Precepting an Azusa Pacific University nursing student

Who can precept an APU student

APU's 2026 request forms and program documents set the preceptor types course by course.

• Nurse practitioner students: physicians (MD or DO), nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who have a supervising physician on site. The form's credential menu also offers CNS, CNM and PNP, and APU wants each NP student to train under an NP for one semester or more.
• Psychiatric mental health NP students: psychiatrists and PMHNPs. Licensed marriage and family therapists and psychologists qualify only for GNRS 535, and each student needs a PMHNP preceptor for at least one semester.
• Clinical nurse specialist students: a CNS, or a nurse leader for GNRS 521 and GNRS 543, whose work centers on leadership, unit-based care or teaching nurses.
• Nursing education students: a nurse educator for the GNRS 663 capstone practicum.
• Healthcare administration students: an experienced nurse administrator with a leadership track record, for GNRS 567.

Impartiality applies across the board: APU rules out relatives and close friends as preceptors and bars placements in the unit where the student works. APU's public materials set no minimum years of experience, student ratio or site-visit schedule, and its preceptor handbook covers general qualifications. Our preceptor requirements guide has the detail.

What California asks of a preceptor

California's Board of Registered Nursing sets the baseline for NP preceptors in 16 CCR 1484, most recently amended effective October 1, 2025. For a rotation in California, the preceptor must be actively licensed in California in their own discipline and clinically current. The preceptor teaches, supervises and evaluates the student, and those duties are written into an agreement among the clinical agency, the preceptor and the program.

Under the same regulation, the program must orient each preceptor and review the preceptor's work no less than once every two years, and NP programs must deliver no fewer than 500 hours of supervised direct patient care. Under 16 CCR 1480, direct supervision means the preceptor or a faculty member is physically present at the site and keeps responsibility for patient care. Our California NP practice guide explains how standardized procedures and the 103 and 104 NP roles relate to precepting.

The paperwork behind a placement

Most of the paperwork sits with the student and APU. The student files a Graduate Preceptor Request form with your name, credential and email, your clinic's legal name, the person authorized to sign agreements and your office manager's contact. APU's Graduate Placement Team reviews the placement, and your organization needs an affiliation agreement with APU before the student starts.

APU describes its placement coordinator as the preceptor's first point of contact: sending a preceptor handbook, collecting a signed Preceptor Agreement Form and checking that the student's practicum requirements are current. The student comes to your clinic only after APU clears the site in writing, so every document is settled before the first clinic day. The affiliation agreements guide explains that step.

The time a term asks of you

APU's clinical courses work out to 45 hours per clinical unit, so the hours a student spends with you depend on the course. The figures below come from APU's catalog and request forms; the student's syllabus sets the exact number.

APU asks students to spread hours evenly rather than front- or back-loading them, and bars a night shift before a clinical day, so expect a steady weekly rhythm. Students record their hours in Medatrax every week.

Evaluating your student

Your evaluation carries real weight. APU calls the preceptor evaluation, like the faculty evaluation, a minimum-standard tool, and a student who falls below the standard in any category moves to a remediation plan with clinical faculty. The request form collects your email so the end-of-semester evaluation reaches you directly.

If something concerns you during the term, contact the student's clinical faculty early. APU's guidelines count behavior such as keeping a change in a patient's status from the preceptor, charting errors or a breach of patient privacy as unsafe performance that can lead to dismissal. APU also runs OSCEs in most clinical courses, so your evaluation captures how the student works with real patients while APU tests skills separately; our evaluations and OSCEs guide covers both.

How APU thanks its preceptors

APU's public materials describe thanks rather than a formal benefits program. The School of Nursing posts a public thank-you letter from APU student nurses recognizing the clinical sites and preceptors who teach them, and preceptors receive the handbook and agreement form from the placement coordinator. APU's public pages describe no CE credit, adjunct title or tuition benefit, so ask the placement coordinator whether the current handbook adds anything.

Preceptors teach for reasons of their own: passing on what someone once taught them, shaping how new clinicians practice in their community and sharpening their own skills by explaining them. Demand for that teaching is growing, with California's NP applications up 31% over four fiscal years according to a 2026 legislative background paper.

Connect with an APU student through us

We connect clinicians with APU students whose course fits their practice, and we handle the preparation that keeps the process light for your office. Tell us your specialty, your clinic's city, the days you can teach and how many hours a term you could offer. We match you with an APU student in a suitable course, confirm the details the request form needs from your office and help find out early whether your organization already holds an APU affiliation agreement.

From there, the student files the request, APU's placement team reviews it and the placement coordinator contacts you with the handbook and agreement. Choose "I'm a preceptor (not a student)" on the form below, or open the chat, and we will take it from there.

Questions APU students ask