Behind on clinical hours in a UT Tyler course: catching up, replacement preceptors and the Incomplete
Start with an honest count of approved, logged hours and the weeks left, then tell your course faculty. The usual fixes are more days with your current preceptor or an approved second preceptor. If the gap still cannot close by the end of the semester, UT Tyler's Incomplete grade exists for students who were on track until something outside their control intervened, and it comes with firm conditions.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UT Tyler program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your UT Tyler course.
Count only the hours UT Tyler will accept
Your real total may be smaller than the time you spent on site. Before planning a catch-up, take these out of the count:
- Anything logged before every approval and clearance had arrived
- Entries that missed the logging window in your syllabus
- Hours that disagree with the preceptor's signed daily sheets, which FNP syllabi require to match the software
- PMHNP telehealth beyond 63 hours in the course
- Time with a supervisor, anyone in your chain of report or a relative
- Any hour completed outside Texas
- OSCE days, unless your section says otherwise: UT Tyler's FNP syllabi disagree on whether they count
Then do the arithmetic. This is our method, not a UT Tyler formula: hours still owed, divided by the clinical weeks left once finals week and campus days come out. If that figure is more than your preceptor can host, you need extra days or a second preceptor, and you need them now. Weekly minimums by course are on clinical scheduling rules.
Catching up starts with the count, not the calendar. Strike every hour UT Tyler will not accept before you book a single extra day.
Adding time inside the semester
The quickest fix is usually more time with the preceptor you already have, followed by a second approved preceptor if one practice cannot carry the load.
- Ask for extra or longer days. PMHNP students stay within 11 hours in any 24-hour stretch and schedule nothing over holidays, school breaks or the week of finals.
- Resubmit the clinical schedule to faculty whenever it changes, as UT Tyler's NP guide asks.
- The AGACNP syllabus lets you move as many as three clinical days you initiated in a term; past that, talk with faculty.
- Add a second preceptor through a new Self-Placement Request, a new agreement survey and faculty approval, plus a contract if the site is new to UT Tyler. Hours there count only after that approval.
- Watch the reuse limits: PMHNP students may use one preceptor for no more than two rotations, so a catch-up choice now shapes later courses.
When your preceptor leaves mid-course
A preceptor who retires, changes jobs or stops taking students is a classic way to fall behind through no fault of your own. Move through these in order.
- Tell faculty that week. PMHNP syllabi ask students with preceptor problems to notify lead faculty promptly, and every track needs faculty to approve whoever replaces the preceptor.
- Secure what you have earned. Ask the departing preceptor to sign off every logged day and, where your course relies on their evaluation, to complete it before leaving. FNP internships call for two passing CPEs from preceptors.
- Find a replacement who fits the remaining hours. Same population and setting, Texas-licensed, clear of the conflict rules, and able to host enough hours each week to finish.
- File, then wait for clearance. A new request, the Preceptor Agreement survey, faculty approval and any facility steps, followed by a revised schedule to faculty.
Step three is where we help most. Your placement advisor searches against your remaining hours and course population and hands you request-ready details, so the gap between preceptors is only as long as UT Tyler's approvals take.
UT Tyler's Incomplete grade, in plain terms
An Incomplete lets you finish a course after the semester closes, and UT Tyler's graduate catalog sets three tests for it. You must have been making satisfactory progress, unusual circumstances beyond your control must stop you from completing the coursework or final exam, and you must make that case before the final grade roster is due. All three have to hold.
The School of Nursing uses its own Incomplete Grade Form, and your course faculty are where the request starts. The remaining work has a year at most; after that, the I converts to an F.
Two points matter for clinical courses. A preceptor who withdrew late in the term is the kind of disruption the policy describes, while a placement that was never secured is a harder case to make. And the In Progress grade is reserved for courses designed to run past the grading deadline; no UT Tyler page lists the NP clinical courses among them. The full grade rules are on grades and time limits.
What a shortfall can mean beyond this course
In UT Tyler's MSN, a required course needs a B or better, and a clinical course is passed only when its didactic and clinical parts are both passed. Each nursing course allows one repeat, a withdrawal uses up an attempt, and a second course failure ends the program.
Sequencing adds pressure. AGACNP courses must be taken in order, so a practicum left unfinished holds up the next one, and master's degrees carry a six-year limit on completion. That is why the week you notice a gap is the week to act.
How the placement desk helps you catch up
Your placement advisor starts from the numbers: hours owed, weeks left, the course population and the days your current preceptor can still offer. We then find a second or replacement preceptor in your part of Texas who can host the hours you need, checked against UT Tyler's rules and ready for a new Self-Placement Request.
Looking ahead, we line up the next course's preceptor a semester early, so the following term opens at full pace. Share your course and county through the placement request form, or read how it works.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Can extra hours from this course count toward the next one?
UT Tyler's public policies and syllabi set hour requirements course by course, and none describes carrying a surplus forward. Each clinical course has its own total and its own approved sites. Ask your course faculty before assuming any rollover, and plan to reach each course's total within its own semester.
Does falling behind mean I will fail the clinical course?
Not by itself. The course is graded at the end of the term, and in the MSN you pass by passing both the didactic and clinical components with at least a B. The risk is finishing short with no approved plan, so tell faculty early, add time where you can, and ask about an Incomplete if the gap cannot close.
Do I need a new Self-Placement Request for a replacement preceptor?
Yes. Every preceptor and site needs its own request and approval before hours with them count, and the 2023 NP guide puts a revised schedule back in front of faculty whenever the preceptor arrangement changes. A facility new to UT Tyler may also need an affiliation agreement and onboarding of its own.
Who decides whether I get an Incomplete?
The request begins with your course faculty and runs on the School of Nursing's own form, measured against the three conditions in UT Tyler's graduate policies. Bring your logged and signed hours, a dated account of what went wrong, and a plan with a named preceptor for finishing within the one-year limit.
Can I make up clinical hours over a semester break?
Plan on no. PMHNP syllabi rule out clinical days during university holidays, school breaks and the finals week, and every track's hours run on a schedule faculty approve for the term. Work that must spill past the semester is what the Incomplete is for, with its conditions. Ask your faculty before booking any shift outside the term.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UT Tyler's own catalog, syllabi, program pages and clinical policies, and Texas rules. Your course, your program coordinator and the Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
UT Tyler asks you to choose your clinical site. We find it.
Tell us your UT Tyler track, where in Texas you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and gather everything your Self-Placement Request needs, so faculty can approve it before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 5453, adult and geriatric care forNURS 5455, psychiatric care forNURS 5367 - Texas-licensed preceptors who clear UT Tyler's supervisor, relative and site rules
- Anywhere in Texas, from the Piney Woods to the Valley
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.