Start your Samford placement request

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

Give us your Samford track, the clinical course coming up and your city, and your placement advisor answers with the next steps and preceptor options close by. The form on this page gives us the most to work with; the chat, or the WhatsApp and text buttons that appear on phones, lead to the same placement desk.

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Request your placement plan

Program, clinical course, term and city are enough to begin. Use the message box for course numbers, hours still needed or anything Samford has already told you.

Numbered steps. What happens after you send it: 1 Your advisor confirms the basics.; 2 You receive a written quote.; 3 The search starts at your address.; 4 Your rotation request comes together.; 5 Samford reviews while we keep things moving.. — What happens after you send it: 1 Your advisor confirms the basics.; 2 You receive a written quote.; 3 The search starts at your address.; 4 Your rotation request comes together.; 5 Samford reviews while we keep things moving..

What to send

Four details start a search: your track, your next clinical course, its term and your location. The rest helps us match well in the first round.

Your Samford track and entry point, such as FNP BSN to MSN, FNP BSN to DNP or the PMHNP certificate. The Program menu follows Samford's own options.
The course number and term from your plan of study, such as NURG 723 next summer or NURG 789 this fall.
Your city, state and ZIP code, with the longest drive you can manage on a clinic day.
Your RN license states, including a multistate license if you hold one.
The clinic days you can offer around your work schedule.
Any lead you already have: a clinician who might say yes, a site you have in mind, or what Samford has told you about an agreement there.
Hours still needed, if you are partway through a course.

Keep the first message to placement details; documents can wait until a site asks for them. The privacy policy explains how your details are handled.

What happens after you send it

Your advisor confirms the basics.A placement advisor reads your request and replies by email, text or call, as the note under the form describes, to confirm your track, course, term and location and to fill any gaps.
You receive a written quote.It lists each course included and exactly what we do for it. Cost covers what goes into it.
The search starts at your address.We contact clinicians near you whose patients suit the course and report each option with the drive, the clinic days and the patient mix, so you can compare them.
Your rotation request comes together.Once you choose, we put together what your clinical rotation request needs to say about the preceptor and the site, plus the site's contracting contact if Samford needs a new affiliation agreement.
Samford reviews while we keep things moving.During Samford's review we track site onboarding and your compliance dates, then stay on call through the rotation.

How it works walks through the same path in more depth.

Writing from outside Alabama

Samford's NP programs accept applicants from Alabama, 33 further states and DC, and its program pages let you complete clinicals where you live, so our search runs wherever you are within those states. Sixteen states sit outside that list for residents and for nurses licensed only there; the state authorization guide names them and explains Samford's disclosure.

Two Samford rules travel with you. The handbook wants a current, unencumbered RN license for each state you rotate in, and it cautions that state regulations can stop a rotation request. If you are moving during the program, Samford asks you to tell your program coordinator. Name both your current and your planned state in the request; each accepted state also has its own state guide.

A clinical course only weeks away

Send the request now and say so plainly: the course number, the first day of the term, the hours required and anyone you have already asked. A short runway narrows the field, so every day of lead time counts.

Work the Samford side at the same time. Tell your course faculty or program coordinator where things stand, check the NP Homeroom for the rotation request steps and any deadline, and bring your compliance file up to date so clearance is not what holds you back. Keep the calendar in view: Samford's calendar starts spring 2027 graduate classes on January 11 and lists January 4 for certain clinical experiences, and several health systems close student requests well before a term opens.

No preceptor yet sets out the first few days of work, and behind on clinical hours covers Samford's Incomplete and In Progress grades if the term is already underway.

The common mistake is waiting for a perfect lead before writing. Send the request with what you know; a course number and a city are enough for a placement advisor to begin.

Chat, WhatsApp and text

The chat opens from any page on this site and reaches the same placement desk as the form, which makes it a good place for a quick question before you send a full request. On a phone, WhatsApp and text buttons sit at the lower left of the screen and open a message addressed to the placement desk, with this site named so your advisor knows you study at Samford.

Whichever route you choose, put your track, course and city in the first message and the conversation starts where the form would. Students in the Nurse Anesthesia DNP, the BSN or the online RN to BSN can write too. Samford assigns nurse anesthesia and BSN sites itself, so our help there is planning, compliance and questions.

Questions Samford students ask

Can Samford applicants write before admission?

Yes. An applicant can ask how clinical placement works at Samford, where each clinical course falls in the plan of study for a given track and what a search looks like where they live. Choose Not sure yet in the Program menu if your track is still open, and tell us your intended start term.

Is the information I send shared with Samford?

Your request goes to our placement desk. If you want us to line up a placement, the clinicians and sites we approach see only what they need to consider you. Your clinical rotation request reaches Samford from you, carrying the preceptor and site details we help you assemble.

Can a preceptor use this form?

Yes. Under Program, select the option I'm a preceptor (not a student), then use the message box for your specialty, your practice location and the terms that suit you. The preceptors page explains what hosting a Samford NP student involves, including Samford's review of your site.

I already have a preceptor. Can you still help?

Yes. A willing preceptor is the hardest piece, and the pieces around it still matter: whether Samford holds an agreement with the site, the site's onboarding steps, the preceptor details your rotation request needs and a backup if plans change. Tell us who the preceptor is and which course it covers.

Placement helpHow it worksStep by step, how we find a Samford NP student a preceptor near home, prepare the rotation request details and stay with you through the last clinical hour.Placement helpCan't find a preceptorSamford NP clinical course close and no preceptor? What to do this week: who to contact at Samford, how to widen the search safely and when to bring in help.Other statesClinicals outside AlabamaSamford NP clinicals outside Alabama: the RN license rule, state rules that can stop a rotation, the 16 excluded states and what to do before you move.StatesState authorization and excluded statesSamford's NP licensure disclosure, the 16 states it takes no NP applicants from, the RN to BSN and Nurse Leader lists, and what to do if you move mid-program.Placement helpCostHow a quote for a Samford NP preceptor placement is built, what it covers, and the separate costs Samford's own rules add, from background checks to travel.Placement helpFAQShort answers for Samford nursing students on preceptor approval, affiliation agreements, clinical hours, out-of-state clinicals, cost and how to get started.

Last checked 2026-09-25

We check these pages against Samford's own program pages, plans of study, the 2026-27 Graduate Nursing Student Handbook and Alabama rules. Your course, your program coordinator and Graduate Student Services have the final word.

Samford says connections are essential. We are the connection.

Tell us your Samford track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare the details Samford needs to approve the rotation, including a new affiliation agreement where one is needed.

Preceptors matched to the course: adult primary care for NURG 723, family practice across the lifespan for NURG 724, psychiatric care for NURG 788
Preceptor, license and site details ready for your clinical rotation request
In your own community, anywhere Samford accepts you and your RN license is valid

Start your placement plan

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