How a Samford NP clinical placement comes together, step by step

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

A Samford nurse practitioner rotation rests on five pieces: a preceptor near home who fits the course, an affiliation agreement with the site, a clinical rotation request that Samford reviews, a current compliance file, and the rules in the NP Clinical Manual. Moffett & Sanders holds the agreements and approves each rotation, and your connections supply the preceptor. We are those connections, and we prepare every detail so Samford can review it cleanly the first time.

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Tell us your Samford program, your next clinical course and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options near you that fit that course.

750clinical hours in most Samford FNP and PMHNP plans of study

1,050clinical hours in the FNP BSN to DNP plan of study

10 to 20clinical hours a week, per Samford's NP program pages

Numbered steps. Step by step, from plan of study to first clinical day: 1 Map your clinical courses.; 2 Line up a preceptor who fits the course.; 3 Check the site's agreement status.; 4 Submit the clinical rotation request.; 5 Clear compliance before registration.. — Step by step, from plan of study to first clinical day: 1 Map your clinical courses.; 2 Line up a preceptor who fits the course.; 3 Check the site's agreement status.; 4 Submit the clinical rotation request.; 5 Clear compliance before registration..

The five pieces of every Samford NP rotation

Samford's online FNP and PMHNP programs share one placement model, whether the student is in an MSN, a DNP or a post-graduate certificate. Each piece has an owner, and a rotation can begin only when all five are in place. The table shows who carries each piece and where its details are kept.

Who carries each piece of a Samford NP rotation
Piece	Who carries it	Where the detail lives
Preceptor and site near home	You, through professional and personal connections, or your placement advisor	Your own community
Affiliation agreement	Moffett & Sanders holds them; you may ask for a new one for your preceptor's site	Samford affiliation agreements
Clinical rotation request	You submit it; Samford reviews it and may deny it on state rules	The NP Clinical Manual and your clinical course
Compliance file	You keep it current before registration each semester	The graduate handbook and Graduate Student Services
Clinical rules and standing	You read and follow them; your faculty apply them	The manual, kept in the Nurse Practitioner Homeroom

Nurse anesthesia and BSN students follow a different model, because Samford assigns their clinical sites. Everything below describes the NP tracks.

Step by step, from plan of study to first clinical day

Order matters more than speed. Each step leans on the one before, and the slowest, a brand-new affiliation agreement, sits mid-chain.

Map your clinical courses.Your plan of study names every clinical course and its hours. FNP students on the MSN, the ADN entry, the certificate or the post-master's DNP complete three: 150 hours in NURG 723, then 300 apiece in NURG 724 and NURG 730. The FNP BSN to DNP spreads 1,050 hours over four, with NURG 716 and NURG 717 at 225 each before NURG 718 and NURG 730. PMHNP students move from NURG 767 through NURG 788 and NURG 789 to the NURG 790 practicum.
Line up a preceptor who fits the course.An adult primary care clinician suits NURG 723, NURG 724 spans patients of every age, and the PMHNP courses call for psychiatric settings. Samford's pages expect this match to come through your own network.
Check the site's agreement status.When the practice is already among the agencies Moffett & Sanders works with, the request can move ahead. When it is not, you ask Samford for an additional agreement, which Samford ties to preceptor availability and proximity.
Submit the clinical rotation request.The handbook confirms that rotation requests exist and that state rules can sink one. The form and its due date are set out in the NP Clinical Manual, not on Samford's public site.
Clear compliance before registration.Bring your health record, immunizations, TB test, influenza vaccine and AHA BLS card up to date before registration each semester, and finish any extra checks the site adds.
Start the rotation and keep it healthy.Plan on 10 to 20 clinical hours a week. Your course faculty stay responsible for your clinical learning, and the site's own policies apply from the first shift.

What Samford handles and what the student brings

Samford carries a large share of this work. Moffett & Sanders keeps agreements with hundreds of clinical agencies in many states, most of them in the Southeast, reviews each rotation request and approves the preceptor and site. Graduate nursing registration is handled centrally under the Director of Graduate Student Services, and the NP Clinical Manual in Canvas sets the clinical rules everyone works by.

The student's share is the connection. Samford's NP pages describe professional and personal networks as the route to a placement close to home, and they let students ask for a new agreement when a willing preceptor practices at a site Samford has not contracted with yet. Our connections page quotes that passage in full and reads it sentence by sentence.

Who may serve as your preceptor is its own question, answered on Samford preceptor requirements: Alabama's rules accept advanced practice nurses, physicians and other clinicians licensed for the same patient population.

Timing: why the first call comes a semester early

No lead time for NP placements appears in Samford's public documents; any cutoff for rotation requests is written into the NP Clinical Manual. Clinical sites keep their own clocks, and several work a full term ahead. According to East Alabama Health's own student pages, a request there should not go forward until the preceptor has confirmed, and spring preceptorship requests close on the last Friday of October.

