Finding an NP preceptor in Montgomery and the River Region
In Montgomery, one major system spells out an APRN route: Baptist Health's hospitals take nurse practitioner rotation requests through ACEMAPP. Around the capital, eight counties pair a metro core with some of Alabama's highest rural shortage scores. Either way, a rotation starts with a preceptor who has said yes and a Samford review.
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.
Counties, towns and distance
This guide covers Montgomery, Autauga (Prattville), Elmore (Wetumpka, Millbrook and Tallassee), Lowndes (Hayneville), Bullock (Union Springs), Pike (Troy), Crenshaw (Luverne) and Butler (Greenville) counties. Their 2025 Census estimates total 463,490, up about 0.4 percent since 2020. The first four form the Montgomery metro area, estimated at 388,747, and Pike County is the Troy micropolitan area.
The drive from Homewood is roughly 91 miles to Montgomery, and county seats range from roughly 79 miles (Prattville) to roughly 136 miles (Troy), by approximate road estimates. Troy sits roughly 46 miles from Montgomery and roughly 54 from Dothan, so Pike County students may also want the Wiregrass guide. Selma shares this market through the Census Bureau's Montgomery-Selma combined area; see the Black Belt guide.
Baptist Health's ACEMAPP route for APRN students
Baptist Health in Montgomery is a not-for-profit system and a UAB Health System affiliate. Its hospitals are Baptist Medical Center South, a Level I trauma center, Baptist Medical Center East and Prattville Baptist Hospital, and its ACEMAPP page counts Crossbridge Behavioral Health as a fourth. It is a different organization from Birmingham's Baptist Health, formerly Brookwood Baptist, which belongs to Orlando Health.
According to its ACEMAPP student pages, APRN and APP students request placements through the rotation applications there, which cover CRNA, DNP, MSN, NP, PA and RNFA students, and the listings for South, East and Prattville show NP and DNP among accepted programs. Students wear their school ID, since Baptist issues no student badges. No deadline or preceptor rule is posted, and questions go through ACEMAPP.
A Baptist clinician who has already agreed to precept turns that application into a plan, and Samford still reviews the rotation and requests an agreement if none covers the hospital. The UAB Heersink School of Medicine's Montgomery Regional Campus is also based at Baptist Medical Center South, so NP students share those units with medical students.
Other hospitals, the VA and health centers
The region's other hospitals post nothing for outside NP students, so treat them as landmarks: Jackson Hospital in Montgomery (344 beds in the Alabama Hospital Association directory), Troy Regional Medical Center (licensed for 97 beds under the Troy Hospital Health Care Authority), Elmore Community Hospital in Wetumpka (Ivy Creek Healthcare), Community Hospital in Tallassee, Crenshaw Community Hospital in Luverne and Regional Medical Center of Central Alabama in Greenville, the former L.V. Stabler hospital. Lowndes County has no hospital in the directory, and Bullock County's Rural Emergency Hospital in Union Springs has no inpatient beds.
VA Central Alabama health care runs the Montgomery VA Medical Center. Its trainee page is still a placeholder, and the VA's national academic affiliation rules let a trainee start only once the school holds a VA agreement and has listed that trainee on a Trainee Qualifications and Credentials Verification Letter.
For primary care, Health Services, Inc. runs 13 HRSA-listed sites in Montgomery, Ramer, Hayneville, Eclectic and Autaugaville, and Southeast Alabama Rural Health Associates (SARHA) has five in Troy and Dozier.
Shortage scores: a metro core and a rural ring
HRSA's records dated September 25, 2026 split the region in two. In the metro, Montgomery County's primary care designation covers its low-income residents (score 17), Autauga and Elmore carry geographic designations (15 each), and the mental health catchment spanning Montgomery, Autauga, Elmore and Lowndes (score 10) is listed as proposed for withdrawal.
The rural counties score higher on HRSA's 0 to 25 scale. Bullock's high-needs primary care score of 22 is the highest county score in Alabama's current HRSA records, Pike's low-income designation scores 19, Lowndes 16 and Butler 14. Bullock and Pike share a mental health catchment scored 17, and a high-needs catchment scored 18 takes in Crenshaw and Butler. Rural health clinics carry their own scores, led by two in Union Springs (21 each) and three at 19 in Greenville, Georgiana and Deatsville.
Lowndes, Bullock, Pike, Crenshaw and Butler are rural in HRSA's records, so an unpaid preceptor there may fit Alabama's rural preceptor tax credit, subject to the conditions in the tax credit guide.
Which River Region settings fit which Samford course
Samford plans 10 to 20 clinical hours a week in each NP course; here is where each fits locally.
NURG 723, the 150-hour adult course: a Health Services, Inc. site in Montgomery or a rural health clinic in Wetumpka or Greenville.NURG 724and, for BSN to DNP students,NURG 716,NURG 717andNURG 718: practices that treat both children and adults, such as the two Union Springs rural health clinics that list pediatric and family care in their names.NURG 730, the 300-hour NP Practicum: the setting closest to the job you want, from a Montgomery practice to a Troy clinic, with a preceptor able to commit for the full term.- Psychiatric rotations (
NURG 788,NURG 789,NURG 790) andNURG 767therapy hours: outpatient psychiatric practices, Crossbridge Behavioral Health (which Baptist's ACEMAPP page counts among its hospitals) or the Montgomery VA once Samford confirms a VA agreement.
Samford's NP pages describe hundreds of existing affiliation agreements, mostly in the Southeast, and invite students to request new ones where a willing preceptor is close by. The affiliation agreements guide explains that request.
Why River Region students choose us
We know which Montgomery doors have a published process and which need a personal introduction, and we bring you a preceptor who has already agreed, ready for Baptist's rotation application or a Samford agreement request. Your placement advisor lines the search up with your plan of study so that fall and spring sites are settled before the term, not during it, and we stay on call to find a replacement if a preceptor drops. Request your match.
Questions Samford students ask
Is Baptist Health in Montgomery the same system as Baptist Health in Birmingham?
No. Montgomery's Baptist Health runs Baptist Medical Center South, Baptist Medical Center East and Prattville Baptist Hospital and is a UAB Health System affiliate. Birmingham's Baptist Health, formerly Brookwood Baptist, is part of Orlando Health. Their student processes are separate; the Birmingham guide covers the Birmingham system.
Can I do PMHNP hours at the Montgomery VA?
Possibly, but the VA sets firm conditions. National VA rules require a VA affiliation agreement with your school and a credentials verification letter naming you before you train, and the Central Alabama trainee page is still a placeholder. Ask Samford whether a VA agreement exists before approaching a VA clinician.
Does the Union Springs hospital offer inpatient clinical hours?
No. Bullock County Rural Emergency Hospital, operated by East Alabama Health since June 1, 2026, provides emergency and outpatient care only. For primary care hours, Bullock's rural health clinics, which carry some of the region's highest facility shortage scores, are the stronger target.
Is Troy covered here or on the Wiregrass page?
Here. Pike County sits with the River Region in our guides because Troy is roughly 46 miles from Montgomery, although the state health department groups it with the Wiregrass counties and Dothan is roughly 54 miles away. SARHA's Troy site and Troy Regional Medical Center are the local landmarks.
Does Baptist Health Montgomery post deadlines for NP rotation requests?
Its ACEMAPP pages post none and route questions through ACEMAPP. They do say undergraduate placements are set at a yearly scheduling meeting with all schools, a sign that unit capacity is planned well ahead, so send a graduate request as early as your preceptor and Samford allow.
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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