Questions Samford nursing students ask us
Short answers to the questions that reach the placement desk most often, and every answer points to the page with the full story. If yours is missing, ask it in the chat or send it with the request form.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Samford program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Samford course.
About the service
What do you do for a Samford student? We locate a preceptor and site close to home suited to your precise Samford course, put the details Samford reviews in order, keep onboarding and compliance moving, and restart the search should a preceptor leave. How it works shows each step.
Which Samford students do you help? Above all the online FNP and PMHNP students, whether they entered from a BSN, an ADN or an MSN, or through a post-graduate certificate. Samford places nurse anesthesia and BSN students itself, so for them our help is planning, compliance and questions. The programs guide covers every track.
Why should I trust your Samford details? Every page is checked against Samford's own documents, names them in its sources and shows Samford's conflicts side by side. About us explains how we keep it accurate.
Samford's process
Does Samford find preceptors for NP students? Samford keeps agreements with hundreds of clinical agencies, the bulk of them in the Southeast, and signs off on every rotation. Its NP pages treat the student's own professional and personal ties as the key to a site close to home. Samford's connections line reads that passage closely.
Who approves my preceptor? Samford does. You put the preceptor forward in a clinical rotation request, following the NP Clinical Manual in the Nurse Practitioner Homeroom, and Samford may turn a request down on state rules and regulations. See clinical rotation requests.
My preceptor's clinic has no agreement with Samford. What now? Samford's NP pages let you ask for an additional agreement when a preceptor near you is available. Contracts take time, so raise it the week your preceptor agrees. See affiliation agreements.
Preceptors and courses
What kind of preceptor does each course need? Adult primary care for NURG 723, patients of every age for NURG 724, psychotherapy for NURG 767 and a psychiatric clinician for NURG 788, NURG 789 and NURG 790. The preceptor requirements guide covers fit and Alabama's definition of a preceptor.
Can my employer's clinic host my hours? Samford's public pages leave that open for FNP and PMHNP students, so check with your program coordinator first. Clinicals where you work covers the little Samford has published on it.
Can one site cover a whole course? Yes, when its patients match the course. NURG 724 spans the lifespan, so a practice without children on its schedule may need a second site beside it. The NURG 724 guide explains the split.
Hours and timing
How many clinical hours will I need? Most Samford NP plans of study total 750. The exception is the FNP BSN to DNP plan at 1,050, even though that program's web page still lists 750 as its minimum. The clinical hours guide lists them course by course.
When should I start looking? A semester or more before each clinical course, and sooner still if Samford must sign a new contract with the site. The placement process guide lays out the sequence.
My course starts soon and I have no preceptor. Tell your course faculty now and send us the course number and start date. No preceptor yet sets out a seven-day plan.
I am behind on clinical hours. Samford's Incomplete and In Progress grades matter here. See behind on clinical hours.
Where you live
I live outside Alabama. Can you help? Yes, in every state where Samford takes NP applicants, which means Alabama plus 33 others and DC. Samford lists 16 states it does not take NP applicants from, set out in state authorization, and each accepted state has a state guide.
Does my RN license have to cover my clinical state? Yes. The graduate handbook requires a current, unencumbered license where you practice and wherever you rotate. See RN license requirements.
Moving to a new state during the program? The graduate handbook asks students who relocate to notify their program coordinator and to make sure the new state's rules for clinical and distance education are met. See clinicals outside Alabama.
Do I go to Birmingham for clinicals? Clinical hours are completed near where you live. Trips to Birmingham are for the on-campus intensives.
Cost and getting started
What does it cost? Each request is quoted on its own, from your course, location, number of rotations and timing. The cost page lists what shapes a quote and the costs Samford's own rules add.
What if my preceptor drops out partway through? Tell your course faculty and your placement advisor at once. We begin looking for a new preceptor suited to the same course, and Samford reviews that clinician just as it did the first.
Do you work with preceptors as well? Yes. Nurse practitioners, physicians and other qualified clinicians open to hosting a Samford NP student can start on the preceptors page.
How do I start? Use the request form, the chat on any page, or from a phone, the WhatsApp or text button. Your track, course, term and city are enough to begin.
Questions Samford students ask
Who finds the preceptor for a Samford NP clinical course?
Samford's NP pages do not assign that job in so many words. They describe Samford's existing contracts, allow new agreements where a willing preceptor practices, and stress the value of the student's own connections. In practice the student brings a preceptor forward and Samford reviews and approves. When those connections are missing, we supply them.
Can I change preceptors partway through a Samford clinical course?
Samford's public documents do not describe a mid-course change, so your course faculty and the NP Clinical Manual settle how it works. Any new preceptor and site still pass through Samford's review. Tell your faculty as soon as a problem appears, and ask your placement advisor to begin a search for the same course.
What lead time does a new Samford affiliation agreement need?
Samford publishes no timeline. The contract involves Samford and the clinic or health system, and several Alabama systems run their own student processes with deadlines months before a term. Treat a new agreement as a semester-long task and start it as soon as your preceptor agrees.
Do you fill out the Samford clinical rotation request for me?
The request is yours to submit, and its form and deadlines are kept inside the NP Clinical Manual, out of public view. We assemble the preceptor and site details a request relies on, such as license, specialty, practice address and the contracting contact, so you can complete it accurately and early.
Is Samford's nurse practitioner program fully online?
Coursework happens online. Students come to Birmingham for short required intensives, more of them in the FNP tracks than in the PMHNP tracks, and complete their clinical hours in their own community, at 10 to 20 hours a week during each clinical course, with a preceptor and site Samford approves.
Related pages
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 forNURG 724, psychiatric care forNURG 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.