Who does what in a Samford clinical course, and who to ask
A Samford NP rotation passes through several hands: Graduate Student Services, the Nurse Practitioner Department's clinical education coordinator, your program coordinator, your course faculty, the clinical site and your preceptor. This page maps each role by its Samford title and says which questions belong where. Your placement advisor from our team covers the part Samford's NP pages leave to the student's own network: the connection to a preceptor.
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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 that fit that course.
The roles at a glance
Samford's directory and handbooks name these roles. Titles appear as Samford writes them, and every duty listed comes from Samford's public documents.
| Role | What Samford's documents show | Ask about |
|---|---|---|
| Director, Graduate Student Services | Coordinates registration for graduate nursing students; Samford's listed contact for NP applicant and out-of-state questions | Registration, admission, which states Samford accepts |
| Student Services Coordinator and Compliance Specialist | Graduate student services and compliance | Health Data Record, CHS forms, immunizations, BLS |
| Coordinator of Clinical Education, Nurse Practitioner Department | Listed in the school directory; duties are not described publicly | Placement questions, as your NP Clinical Manual directs |
| Program coordinator or director | Receives relocation notices; can permit progression after an Incomplete | Moving, progression, a denied rotation |
| Graduate nursing associate dean | Can permit progression after an Incomplete | Progression exceptions |
| Academic Advisor | Approves practicum hours applied toward the DNP | DNP hours carried in from an MSN |
| Course faculty and course coordinator | Open the Canvas course; responsible for clinical learning; may remove a student from a clinical setting | Course expectations, evaluations, clinical standing |
| Preceptor | Guides, models and teaches in the clinical setting | Daily schedule, patient mix, feedback |
| Clinical site | Sets its own policies and onboarding; may decline students missing a required vaccine | Badges, orientation, extra checks |
| Your placement advisor | Finds the preceptor and site, prepares the details, stays on call | Preceptor search, onboarding, replacements |
Before the rotation: placement, agreement and approval
Placement questions start with the NP Clinical Manual, which the handbook names as the home of NP clinical policy. The directory's Coordinator of Clinical Education in the Nurse Practitioner Department is the title closest to placement, although Samford does not publish that role's duties, so follow whatever contact route the manual gives.
Samford holds the affiliation agreements with clinical agencies and reviews each clinical rotation request. You bring the preceptor, through your own connections or ours, and you submit the request. The placement process page walks the full sequence, and affiliation agreements explains who asks for a new one.
If you live outside Alabama, the Director of Graduate Student Services is the contact Samford's NP disclosure names for state questions, and the licensing side is covered on RN license requirements.
Samford's public pages list role titles rather than a single placement contact. When the manual and the directory leave you unsure who owns a question, ask your course faculty first; they know the route your cohort uses.
During the rotation: faculty, preceptor and site
Once the rotation starts, three parties share the clinical day. Your course faculty keep responsibility for your clinical learning. Alabama's Board of Nursing rules make nursing faculty accountable for planning, carrying out and evaluating every student clinical experience, and under Samford's handbook a faculty member may send a student out of the clinical setting when behavior suggests care may be unsafe.
Your preceptor is the clinician beside you. Alabama's rules describe an APRN program preceptor as a guide, role model, resource and clinical educator; who qualifies is covered on preceptor requirements. The site sets its own policies, which the handbook requires you to learn and follow, and its vaccine rules can keep a student out even after Samford grants an exemption.
A clinical failure is the faculty's call and brings an F for the whole course, so raise problems with your faculty early instead of waiting for the evaluation.
Registration, records and compliance
The handbook assigns registration for graduate nursing students to the Director of Graduate Student Services, and students learn their registration is complete through a message to their Samford e-mail. The registrar's calendar also lists self-registration dates for graduate students; for nursing, the handbook's coordinated process is the one to follow.
