Samford NP preceptors in Florence, Muscle Shoals and the northwest corner

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

Florence is roughly 125 miles from Samford's campus, and the five counties around it split their hospitals among Lifepoint Health, HH Health, North Mississippi Health Services and other operators. With only five health center sites in the whole region, most Shoals searches turn to private practices and hospital clinics, and personal outreach becomes the core of the work.

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241,984people in the five counties, Census estimate for July 2025

5community health center sites HRSA lists in the whole region

125miles, roughly, from Samford's campus to Florence by road

Five counties in Alabama's northwest corner

The region is Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Marion and Winston counties, home to 241,984 residents as of mid-2025 by the Census Bureau's reckoning, some 2.6 percent above 2020. Lauderdale and Colbert form the Florence-Muscle Shoals metro (156,609 people), Franklin is the Russellville micropolitan area, and Marion and Winston fall outside any metro or micropolitan area. Marion is one of six Alabama counties coded as nonmetro and not adjacent to a metro.

Approximate road routing puts Florence roughly 125 miles from Samford's Homewood campus and Muscle Shoals roughly 118, while Double Springs, the Winston County seat, is the closest at roughly 73. Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Russellville, Red Bay, Hamilton, Winfield and Haleyville are the towns most searches revolve around, and the state health department serves all five from its Northern District.

Who runs the Shoals hospitals

Lifepoint Health owns North Alabama Medical Center in Florence, which opened in 2018 to replace Eliza Coffee Memorial, and North Alabama Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals, renamed from Shoals Hospital in December 2020. Their sites describe a program for osteopathic medical students and internal medicine and psychiatry residencies, but post no nursing or NP student process. NAMC's Affiliation Requests page verifies practitioner credentials; it is not a school agreement form.

HH Health owns Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield and Red Bay Hospital. Neither posts a student page, and HH Health's only published NP registration sits on Huntsville Hospital's site, where it is unclear whether it reaches the Shoals hospitals; the Huntsville guide describes it. Russellville Hospital posts nothing on students. Lakeland Community Hospital in Haleyville calls itself locally managed and signed an affiliation agreement with HH Health on July 2, 2026, which it says is not an acquisition; that is a hospital partnership, not a school clinical agreement.

North Mississippi Health Services in Hamilton and Winfield

Marion County's two hospitals operate within a Mississippi system. North Mississippi Medical Center-Hamilton is affiliated with NMHS, and the Winfield hospital, formerly Northwest Regional Health, has run as North Mississippi Health Services-South Marion under a long-term NMHS lease since May 1, 2025. NMHS says it partners with more than 400 clinical programs, and its student page is the only published student process among the region's hospitals.

What NMHS's student page asks of clinical students

Confirm with your school that a clinical program affiliation agreement is in place; if not, a school representative or your potential preceptor contacts the NMHS Student Experience Navigator.
Return the Student Profile Checklist, which asks for your preceptor's name, the unit, hours and dates.
Provide immunizations, a background check and affidavit, a security badge form and the orientation quiz.
Sign the Student Clinical Education Agreement; a Hamilton-specific version is posted, none yet for South Marion.

Both hospitals are in Alabama, so the rotation sits under your Alabama clinical licensure even though the system is based in Mississippi. A site across the line in Mississippi or Tennessee is different, as our outside Alabama guide explains.

Health centers and shortage designations

HRSA lists just five health center sites across the five counties, run by two organizations: the Mississippi-based Family Health Care Clinic in Florence, Rogersville, Muscle Shoals and Russellville, and Capstone Health in Double Springs. That makes private practices and hospital-owned clinics the main places to look for primary care preceptors.

Shortage designations cover the whole region. Lauderdale, Colbert and Franklin share the Riverbend Center MHCA 1 high-needs mental health designation, scored 12, while Marion and Winston fall in a low-income mental health catchment scored 17. On the primary care side Colbert's low-income designation is scored 17, Franklin's and Marion's 15, Lauderdale's 12 and Winston's geographic designation 10, on HRSA's 0 to 25 scale.

HRSA treats Franklin, Marion and Winston as rural and Lauderdale as partly rural, so an unpaid preceptor in those counties may be able to use Alabama's preceptor tax credit when the site and program registrations qualify.

Fitting Samford's courses to Shoals practices

For NURG 723, adult primary care, internal medicine and family practices in Florence, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals are the natural targets. NURG 724 needs children as well as adults, so ask early whether a practice's panel includes pediatric patients, especially in Russellville, Hamilton or Haleyville. For the 300-hour NURG 730, weigh the drive: a site two counties away, visited 10 to 20 hours a week, costs real time.

Psychiatric students have a signal worth noting: NAMC lists a psychiatry residency, so psychiatric teaching already happens in Florence, even though no NP student process is posted there. Requests for NURG 788 through NURG 790, or for NURG 767 therapy hours, still run through a named preceptor and Samford's approval.

Why Shoals Samford students choose us

In a region with five health center sites and several hospital owners, the preceptor you need is seldom advertised, so we go and ask. We reach clinicians from Florence and Muscle Shoals to Russellville, Hamilton and Haleyville who suit your Samford course, gather what Samford's reviewers want to know about that preceptor and practice, and walk you through NMHS's checklist or any other site's paperwork. Clinical days get planned around your Birmingham intensives, and if a preceptor pulls out mid-term we recruit another. How it works shows the steps, and the form below gets it started.

Questions Samford students ask

Is Helen Keller Hospital part of Huntsville Hospital?

Yes. HH Health lists Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield and Red Bay Hospital among its hospitals. Neither posts its own student page, and HH Health's published NP registration is on Huntsville Hospital's site, where it is unclear whether it covers the Shoals hospitals. Ask Samford which agreement would apply before you plan a term around either.

What happened to Northwest Regional Health in Winfield?

The hospital is still owned by The Healthcare Authority of Winfield, but North Mississippi Health Services took it over under a long-term lease effective May 1, 2025. It now operates as North Mississippi Health Services-South Marion, and NMHS's system student page, with its affiliation-agreement check and Student Profile Checklist, is the process to follow.

Can I get NP hours at North Alabama Medical Center?

NAMC's pages describe teaching for osteopathic medical students and residents and post no NP student process. A rotation there would depend on a NAMC clinician agreeing to precept you and on Samford's approval and agreements. Its Affiliation Requests page is for practitioner credentialing, so it is not the place to start a student request.

How far are the Shoals from Samford's intensives?

Roughly 125 miles from Florence and roughly 118 from Muscle Shoals by approximate road routing, and roughly 73 from Double Springs. Where Samford gives a length, its intensives in Birmingham run two to four days, so Shoals students usually plan lodging and set their clinical days around the intensive dates.

GuideAlabama regionsClinical guides for every part of Alabama: Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, the Shoals, East Alabama, Montgomery, the Wiregrass and the Gulf Coast.Alabama regionHuntsville and North AlabamaSamford NP clinicals in Huntsville, Decatur and North Alabama: Huntsville Hospital's NP registration, HH Health hospitals, health centers and shortages.Alabama regionTuscaloosa and West AlabamaSamford NP clinicals in Tuscaloosa and West Alabama: DCH, the Tuscaloosa VA, Hale County Hospital's NP rotations, Black Belt shortages and psychiatric sites.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.For preceptorsAlabama preceptor tax creditHow Alabama's Preceptor Tax Incentive Program works for preceptors of Samford NP students: who qualifies, rural sites and how rotations are certified.

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.

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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
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