NP clinicals in Mobile, Baldwin County and the Gulf Coast
Mobile and Baldwin counties anchor the third most populous of our Alabama regions, with more community health center sites than anywhere but the Birmingham metro. At roughly 256 miles from Homewood, it is the far end of the state for a Samford student, and local nursing students are asking the same clinicians. A preceptor secured early, with the paperwork Infirmary Health or Springhill expects, is what carries a rotation through.
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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.
Mobile Bay and the southwestern counties
This guide covers Mobile County (Mobile, Prichard, Saraland and Bayou La Batre), Baldwin County (Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shores and Bay Minette) and five rural counties to the north: Escambia (Atmore and Brewton), Washington (Chatom), Clarke (Grove Hill and Jackson), Monroe (Monroeville) and Conecuh (Evergreen). Their 2025 Census estimates total 782,784, up about 3.9 percent since 2020. Mobile County alone is the Mobile metro area (411,658), and Baldwin forms the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metro (267,761).
By approximate road estimates, Mobile and Fairhope each sit roughly 256 miles from Samford's campus, and even the closest county seat, Evergreen, is roughly 165 miles away. Delta Alabama AHEC is based in Mobile. The Mobile County Health Department has its own entry on the state health department's roster, and the other six counties belong to its Southwestern District.
What Mobile's hospital systems publish
USA Health, the University of South Alabama's system, runs University Hospital, Children's & Women's Hospital and USA Health Providence Hospital, which joined on October 1, 2023. It posts no page for outside nursing or NP students, so treat it as a landmark. South Alabama's College of Nursing encourages its own students to find preceptors through their professional networks, so Mobile clinicians already field requests from local students.
Infirmary Health (Mobile Infirmary, Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette and a long-term acute care hospital) keeps one student page for all four. According to an archived May 2026 copy, the school's placement coordinator requests placements by hospital deadlines that are not published, sends documents at least two weeks before the start, and practicum students submit a signed student-preceptor contract; EPIC training is also required. That page is framed around undergraduate RN students.
Springhill Medical Center, a family-owned hospital, gives school faculty and staff online forms, including a Practicum Request form with an MSN option. Its page says how and when the form is filled out will determine placement, and schools send vaccination logs, quiz scores and confidentiality agreements before day one. Baldwin Health in Foley, the renamed South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, posts no student page.
Grove Hill's hospital now carries the Rural Emergency Hospital designation: emergency and outpatient services remain, inpatient beds do not, so it cannot host an inpatient rotation.
Health centers, shortage scores and rural counties
Franklin Primary Health Center runs 21 HRSA-listed sites (Mobile, Prichard, Brewton, Bay Minette, Foley, Loxley, Frisco City and Evergreen). The Mobile County Health Department's Family Health program and Accordia Health, the name on AltaPointe Health Systems' health center sites, have 11 each; Mostellar Medical Center has four (Bayou La Batre, Irvington and McIntosh); Physicians Care of Clarke three; and Rural Health Medical Program two.
On HRSA's 0 to 25 scale, Mobile County's primary care designation covers its low-income population (score 18), and four Mobile health center organizations carry facility scores of 18 to 20. Baldwin's designation covers only the Bay Minette, Elberta, Robertsdale, Stockton and Summerdale areas and is proposed for withdrawal. The rural north scores higher: Monroe 17, Washington 16, and Clarke and Conecuh 14 each, with Grove Hill Health Care, a rural health clinic, at 20. Every county-level mental health designation here, including Mobile's (17) and the high-needs catchment over Escambia, Clarke, Monroe and Conecuh (18), is listed as proposed for withdrawal.
Escambia, Washington, Clarke, Monroe and Conecuh are rural and nonmetro, so the tax credit guide is worth sharing with a preceptor there. Near Atmore, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians' Buford L. Rolin Health Clinic serves enrolled members of federally recognized tribes.
Pairing Samford's courses with Gulf Coast settings
NURG 723: adult primary care at a Franklin Primary or Mobile County Health Department Family Health site.NURG 724or the DNP track'sNURG 716throughNURG 718: a practice seeing every age group; ask Accordia, Mostellar or Franklin Primary sites about pediatric volume first.NURG 730: 300 hours in the setting you expect to work in; Baldwin County practices suit students living in Daphne, Fairhope or Foley.- PMHNP courses (
NURG 788toNURG 790, withNURG 767for therapy hours): outpatient psychiatric and community mental health practices. The Mobile hospitals publish no NP process, so a named psychiatric preceptor matters most here.
Samford points to its hundreds of affiliation agreements, mostly in the Southeast, and lets students request new ones near a willing preceptor; see affiliation agreements. Each clinical course runs 10 to 20 hours a week.
Across the state line: Mississippi and Florida
Some Mobile and Baldwin students look at sites just over the border. Samford asks that your RN license be current in every state where you log clinical hours, and its handbook allows a rotation request to be turned down because of another state's rules, so check before you ask a preceptor there.
The two neighbors differ. In Mississippi, the higher education board rather than the nursing board reviews out-of-state programs whose students do clinicals there; the review can take up to three months, and its manual asks programs based elsewhere to request it at least four months ahead. Florida's program-approval law is written for pre-licensure programs. Read the Mississippi and Florida guides, and confirm the plan with Samford well before the term.
Why Gulf Coast students choose us
Mobile clinicians already hear from South Alabama's own students, so the request that stands out is specific: the Samford course, the hours, the dates and a student ready to start. We make that approach for you, secure the preceptor and hand Samford complete details in time for any new agreement. Whether you live in Prichard, Fairhope or Monroeville, your placement advisor keeps the search close to home. Send your request.
Questions Samford students ask
Does USA Health take NP students from outside schools?
USA Health publishes no placement page for outside nursing or NP students, so its three Mobile hospitals are landmarks rather than a known route. A rotation there would depend on an agreement with Samford and a preceptor you bring, so ask Samford whether an agreement exists before approaching a USA Health clinician.
Can Springhill Medical Center host an MSN practicum?
Its Practicum Request form lists MSN alongside BSN and ADN, and asks for dates, the number of spots and units such as ICU, ED, labor and delivery and surgery. School faculty and staff submit it, and the hospital says timing affects placement, so the request should reach Samford early.
Does Infirmary Health's student page apply to NP students?
Partly. Infirmary's careers pages say clinical and practicum rotations are offered for all undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, but the detailed placement page is written for undergraduate RN students and gives no NP-specific steps. Confirm through Samford how a Thomas Hospital or Mobile Infirmary request would be handled before you ask a preceptor there.
How far is Mobile from Samford for the on-campus intensives?
Roughly 256 miles by approximate road estimates, the longest drive of any region in our Alabama guides. Plan for two or three trips to Birmingham on an FNP track and one or two on a PMHNP track. Samford does not arrange or reimburse travel; see travel for clinicals.
Which parts of Baldwin County carry a shortage designation?
HRSA's primary care designation for Baldwin covers only the low-income population in the Bay Minette, Elberta, Robertsdale, Stockton and Summerdale areas, and it is proposed for withdrawal, as is the county's mental health designation (score 13). Franklin Primary sites in Bay Minette, Foley and Loxley and Accordia's Foley site serve the county.
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
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