Travel for Samford clinicals: planning the drive

What Samford says about clinical travel

The travel line sits in the Clinicals & Practicum section of every current FNP and PMHNP page, right after the passage on affiliation agreements and connections (read that passage here). Samford notes that "traveling for clinical opportunities may be needed" and that the school "does not arrange or provide reimbursement for travel." The graduate catalog adds that students are responsible for transportation to and from clinical experiences.

The wording has shifted a little over time. Between 2022 and 2024, the PMHNP page said travel was sometimes needed and compared clinical placement to obtaining employment. The reimbursement sentence has stayed the same throughout.

In practice it means three things. You decide how far you are willing to go. You cover the cost. And a closer preceptor saves you time in every week of every clinical course, which adds up across a program with three or four of them.

Setting a distance limit before you search

1. Pick your one-way maximumDecide the longest drive you can sustain before or after a work shift, in ordinary traffic and in bad weather.
2. Count the clinic daysAsk each preceptor which days they can take you. Two long days cost fewer trips than four short ones.
3. Watch the summer squeezeSummer clinicals such as NURG 723 and NURG 788 pack 150 hours into a shorter term, so a long drive hurts most there.
4. Plan a fallbackIf the only fitting preceptor is far away, price an overnight stay on clinic days before you say yes.
5. Use proximity in your favorSamford's pages name preceptor availability and proximity as the bases for requesting a new affiliation agreement, so a preceptor near home fits the way Samford expects those requests to be made.

When Samford sets the travel: nurse anesthesia and BSN

Nurse anesthesia students do not choose their sites. The Class of 2029 nurse anesthesia handbook says students will be assigned to several "out of town" clinical sites that may be a significant distance from campus, and the Director of Clinical Services gives out clinical schedules for semesters 6 through 9 during semester 5. The program keeps the weekly commitment under 64 hours, which matters when a long drive sits on top of a long case day.

BSN and second-degree BSN clinicals take place in Birmingham-area hospitals and selected community settings the school chooses, so travel there is a local commute. For both groups, our role is planning and compliance support rather than choosing sites. The Nurse Anesthesia DNP page covers the CRNA path.

How we keep your drive short

Your placement advisor searches outward from your home, not from Birmingham. We look for preceptors whose practice fits the course and whose clinic days fit your work schedule, and we tell you the drive before you commit.

Distance is one of the first facts we report on every preceptor we propose, next to course fit and clinic days, so you can compare options on the numbers that matter to you. Should a preceptor pull out partway through a term, your advisor hunts for the next one inside the same radius.

When the nearest fit is still far away, we look for a practice that can host you for more than one course, so the onboarding and the route are learned once. Start with the form below.