Clinical sites around APU's San Bernardino and Victorville campuses

Two campuses, two placement markets

The Inland Empire Regional Campus is at 375 W. Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino, where the 10 and 215 freeways meet. Both the MSN with NP specialties and the BSN to DNP name it as a location, and its facilities include a Skills Center and a simulation lab with two beds. The High Desert Regional Campus (15283 Pahute Ave., Victorville) lists nursing degree-completion and graduate study and has its own Skills Center and simulation lab, but APU leaves it off its MSN-NP locations.

About 1.21 million people lived in the region's 15 cities on January 1, 2026. San Bernardino (222,292) and Fontana (219,774) lead, followed by Victorville (139,680), Rialto (106,809), Hesperia (103,349), Apple Valley (75,236) and Redlands (73,811).

APU's catalog also names an instructional location at Redlands Community Hospital; that marks where APU teaches, not a statement about NP preceptorships.

The valley: Loma Linda, Arrowhead and Kaiser Fontana

Loma Linda University Medical Center is the valley's academic anchor. Loma Linda University Health's staff development directory lists an Academic Relations function covering affiliation agreements and student and training clearances, though no public request process for outside NP students. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton is the county hospital, and Kaiser Permanente's Fontana Medical Center follows Kaiser Southern California's school-agreement process, summarized on our Southern California placement systems page.

Dignity Health St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino and Redlands Community Hospital round out the valley list. For Dignity Health, no public Southern California NP-student placement page has turned up, though its site could not be fully checked.

None of these hospitals' pages names APU, so start any of them with APU's Graduate Placement Team.

The High Desert: Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Barstow

Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley is the listed hospital for the High Desert, and, as with Dignity, no public NP-student page has turned up for Providence, a finding that could not be fully verified.

The desert carries its own set of shortage designations. Barstow is a geographic primary care shortage area scored 14, updated September 4, 2026, and Hesperia West/Mountain View Acres holds a Medicaid-eligible designation scored 15. Adelanto/Victorville Northwest (16) and Hesperia East (13) are proposed for withdrawal but remain recognized until HRSA rules, by July 1, 2027. For mental health, Hesperia East (16) and Barstow (18) are designated high-needs areas.

The BRN's 2026 sunset report says rural communities often cannot supply enough clinical sites and preceptors for local training. If you live in Victorville or Hesperia, start earlier than a valley student would and weigh sites in both the desert and the valley. Your NP classes still meet at Azusa, the Inland Empire or San Diego.

SAC Health, Unicare and the county's health centers

HRSA lists 61 active FQHC or look-alike sites in these cities and nearby mountain and desert communities, run by 16 organizations. SAC Health System leads with 11, then Unicare Community Health Center (9), Tri-State Community Healthcare Center (8), Hi-Desert Memorial Health Care District (8), and Community Health Systems, Inc. and San Bernardino Public Health with four each. Most Tri-State and Hi-Desert sites are in Needles and the Morongo Basin, far from the core cities.

In the valley, the largest primary care gap is the low-income Highland/San Bernardino East area, scored 18. Colton holds a Medicaid-eligible designation (9), and San Bernardino Central and East carries a low-income mental health designation scored 14. SAC Health System, San Bernardino Public Health, Inland Behavioral and Health Services and Blessing Community Health Center carry FQHC facility designations in San Bernardino.

From request form to first clinical day

1. Confirm your campus and courseAPU's 2023-24 guidelines placed PMHNP specialty courses at Azusa or the Inland Empire, and the PMHNP certificate page agrees, but the MSN-NP page lists San Diego too, so confirm with the program.
2. Find a preceptor who fits APU's rulesThe preceptor requirements page lists accepted credentials and the family and own-unit limits.
3. Submit a request for each preceptorThe Graduate Preceptor Request form collects the clinic's legal name, the person with signing authority and the office manager, the details the agreement is built on.
4. Let the affiliation agreement runA site with no current APU agreement takes longer, and APU's guidelines ask that a new preceptor be flagged with six to eight weeks of lead time for vetting and a contract.
5. Start after written clearance, then log weeklyThe department chair strips Medatrax entries logged at an unapproved site, so the clearance notice comes before your first day.

Why Inland Empire and High Desert students choose us

Students near both campuses choose us because we search the valley and the desert as one map, from Redlands and Loma Linda to Hesperia and Barstow, and check every preceptor against your APU course before anything is filed. We gather the legal name, signer and office manager details for every site, check early whether an APU affiliation agreement exists, and flag when a new agreement will need extra lead time.

For High Desert students, where sites are thinner, we widen the search at the start rather than at the deadline. When a preceptor withdraws, we move straight to the next option. Send us your course and city and the search begins.

Questions APU students ask