Compliance runs through Graduate Student Services, which posts the CHS Physical Examination, Immunization and Tuberculosis Forms, and through the compliance specialist role in the directory. Before registration each semester you update your health information through the end of that term. The school's contracted compliance company handles the background check and random drug screens; a clinical site may ask for more, billed to you.
Your records sit in Samford's own systems: mySamford as the portal, Banner Self-Service for grades and schedules, Degree Works for the degree audit, and Canvas for coursework, including the NP Homeroom.
Progression, grades and DNP hours
Your program coordinator is the person to tell before a move to another state. The handbook makes that notice your job, together with meeting whatever clinical and distance-education rules apply where you land. Either your program coordinator or the associate dean for graduate nursing can also approve progressing with an Incomplete; without that approval, an INC holds you out of the next course.
DNP students have one more approver. The school's Academic Advisor signs off on any practicum hours counted toward the DNP, including as many as 500 carried over from an MSN or post-graduate certificate toward the 1,000 post-baccalaureate hours. Those carried hours never replace the direct clinical hours an NP plan of study lists. DNP 1,000 hours covers the arithmetic.
Nurse anesthesia and BSN: different owners
The nurse anesthesia program runs its own placement chain. Its Director of Clinical Services assigns clinical sites and hands out schedules for semesters 6 through 9 during semester 5, and a Clinical Coordinator at each site assigns cases by student need and documents that preceptors are licensed and NBCRNA certified. Anesthesia students record cases, preceptor evaluations and compliance in Typhon.
For BSN and second-degree BSN students, the Course Coordinator assigns clinical groups, facilities and days, and the school chooses preceptorship sites, units and preceptors. The Director of Clinical Education and Community Partnerships handles undergraduate compliance and absences. For those students our help is planning, compliance timing and answering questions around the placements Samford makes; BSN clinicals covers the undergraduate side in more detail.
Where your placement advisor fits
Every Samford role above stays exactly where it is, and each keeps its own authority over your course. We add the role Samford's NP pages hand to the student's own network: finding a preceptor near home who fits the course. Your placement advisor finds that preceptor and site, gathers the credentials and site details for your rotation request, flags when a new affiliation agreement is needed, tracks onboarding and compliance dates, and stays on call through the semester.
You remain the one who submits to Samford and speaks with your faculty; we make sure the packet you submit is whole, accurate and matched to the course. How it works shows the whole sequence, and the placement request form puts a placement advisor to work on your next course.
Questions Samford students ask
Who approves NP preceptors at Samford?
No office is named for it in Samford's public material. The closest title in the directory is the NP Department's clinical education coordinator, and the approval route itself is written into the manual in your Homeroom. Read that route first, then contact whoever it names.
Who registers me for my Samford clinical course?
The graduate handbook gives registration for graduate nursing students to the Director of Graduate Student Services, and a confirmation arrives at your Samford e-mail address. Keep your compliance file current ahead of each registration period, because the handbook ties health information updates to registration every semester.
Who handles my immunizations, TB test and BLS card?
Graduate compliance sits with Graduate Student Services, whose page posts the CHS Physical Examination, Immunization and Tuberculosis Forms and whose staff include a compliance specialist. Your BLS card needs to come from an American Heart Association course with hands-on skills training. Clinical sites can ask for additional checks, which the student pays for.
Can my placement advisor contact Samford for me?
Your placement advisor works for you. You submit the rotation request and speak with your faculty and program coordinator, while we prepare the preceptor and site details you send, answer your preceptor's questions and keep the site's onboarding on schedule. Approval of each preceptor and site stays entirely with Samford.
Who do I tell if my clinical site cancels mid-semester?
Tell your course faculty first, since they carry responsibility for your clinical learning and know what the NP Clinical Manual allows, and copy your program coordinator if the course timeline is at risk. With no published Samford rule for a site that drops you mid-term, ask for their direction in writing. We begin looking for a replacement site that fits the same course as soon as you tell us.
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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