Choosing a placement service as a UT Tyler nursing student: what it should do for you
A placement service is only as good as the approvals its preceptors earn. For a UT Tyler student that comes down to five things: a preceptor who fits the exact NURS course, Texas licenses and a Texas site, details ready for the Self-Placement Request, timing that leaves room for Exxat and facility onboarding, and a real plan if a preceptor leaves. Hold any service, ours included, to this list.
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.
Start from how UT Tyler approves placements
Every preceptor and site at UT Tyler passes faculty approval and a Clinical Coordinator check before a single hour counts. No outside service can shortcut that, so the useful question is whether a service's work arrives ready for those reviews.
Look for a service that speaks UT Tyler's language: the Self-Placement Request, the Preceptor Agreement survey, Exxat, affiliation agreements, the NURS course sequence and the Texas-only rule. A service that talks only about generic clinical rotations leaves the translation to you, and to your faculty.
Course fit: the practice has to match the NURS course
Faculty judge a site by whether its patients and cases let you meet the course objectives, so fit is the first test a service should pass.
| Course | What the practice must offer |
|---|---|
NURS 5453 FNP Primary Care I | Pediatric patients; 125 hours |
NURS 5454 FNP Primary Care II | Sexual and mental health care; 125 hours |
NURS 5455 FNP Primary Care III | Adult and geriatric primary care; confirm hours in your syllabus |
NURS 5347 and NURS 5349 FNP Internships | Family practice, 187.5 hours each in the catalog; hospital acute care hours are not approved in NURS 5349 |
NURS 5367, NURS 5368, NURS 5370, NURS 5373 PMHNP | A psychiatric specialty practice; children and adolescents in NURS 5370; inpatient hours across the program |
NURS 7383 to NURS 7388 AGACNP | Adult and geriatric acute care; 125 hours in each 7-week session |
| DNP practice hours | A site and mentor for your DNP Project; UT Tyler's online page prefers a PhD or DNP mentor with five years in leadership, or a master's-prepared one with ten |
A good service also asks which FNP plan you follow. Under the 2026-27 catalog the FNP totals 750 direct care hours, while Fall 2026 syllabi for earlier cohorts still describe 675, and the per-course numbers differ. The 750 vs 675 page lines them up.
Texas licenses and UT Tyler's preceptor rules
- Texas only. NP students must reside in Texas and train only there, and PMHNP rotations need a Texas-licensed facility and practitioner. Some UT Tyler pages written earlier still refer to out-of-state clinicals; the rule in force is Texas.
- Experience. UT Tyler's sources differ: one year in the advanced role in the 2023 NP guide, two years plus board certification on the online program's preceptor page. Meeting the higher bar keeps the question off the review.
- Role mix. One FNP syllabus suggests an advanced practice nurse supervise about 25 percent of program hours, with physicians and PAs eligible for the remainder, while the online preceptor page asks for most hours with an APRN. For PMHNP rotations the main preceptor is a PMHNP, a psychiatrist or a PA with a psychiatry CAQ.
- Conflicts. No supervisor, no one in your line of report, no relative. PMHNP rules also exclude your employer, allowing your own health system only on a different unit under a different manager and preceptor, and FNP students employed at small physician- or NP-owned clinics will likely train elsewhere.
- Reuse limits. A PMHNP preceptor may cover at most two rotations, so a service should track who you have already used.
Faculty check each of these at approval. The detail is on preceptor requirements.
Request-ready details, and a preceptor who knows the process
What you should receive is a complete, checked preceptor profile you can enter in the Self-Placement Request in one sitting, not a name and a number to chase. Because UT Tyler builds the request on details that come from the preceptor, a service should gather them at the preceptor's office directly. The full field list is on the Self-Placement Request page.
Precepting a UT Tyler student comes with tasks, and a good service explains them before the preceptor agrees: answering the Preceptor Agreement survey when the Clinical Coordinator's email arrives, going through the UT Tyler Preceptor Handbook with you, receiving your three written objectives before day one, signing daily hour sheets and completing Clinical Performance Evaluations. A preceptor who expects all of that is less likely to stall the approval or leave mid-course.
Timing around Exxat, contracts and onboarding
Your Exxat compliance record is yours to complete before you start. A service's part is timing: securing the preceptor early enough that the facility's own steps finish before the semester.
Ask whether a service checks, before offering a site, whether the facility already has an affiliation agreement with UT Tyler; a new one is signed on paper and moves at the facility's pace. Hospitals also set application windows. In Tyler, CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances posts request deadlines of March 1, July 1 and November 1, each ahead of rotations starting the next month, and makes students reapply every semester, per its student page.
Onboarding can also require letters from UT Tyler, such as a Letter of Good Standing. A service that follows those items up protects your start date.
Replacement, and the questions to ask
Ask every service the same thing: if my preceptor stops taking me in Week 8, what happens? The answer you want is a new search against your remaining hours and course population, request-ready details for the new preceptor, and help with the revised schedule UT Tyler has you resubmit to faculty. Here is how we answer the questions that matter.
| Question | Our answer |
|---|---|
| Do you work from my exact UT Tyler course? | Yes: the course number, population and hours in your syllabus drive the search |
| Are all preceptors and sites in Texas? | Always, and near where you live |
| Who collects the Self-Placement Request details? | Your placement advisor, from the preceptor's office, checked before you file |
| Do you check the facility's contract with UT Tyler? | Yes, early, so a new agreement has time to start |
| What if my preceptor leaves? | A new search starts from your remaining hours |
| Who approves the preceptor? | UT Tyler faculty, every time; we prepare the request for them |
Be cautious with any service that promises approval, which only UT Tyler faculty give, or that suggests starting before clearance. Start with the request form, or compare your own search and ours.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Can a placement service file my Self-Placement Request for me?
You file the request yourself, and UT Tyler's NP guide describes it as a joint effort with the preceptor. A service's job is to put complete, checked preceptor details in your hands, so filing takes one sitting and nothing comes back for correction.
Does a placement service need to know UT Tyler specifically?
It makes a large difference. UT Tyler's rules are specific: Texas-only NP clinicals, a request built on the preceptor's own details, PMHNP telehealth and inpatient rules, no hospital acute care hours in NURS 5349, and AGACNP practica packed into 7-week sessions. A preceptor who misses one of them costs you a review cycle.
Does UT Tyler recommend a particular placement service?
No UT Tyler page reviewed names or recommends one, and a service should never suggest it has UT Tyler's backing. UT Tyler's documents describe its own role: faculty coordinate and approve, the Clinical Coordinator clears sites, and the School of Nursing arranges affiliation agreements. Judge each service on its work, using the checks on this page.
What should I ask a service about its fee?
Ask exactly what the fee covers: the search for one course or several, replacement if a preceptor leaves, and follow-up through onboarding. Get the answer in writing before you commit. How we approach pricing, and what shapes it, is set out on the cost page.
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.