Set that beside Samford's calendar. Spring 2027 classes begin January 11, with January 4 listed for certain clinical experiences, so a spring rotation at a site with an October cutoff needs its preceptor settled early in the fall. When the site is new to Samford, the agreement review adds time on top of that.

Our working rule, which is planning advice and not a Samford figure: begin the search at least one full semester before the clinical course, and sooner for NURG 724, NURG 718, NURG 730 and NURG 790, which carry 300 hours apiece and need a preceptor with room for a long stretch of teaching.

Compliance runs alongside the placement

A signed-on preceptor does not open a rotation alone. The 2026-2027 Graduate Nursing Student Handbook asks for a Health Data Record with the required immunizations, TB testing, a yearly influenza vaccine, American Heart Association BLS that includes hands-on skills, a background check, random drug testing and proof of health insurance. Before registration each semester, you bring your health information current through the end of that term.

Individual sites may add fingerprinting, extra drug screens or other checks, paid for by the student, and a site may refuse an unvaccinated student regardless of any exemption Samford has approved. The consequences are serious: under the handbook, ineligibility for a contracted agency after the background check means course failure and dismissal. The full list is on Samford clinical compliance requirements.

How we carry a Samford placement from search to start

Samford students choose us because we work inside Samford's own process instead of around it. You tell us your program, your next clinical course and your home address, and your placement advisor builds the placement around that one course.

What you get

A preceptor and site in your own community, fitted to the course in front of you, whether that is adult primary care in NURG 723 or psychotherapy hours in NURG 767.
The preceptor's license, specialty and practice details gathered and organized for your rotation request.
Early warning when the site will need a new affiliation agreement, with the site's contracting contact ready for Samford.
Site onboarding and compliance dates tracked against your start date, so a missing badge or form is caught before it costs clinical weeks.
A placement advisor on call through the rotation, and a replacement search if a preceptor has to step away.

Read how it works for the full sequence, or send your course and ZIP code through the placement request form.

The step students skip most often is checking the site's agreement status before the preceptor says yes. A willing preceptor at a site Samford has no agreement with is not ready for a first shift until that agreement exists, so ask early and let the agreement run while everything else is prepared.

Questions Samford students ask

Does Samford find preceptors for its online NP students?

Samford's current NP pages describe a shared model. Moffett & Sanders holds agreements with hundreds of clinical agencies and reviews every rotation, while the pages call your professional and personal connections essential for a placement close to home. No current Samford page says the school arranges NP preceptors. Nurse anesthesia and BSN students differ: Samford assigns their clinical sites.

How far ahead should a Samford NP student start the preceptor search?

Samford does not publish a lead time, and any request deadline sits in the NP Clinical Manual in your Homeroom. Because some health systems close spring requests in October and a new affiliation agreement adds review time, start at least a semester before the course. That is our planning advice, not a Samford rule.

What if my preceptor backs out right before a Samford clinical course?

No public Samford policy covers an NP preceptor who withdraws, so tell your course faculty and program coordinator right away and ask what the manual allows. In parallel, your placement advisor looks for a new clinician who fits the same course and hours and readies the details for a fresh rotation request.

Is the placement process the same for Samford PMHNP students?

The model is identical: the same connections paragraph appears on the PMHNP MSN, DNP and certificate pages. The courses differ. NURG 767 calls for psychotherapy hours with a preceptor Samford approves, and NURG 788, NURG 789 and NURG 790 run in mental health settings. PMHNP clinicals lays out each course.

Where can a Samford NP rotation happen if I live outside Alabama?

Samford's program pages describe clinicals in your own community anywhere in the United States, although its agreements cluster in the Southeast. Your RN license has to cover each state where you train, and state rules can lead Samford to deny a request. Clinicals outside Alabama covers the details.

Samford systemConnections and clinical placementSamford says professional and personal connections are essential to NP clinical placement. The passage in full, what each sentence asks and how to meet it.Samford systemAffiliation agreementsHow Samford affiliation agreements work for NP clinicals: hundreds of agencies, mostly in the Southeast, and how to request a new one for your preceptor's site.Samford systemClinical rotation requestsHow Samford clinical rotation requests work for NP students, why the handbook says one can be denied on state rules, and what to do if you move mid-program.Samford systemNP Homeroom and Clinical ManualWhat Samford's Nurse Practitioner Homeroom in Canvas and the NP Clinical Manual hold, what Samford publishes openly, and where each clinical rule is found.Clinical hoursClinical hours by programSamford clinical hours by program: 750 in the FNP and PMHNP MSN, certificate and MSN to DNP plans, 1,050 in the FNP BSN to DNP, and each NURG course's hours.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.

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

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