"Professional and personal connections are essential": Samford's placement passage, read closely
Every current Samford nurse practitioner program page carries the same three sentences about clinical placement, and the last of them says where placements close to home come from: your own connections. This page quotes the passage in full, unpacks each sentence and shows how to meet it when no preceptor comes to mind yet. We are the connection that passage describes.
Borrow our connections
Tell us your Samford program, your next clinical course and your ZIP code. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options close to home.
The passage, word for word
Under the heading "Clinicals & Practicum", each Samford NP program page states:
"The Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing has affiliation agreements with hundreds of clinical agencies across numerous states, with the majority being in the Southeast. Students may request additional affiliation agreements based on preceptor availability and proximity. Professional and personal connections are essential to help secure clinical placement opportunities close to home."
The wording is identical on the Family Nurse Practitioner MSN, DNP and certificate pages and on the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner MSN, DNP and certificate pages, so it governs whichever NP track you chose. On those pages two more sentences follow, about travel: clinical travel may be needed, and the school neither arranges nor reimburses it. That part has its own guide, travel for clinicals.
Sentence one: hundreds of agencies, mostly in the Southeast
The opening sentence describes what Samford has already built. Moffett & Sanders has signed agreements with a large number of clinical agencies, spread over many states but concentrated in the Southeast. The 2025-2026 graduate catalog adds that graduate students train in primary care and acute care settings, in managed care organizations and even in schools of nursing.
Two practical readings follow. A student in Alabama or a neighboring state has better odds that a nearby practice already holds an agreement with Samford. A student in Texas, Michigan or Maryland is more likely to need a new one. Samford does not post its list of agencies, so the only dependable check is to ask Samford about the specific site. Samford affiliation agreements explains how that check and a new request work.
Sentence two: new agreements follow a preceptor
The phrase to notice is "based on preceptor availability and proximity". Samford can add agreements, and the trigger is a clinician who has room to teach you and practices near where you live. The agreement follows the preceptor: the request begins with a named person who has already said yes.
That order carries a timing cost. The preceptor's yes comes first, then the agreement request, then review by Samford and by the site, then your clinical rotation request. Every week between that yes and the first day of the course belongs to the chain, which is why an early preceptor beats a perfect one found late.
The handbook adds one more gate: a rotation request can be refused on state rules. Clinical rotation requests covers that step.
Sentence three: what "connections" means in practice
Professional and personal connections covers anyone who can bring you to a willing preceptor: an NP or physician you have worked beside, a clinic that once employed you, a classmate's former preceptor, a friend who manages a practice, a relative's family doctor. Samford calls these ties essential for a placement close to home.
The clinician still has to qualify. Alabama's Board of Nursing lets APRN programs use advanced practice nurses, physicians or other clinicians licensed for the right patient population, and the specialty has to fit the course. Preceptor requirements covers that fit.
An earlier version of Samford's wording was blunter. Archived copies of the PMHNP MSN page from 2022 to late 2024 described clinical placements as competitive and "similar to obtaining employment", noting that many facilities want an application, a resume or an interview. The current paragraph is shorter; the task it describes is much the same.
If those connections are not there yet
Plenty of strong Samford students start without them. A nurse with years on an inpatient unit may know every colleague on the floor and still not know a family NP in outpatient practice with room for 300 hours of NURG 724. A PMHNP student may work in a hospital with no outpatient psychiatric clinician able to supervise the therapy hours in NURG 767. Samford's line is written for exactly that gap.
Cold calls to practices tend to meet the same replies: the clinician already has a student this term, the office only takes students from schools it knows, or the message never reaches the provider. These are ordinary obstacles, and they are the reason a network built for precepting exists.
If you are weighing your own search against outside help, own search vs placement help puts both routes side by side.
How we become the connection Samford describes
We serve as the professional connection Samford's passage asks for, organized around Samford's own sequence. Your placement advisor starts from your plan of study and your home address.
- Match the course.We find a preceptor whose practice suits the Samford course in question, from an adult primary care clinic for
NURG 723to a lifespan family practice forNURG 724, a psychotherapy setting forNURG 767or a psychiatric practice for the later PMHNP rotations. - Stay close to home.We search your own community first, because close to home is the goal Samford names and clinical travel is on the student.
- Prepare what Samford reviews.We collect the preceptor's license, specialty and site details for your rotation request, plus the site's contracting contact if an additional agreement is needed.
- Keep it moving.We track onboarding and compliance dates against the term, stay on call through the rotation and find a replacement if a preceptor has to step away.
Samford still reviews and approves every preceptor and site. Our job is to hand you a request package Samford can review without chasing missing pieces. Start with the placement request form.
The common mistake is reading this passage as background. It is the placement plan itself: Samford supplies the agreements and the review, and the preceptor arrives through a connection. Students who start that connection work a semester early keep the most options open.
Questions Samford students ask
Is a placement service allowed for Samford NP students?
Samford's documents, current and archived, say nothing about placement services or preceptor-matching companies either way. What Samford does publish is its review: every preceptor and site still passes through Samford's approval, and the rotation request is yours to submit. If you want certainty for your track, ask your program coordinator.
What does "close to home" mean for Samford clinicals?
Samford sets no mileage figure. Its program pages allow clinicals in your own community nationwide, and its graduate nursing page speaks of clinical experiences near your home. When a course does require travel, arranging and paying for it falls to the student, so the closer the preceptor, the simpler the semester.
Does the connections passage apply to Samford DNP and certificate students?
Yes. The same paragraph sits on the FNP and PMHNP MSN, DNP and post-graduate certificate pages, and on older FNP DNP pages that are still online. The clinical courses carry over too, so a certificate or MSN to DNP student sits the same NURG 723 or NURG 767 rotation as an MSN classmate and needs a preceptor who fits it just as closely.
Do Samford nurse anesthesia students need their own connections?
No. The connections paragraph belongs to the NP tracks. The Nurse Anesthesia DNP handbook says students will be assigned to several "out of town" clinical sites, some a significant distance from campus, and schedules come from the Director of Clinical Services. BSN sites are chosen by the school too. See the Nurse Anesthesia DNP.
Can my employer count as one of my connections?
It can open doors, but Samford publishes little about NP clinicals at your own workplace, so ask your program coordinator before you count on it. A colleague who precepts at a different clinic can be a strong lead. Clinicals where you work covers what Samford does and does not say.
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.