APU clinical placement costs: who pays for what

Who pays, item by item

APU's fee tables, program pages, student hub and handbooks each mention part of the picture. The table pulls the placement-related items together; amounts live on APU's current fee tables and the vendors' sites, so check those for your program and term.

Your compliance subscription

Clinical requirements live in a paid vendor account that you purchase yourself. San Diego students use Complio, run by American DataBank; everyone else uses CastleBranch. APU's handbook asks you to keep that account live and up to date through your final term, not only your first clinical course.

CastleBranch assigns packages by code: a single Advanced Practice code serves all campuses, while the DNP, Nursing Education and the leadership (HAL) program each get their own. Choose the code for your program when you order, since the package determines what the account tracks.

CastleBranch warns that checking uploads may need 7 to 10 business days, so get documents in well before your term's deadline; for Fall 2026 that deadline was August 1, 2026. Setup steps and package details are on our CastleBranch and Complio page.

Background checks and drug screens

APU requires a background check of every graduate student before clinical placement, citing the Joint Commission, contracted facilities and the School of Nursing. Who pays is one of the places APU contradicts itself. Most APU pages, the catalog among them, put the charge on you, with a higher rate for international students. The exception is the page for the school nurse credential, which rolls the check into the lab fees of your first clinical course. Ask which applies to your program before you order.

Sites can add their own requirements on top: some ask for Live Scan or more frequent checks, and some require CB Bridges. Drug screens happen only at a site's request and use a separate CastleBranch code. APU's public sources do not print who covers these site-driven extras, so confirm with the placement team when a site asks. The scope of the check itself is on our background check and drug screen page.

Malpractice insurance and the clinical fee

Malpractice coverage is the second conflict. A number of APU program fee tables show malpractice insurance built into the nursing clinical fee, and the residency fee for GNRS 732 carries it too, per the BSN-to-DNP page. The FNP certificate page, however, lists malpractice insurance documentation among the items due when clinical coursework begins. On the undergraduate side, liability coverage for SON practicums already rides on lab fees.

Read together, most APU pages tie coverage to a clinical fee, while at least one expects documentation from you. If your program's fee table shows the clinical fee, ask whether a separate certificate is still needed; if it does not, ask how your coverage is provided before your first clinical course.

Because the zero-unit residency course is taken again each term until the hours are done, ask how its clinical fee applies to every enrollment. More detail is on our malpractice insurance and clinical fee page.

Course costs and the cost of a lost term

A few course items carry their own charges. Required iHuman virtual cases carry a per-case fee, and they sit inside the evaluation system described on our evaluations and OSCEs page, alongside preceptor and faculty evaluations and OSCEs.

The largest cost is usually time. A drop for no placement, or a failed clinical course, adds a term to your plan. APU can excuse late-drop fees, and move you up for the next term, when the missing site or a departing preceptor was not your doing; the conditions are on our no-placement drop rule page.

A failed course is harder. Hours from it do not carry over, so a repeat means paying for the course again and working every hour a second time. That is the strongest financial case for securing a fitting preceptor early.

Facility onboarding fees and what the SON covers

Some facilities charge a per-student onboarding fee through their own systems. APU names Providence, MyClinicalExchange and Pronto Wellness as examples and says the student does not pay: the facility invoices the School of Nursing. That statement appears on the SON's prelicensure hub and in archived all-student updates from 2024, so if a graduate site sends you an invoice, check with the placement team before paying it. MyClinicalExchange is the one onboarding platform the hub names outright, while Providence and Pronto Wellness appear as facilities that bill per student.

The SON also covers respirator needs. Post-licensure students carry no general N95 fit-test requirement; if a facility wants one, the SON supplies both the test and the masks. Facility portals and onboarding steps across the region are explained on our Southern California clinical placement systems page.

Costs that never appear on a fee table

Some real costs sit outside APU's fee tables. The handbook counts a driver's license, vehicle registration and an auto policy that names you, directly or by endorsement, among clinical documents, and APU's guidelines treat long drives to a well-matched site as normal. Fuel and time on the road add up across a clinical sequence of 540 hours or more.

Health items are yours to keep current: comprehensive health insurance for the whole practicum, an annual physical with the technical standards form, TB screening, a flu shot or declination, immunization records or titers, and an American Heart Association BLS card. APU's sources describe these as documents you provide without saying who covers them, so check what your health plan includes.

Time away from work is the last one. Graduate nursing students at APU are expected to hold a clinical job while enrolled, and with no night shift allowed before a clinical day, some terms mean swapping shifts with coworkers.

What shapes our placement quote

Our service is separate from anything APU charges, and APU students choose us because the work is thorough from the first conversation. A quote reflects your program and course, where you live in Southern California, how soon your term starts and how specialized the preceptor needs to be: a psychiatric preceptor for GNRS 537 children and adolescents is a different search from a family practice for GNRS 600.

Every quote covers the same thorough work: a search for a preceptor and site suited to your APU course near home, a complete file for APU's review (credentials, license, the organization's registered name, its authorized signer and the person who runs the office), an early read on whether APU already has a contract there, and a replacement search if your preceptor leaves. The factors are laid out on our cost page, or use the form below to ask for your quote.

Questions APU students ask