Precepting a Samford nurse practitioner student
Samford's online FNP and PMHNP students earn their clinical hours close to where they live, so the clinician they need is often a nurse practitioner or physician near home, perhaps you. Here is what a Samford clinical course asks of you, how Samford reviews you and your practice, and how the placement desk supports you.
Open to teaching a Samford student?
Choose I'm a preceptor (not a student) under Program and add your city. A placement advisor follows up to hear about your specialty and the terms that suit your clinic.
Who the Samford student is
Your student comes from Samford University's Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing, one of four schools in Samford's College of Health Sciences in Homewood, in the Birmingham area. Its FNP and PMHNP programs are taught online with short campus intensives, and clinical hours happen in the student's own community in any state Samford accepts.
Every student is already a registered nurse, and the 2026-2027 Graduate Nursing Student Handbook asks for an unencumbered RN license in every state where a rotation takes place. In Samford's BSN- and ADN-entry plans, advanced pathophysiology, health assessment and pharmacotherapeutics come before the first clinical course, so your student arrives needing your patients, your reasoning and your feedback.
What a Samford clinical course asks of you
Each clinical course fills one semester, and Samford's program pages put the weekly load at 10 to 20 hours, varying by rotation. Hours come from Samford's plans of study dated December 2025; the syllabus sets the details.
| Course | Focus | Hours | Usual term |
|---|---|---|---|
NURG 723 Advanced Practice Clinical I FNP | Adult patients | 150 | Summer |
NURG 724 Advanced Practice Clinical II FNP | Patients across the lifespan | 300 | Fall |
NURG 716, NURG 717, NURG 718 | FNP Clinical I, II and III, BSN to DNP only | 225, 225, 300 | Spring, summer, fall |
NURG 730 NP Practicum | Final FNP clinical | 300 | Spring |
NURG 767 Psychotherapeutic Frameworks and Modalities | Psychotherapy | 75 in the plans; at least 60 in the catalog | Spring in most plans |
NURG 788 Advanced Practice Clinical I PMHNP | Psychiatric-mental health | 150 | Summer |
NURG 789 Advanced Practice Clinical II PMHNP | Psychiatric-mental health | 225 | Fall |
NURG 790 PMHNP Practicum | Final PMHNP clinical | 300 | Spring |
The 2026-27 graduate fall term opens August 24 and ends December 3; spring classes run January 11 through April 22. Students also make two to three trips to Birmingham in most FNP tracks, or one to two in PMHNP, and one can fall mid-rotation; see the intensives guide.
Who can precept, and how Samford approves you
Alabama's Board of Nursing lets an advanced practice student learn from an APRN, a physician, or another clinician licensed for, and practicing with, the student's patient population. For the FNP courses that means adult, pediatric or family primary care matched to the course; for PMHNP, psychiatric practice, with psychotherapy for NURG 767.
Samford approves every preceptor and site. Its detailed NP clinical rules are set out in the NP Clinical Manual, posted in the Canvas course called Nurse Practitioner Homeroom. Your student names you in a clinical rotation request, which Samford reviews and which the handbook says can be denied on state rules. See preceptor requirements for course fit and rotation requests for the review.
The affiliation agreement with your practice
Samford's placements rest on affiliation agreements, contracts between the school and a clinical agency. Moffett & Sanders holds them with hundreds of agencies, concentrated in the Southeast, so your organization may already be covered. If not, Samford's NP pages let the student request an additional one, weighed on preceptor availability and nearness.
The contract follows your yes. We ask who signs student agreements for your practice (a practice manager, an owner or a health system's education office) and pass that contact on with your details. Larger systems add their own steps. Huntsville Hospital Health System, for example, says on its student page that it takes graduate NP students only from schools holding a current affiliation agreement. Samford affiliation agreements shows how a request moves.
What the student brings, and who stays in charge
Samford's handbook sets a clearance list each student keeps current, and your site's onboarding sits on top of it:
- An RN license valid in your state.
- A Health Data Record with MMR, varicella, hepatitis B and Tdap, TB testing and a flu vaccine each fall.
- BLS certification from the American Heart Association, with a hands-on skills session.
- A background check and random drug testing through the school's contracted compliance company, plus any checks your facility adds.
- Health insurance, and liability coverage: the handbook requires a personal policy, while the catalog calls one not required but highly recommended.
- A Samford badge naming the student, the role, the track and the school.
Students are also expected to follow each agency's policies; the compliance guide lists every item.
You teach, and Samford's faculty stay accountable. Alabama's rules keep nursing faculty responsible for planning and evaluating every student clinical experience, and Samford's handbook allows a faculty member to dismiss a student from the clinical area if the student's conduct suggests unsafe care. No Samford NP preceptor evaluation or hour form is posted publicly, so expect the student or course faculty to share what the course asks of you when the term opens.
Alabama's preceptor tax credit
If your practice sits in a rural Alabama area designated as medically underserved, the Alabama Preceptor Tax Incentive Program may apply. Created by Act 2023-519 and administered by the Alabama Statewide AHEC Program Office, it grants a state income tax credit per completed 160-hour rotation, up to twelve a year, to community-based preceptors whose teaching is uncompensated. Physicians receive a larger credit per rotation than NPs, and the credit expires on September 29, 2031.
You and the facility must be in Alabama, the facility cannot be owned or operated by a nursing, medical or osteopathic school, you register with the program, and the student's school must be an Alabama program registered with AHEC, because only the school certifies a rotation. No public source confirms Samford's registration, so ask AHEC or Samford first. The tax credit guide has the rest.
How the placement desk works with you
Samford tells NP students that connections lead to placements close to home, and the placement desk is how Samford students without those connections reach clinicians like you. We come with specifics: track, course number, hours, term and the clinic days the student can offer, so you can judge fit before you commit.
Once you agree, we collect your license, specialty, address and contracting contact in one pass, so Samford's review starts complete. During the term we answer questions about Samford's process, keep in touch with you and the student, and if your schedule changes, we begin a replacement search for the student. Offer a term through the form at the top of this page or the placement request page.
Questions Samford students ask
Do I have to practice in Alabama to precept a Samford student?
No. Samford's NP students do their clinicals where they live, in any state Samford accepts, so a clinician in Georgia, Tennessee or farther away can host one. Your license and the student's RN license must both be valid there, and that state's rules can affect approval. Only the tax credit is limited to Alabama.
Can a CRNA or anesthesiologist precept a Samford student?
Yes, in the Nurse Anesthesia DNP, but Samford assigns those sites itself. Its Class of 2029 handbook allows only CRNAs or anesthesiologists holding staff privileges to supervise, requires them to be on hand at all times, and caps the ratio at two students for each preceptor. An anesthesia group interested in hosting should approach the program's Director of Clinical Services.
How many Samford NP students can I precept at one time?
Samford publishes no student-to-preceptor limit for its NP courses; any limit would sit in the NP Clinical Manual, and your site may set its own. For the Alabama tax credit, hours from several students and programs can add up toward 160-hour rotations, provided each program certifies them.
What does a Samford student need from me before the first clinic day?
Usually three things: your agreement to the term and clinic days, your license and practice details for the rotation request, and the name of whoever handles student contracts or onboarding. Samford then reviews the request and any new agreement, and the student finishes your site's orientation before seeing patients.
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.