term care, acute care hospital practice, out patient clinic, etc.
- Consider the proportion of time allocated to these settings. Will these settings allow you to meet the course objectives? Consider how a student would be perceived in the practice by other clinicians, personnel, patients, families, and the community in general?
- Consider experiences the student might expect to have in the setting that would prepare her/him for practice in the current health care arena (e.g., practice management, billing and third party reimbursement, risk management, quality improvement, personnel management, etc).
What are the characteristics of the Preceptor Candidate?
- Consider past/present experience with advanced practice nurses and the preceptor-candidate’s understanding of the advanced practice nurse’s scope of practice in the state where the practice is located.
- Consider the preceptor-candidate’s experience with teaching or functioning as a preceptor for students.
- Consider if the student will be involved in selection of patients/clients according to her/his needs.
- Consider how much time the preceptor-candidate would have available for a student on a daily and weekly basis.
- Consider the availability of the preceptor for a site visit with the student by the KU faculty.
- Consider the preceptor-candidate’s willingness to review a student’s cases and provide verbal feedback, as well as document evaluations of the student’s progress at the completion of the clinical practicum.
- Consider the accessibility of records, labs, radiology reports etc to the student.
- Consider if there would be opportunities to provide follow up care for patients.
It is important that you find a clinical site and preceptor which will allow you to meet the learning objectives of the course as well as your own personal learning objectives.
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The University of Kansas Medical Center