APU student systems: where each practicum task lives

The map: one task, one system

Each practicum task has one home, and uploading to the wrong one costs time. This table matches the task to the system.

Facility onboarding sits outside APU's systems. Some sites run their own portal, and the SON names MyClinicalExchange as one of them. Its prelicensure onboarding page says the facility bills the School of Nursing for any per-student onboarding fee, not the student.

The SON student hub, your clinical home base

The School of Nursing's student website is a Google Site on the apu.edu domain, and it gathers handbooks, onboarding steps, fit testing and forms. For graduate NP students, the 2026-27 "Advance Practice NP Programs" page is labeled the Clinical Onboarding Hub for the 2026-2027 academic year.

That page sets out the pre-placement checklist: acknowledge the SON Student Handbook, complete the Student Data Questionnaire, set up or update CastleBranch or Complio, finish the training modules, and review the facility-driven COVID-19 standards. It also holds the Graduate Preceptor Requests step, where a student who has secured a preceptor submits the form that alerts the Graduate Placement Team; the request form guide explains every field.

Advanced practice placement questions go to the Clinical Placement Team at aprnplacements@apu.edu, the mailbox the hub lists.

APU Gmail and the home.apu.edu portal

Student email is APU Gmail at mail.apu.edu, and the School of Nursing ties several tasks to it. Forms such as the Student Data Questionnaire must be completed while signed in to that account, and the SON handbooks can be viewed only from an APU email login. Watch it after a request goes in, since the Graduate Placement Team follows up with the student to confirm the placement.

home.apu.edu, linked as "Home Login" in APU page footers, is the university portal. It covers registration, financial aid, your schedule and degree progress. Graduate students add and drop classes through its Enrollment tab or on an Enrollment Activity Form, and the catalog is clear that a drop must be started by the student.

The Registrar's graduate forms page, part of the Student Services Center, lists the ones a clinical term can call for: the Enrollment Activity Form, the Incomplete Form, the Leave of Absence or University Withdrawal Form, and the Academic General Petition. The no-placement drop rule explains when a clinical student needs the first of these.

Canvas: modules and clinical onboarding courses

At canvas.apu.edu, the School of Nursing runs its required clinical training modules as Canvas courses, and it runs separate "Clinical Onboarding" courses that students self-enroll in once a clinical site is assigned. On the prelicensure side, the hub allows five business days from that enrollment to finish the facility's paperwork.

The 2026-27 training modules

• Bloodborne Pathogens, renewed every year.
• HIPAA, renewed every year.
• Aerosol Transmissible Diseases, yearly (Cal/OSHA covers COVID-19 under this standard).
• Implicit Bias Training, one time only, and no certificate goes to the vendor.
• Workplace Violence Prevention, also required.

Every certificate except Implicit Bias then goes into CastleBranch or Complio, so finishing a module in Canvas is only half the job. APU's older APRN guidelines (the 2023-24 edition) add that computer-literacy requirements sit in the Resource Section of the graduate nursing Canvas sites and that assignments are submitted as Word documents.

CastleBranch or Complio, Medatrax and iHuman

Two vendor systems carry most of a clinical term. CastleBranch holds compliance records at every campus except San Diego, where Complio (American DataBank) does the job; you buy the subscription and keep it active for as long as you are enrolled, and your signed handbook documents are uploaded there too. Package codes, drug screen codes and review times are in our CastleBranch and Complio guide.

Medatrax takes over once a site is cleared, with an entry every week; the Medatrax guide covers logging and the hours APU removes. Keep the two apart in your head: certificates never belong in Medatrax, and hour logs never belong in CastleBranch.

iHuman rounds out the set. APU's 2023-24 APRN guidelines make iHuman virtual patient cases part of several clinical courses, with the student paying for each case; check each syllabus for the cases it assigns.

Help desks, the health portal and the library

The School of Nursing's HappyFox knowledge base at nursing-apu.happyfox.com has a Clinical Compliance section covering CastleBranch for students, clinical FAQs and N95 fit testing, plus a ticket system. The IT Support Center at support.apu.edu is the first stop for technology trouble, and the MyCougar Health Portal at medicat.apu.edu is the student health center's portal.

The N95 fit test's medical questionnaire runs on Formstack. Fit testing is offered by appointment at every SON campus; post-licensure students are not required to have it, and the SON provides the test and masks when a facility asks for them.

The University Libraries site at libraries.apu.edu offers a Nursing research guide, interlibrary loan and librarian chat or appointments. Darling Library on West Campus holds the nursing collections. Regional and online students share Azusa students' privileges: books arrive by mail with prepaid return envelopes, articles come by email, and San Diego and Orange County keep smaller collections on site.

A setup checklist for your first clinical term

• Sign in to APU Gmail and open the SON Student Handbook from the hub.
• Upload the signed handbook acknowledgement to CastleBranch or Complio.
• Submit or update this semester's Student Data Questionnaire.
• Finish the Canvas training modules and upload each certificate except Implicit Bias.
• Confirm your CastleBranch or Complio package code matches your program and campus.
• Bookmark the HappyFox knowledge base and the Clinical Placement Team mailbox for quick questions.
• When a preceptor agrees, submit a Graduate Preceptor Request form for that preceptor.
• After written clearance, set a weekly Medatrax reminder.
• Note this term's compliance deadline from the hub in your calendar.

The clinical placement process page puts these steps in the order APU runs them, from program planning to evaluations.

Why APU students choose us

APU's systems ask a lot before the first clinical day, and the preceptor search is the step that takes the most legwork. That is the part we handle: a preceptor and site near home that fit your APU course, with the clinic's legal name, its legal signer and the office manager contact gathered so your request goes in complete. Every detail is checked against the request form for your campus and track.

We also check early whether the clinic is under an APU affiliation agreement yet, and we remain reachable all term in case a preceptor steps away. APU's placement team issues the written clearance; we make sure the file in front of them is ready. Send us your program and campus through the form below.

Questions APU students ask