How we place APU nursing students, step by step

What we do for you, in four parts

Our work for Azusa Pacific students has four parts, and each one lines up with a step in APU's own process. First, we search for a preceptor whose credential and practice setting suit the exact APU course you are placing, within a sensible drive of your home in Southern California.

Second, we prepare. You receive the preceptor's license and credential, the business name the clinic contracts under, its authorized signer, a front-office contact and any onboarding the site runs on its own, such as Live Scan or CB Bridges, organized and checked. Third, we tell you early whether the clinic seems to hold an APU affiliation agreement already, since a site new to APU needs extra lead time. Fourth, we stay on call through the term.

Approval stays with APU: its placement staff sign off on every site in writing. What we add is a request that arrives whole and matches APU's rules on the first pass.

Step by step, from first message to written clearance

1. Send your program, city and termUse the form on this page. Tell us your APU program, the course you need placed, where you live and when the term starts.
2. We match the course to a preceptor typeGNRS 600 means outpatient primary care, with pediatric hours built in for FNP students. Psychiatric courses call for a psychiatrist or PMHNP; CNS courses for a CNS, or a nurse leader where the course allows. Every candidate we approach qualifies under APU's preceptor rules.
3. We search outward from homeWe begin with practices closest to your address and widen in rings, weighing drive time against fit, because APU puts the match to your course above mileage.
4. We secure a yes and gather the detailsOnce a preceptor agrees, we collect the credential, license and email APU asks for, the clinic's legal name and signer, the office manager, and any onboarding the site runs itself.
5. You file the request with APUYou file the Graduate Preceptor Request form for that preceptor. APU's Graduate Placement Team then reaches out to go over the placement with you and confirm it.
6. APU vets, contracts and clearsPlacement staff vet the preceptor and put the agreement in place. You report to the site only after written clearance, then log your hours each week in Medatrax.

Timed to APU's term calendar

APU splits the graduate year into fall, spring and summer terms, and each term offers sessions of different lengths: 16 weeks, 8 weeks and, in summer, 12 weeks as well. APU's calendar leaves open which session a particular NP clinical course follows, so confirm it at registration. Dates below come from APU's published calendar; the last column is our arithmetic on the older guideline that a new preceptor be reported 6 to 8 weeks before the semester.

Treat that window as the latest point to hand APU a finished request, not the moment to start looking. We suggest starting with us a full term ahead, since a clinic with no APU agreement needs longer. Compliance runs on its own clock: the Fall 2026 deadline fell on August 1, 2026, and Spring 2024 items were due December 15, 2023, so confirm the Spring 2027 date on the SON student hub.

Where APU's process takes over

Several steps belong to APU alone, and knowing them keeps your timeline realistic. The School of Nursing holds the affiliation agreement with each site, and APU warns that setting one up takes time when none exists yet; our affiliation agreements page explains why. Placement staff vet the preceptor, arrange a general liability contract, send the preceptor APU's handbook and collect a Preceptor Agreement Form.

If APU makes you a placement offer of its own, its 2023-24 guidelines give you one week to confirm it. Once a site is assigned, the SON's Clinical Onboarding courses in Canvas carry that facility's steps, and you self-enroll there. Two things also stay with you throughout: the request form itself and your compliance account, kept current in CastleBranch or Complio for as long as you are enrolled.

If a preceptor steps away mid-term

Preceptors leave for ordinary reasons: a new job, a leave, a practice that changes hands. When that happens we go straight back to the search with your course, remaining hours and region on file, and the new preceptor's details come to you ready for a fresh request form, because each preceptor gets a form of their own.

APU's rules give you some cover. Its 2023-24 guidelines let faculty offer a clinical incomplete if an unforeseeable event takes the site away and nothing else can be arranged, while you continue the didactic work under supervision. When a preceptor ends the arrangement for reasons unrelated to you, late-drop fees can be waived with priority placement next term; see the drop rule and our preceptor dropped out guide.

Why APU students start with us

Every search we run is built around APU's own process, so nothing we hand you needs redoing. The preceptor fits the course before anyone calls, the details APU's form asks for are gathered in the first conversation with the practice, the agreement question comes up before weeks slip by, and the search stays open until the site is cleared.

That is the most thorough way to start an APU clinical placement, and it gives you back the evenings you would otherwise spend calling practices on top of the job and coursework APU expects you to carry. Share your program, home city and start term in the form below, and your placement advisor replies with a plan built around your course.

Questions APU students ask