Finding a UT Tyler preceptor in Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas-Fort Worth has 115 Medicare-certified hospitals, yet it is a demanding place to land an NP rotation. The big systems deal mainly with schools through contracts and a regional placement tool, several have stopped adding new school affiliations, and Texas Health's own page starts with the student securing a preceptor. The openings are there for a UT Tyler student who knows each system's route and starts early.
Find a Metroplex preceptor
Tell us your county, track and next UT Tyler course, and your placement advisor searches near where you live and work.
The Metroplex and Texoma at a glance
This guide follows Texas DSHS Public Health Region 3: the Metroplex counties, the three Texoma counties of Cooke, Fannin and Grayson, and Erath, Navarro, Palo Pinto and Somervell, 19 in all. About 8.93 million people lived here in July 2025, 28.2% of Texas, and just 3.3% of them in the seven nonmetro counties.
Dallas (about 1.33 million) and Fort Worth (about 1.03 million) anchor the region, with Arlington, Plano, Irving, Garland, Frisco, McKinney and Denton each above 160,000. Sherman, Denison, Corsicana and Stephenville are the smaller hubs. From Tyler it is roughly 100 miles to Dallas, 115 to Plano, 135 to Fort Worth, Denton or Sherman and 195 to Stephenville, so OSCE days are a day trip from most of the region.
What the big systems' own pages say
Whatever the hospital, UT Tyler's sequence comes first: you enter the preceptor on a Self-Placement Request, faculty and then the Clinical Coordinator sign off, any new facility signs an affiliation agreement, and hours count only after approval. The hospitals then add their own layer.
| System | What its own page says |
|---|---|
| UT Southwestern (Clements University Hospital) | APRN students apply through its online APP placement request; emailed requests are denied; its advanced practice office looks for the preceptor |
| Texas Health Resources | Per an archived copy: the student secures a preceptor first, then the affiliation request; the form read temporarily closed in April 2026 |
| Children's Health (Dallas, Plano) | Precepted requests run through CCPS; no new school affiliations except for current employees; its Primary Care Clinic no longer takes NP students |
| Cook Children's (Fort Worth, Prosper) | A separate NP application with committee selection; moving away from student-found preceptors; Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 windows closed |
| Parkland Health (Dallas) | Does not place students directly; students ask their own school |
| Baylor Scott & White (14 North Texas hospitals) | Online orientation within 90 days of the start and a school attestation letter each rotation; no page on NP preceptors |
Texas Health is the region's clearest preceptor-first system, and that first step is exactly what our search delivers. UT Southwestern runs the reverse model, matching APRN students itself and ranking students of Texas public universities, UT Tyler included, third after its own employees and those of Children's, Parkland and Texas Health.
Several of these hospitals also use the Centralized Clinical Placement System, the DFW Hospital Council Foundation's regional placement tool; UT Tyler was not on its July 2024 list of participating schools. Methodist, HCA's Medical City, Texoma Medical Center, Hunt Regional and the VA North Texas hospitals publish no NP-student route, and JPS, per an archived copy, calls itself a rotation site for advanced practice nursing students without listing steps.
Where the shortage designations fall
HRSA's September 2026 shortage data paints a patchy primary care map. Only Navarro and Parker are county-wide geographic shortage areas; Cooke, Erath, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Palo Pinto and Wise are designated for low-income residents; Dallas and Tarrant carry tract-level designations, led by central Dallas County's low-income score of 18; eight counties, Collin and Denton among them, have none.
Mental health is another story: all 19 counties carry a designation, eight of them county-wide geographic, and Palo Pinto scores 18. Thirteen health center organizations run 70 sites, led by HHM Health (Dallas, Mesquite, Kaufman, Arlington, Frisco, Irving), Parkland's Homeless Outreach Medical Services, Prism Health North Texas, Carevide (Greenville, Commerce, Kaufman), Health Services of North Texas (Denton, Wylie, Plano) and Los Barrios Unidos in Dallas.
Matching Metroplex settings to UT Tyler courses
| UT Tyler course | Where to look in Dallas-Fort Worth |
|---|---|
NURS 5453 (pediatrics) | Independent pediatric practices and health centers; Cook Children's reports very limited outpatient and primary care spots |
NURS 5454 (sexual and mental health) | Women's health and family planning practices, health centers such as Los Barrios Unidos and HHM Health |
NURS 5455, NURS 5347, NURS 5349 | Family and internal medicine practices, the 70 health center sites, the Texoma and western counties |
PMHNP NURS 5367 to NURS 5373 | The 15 psychiatric hospitals on the CMS list, JPS's Psychiatric Emergency Center (opened September 2025), outpatient psychiatry practices |
AGACNP NURS 7383 to NURS 7388 | Level I trauma centers at Baylor University Medical Center, JPS, Medical City Plano, Methodist Dallas, Parkland and the two Texas Health flagships |
Fifteen psychiatric hospitals give PMHNP students real choices toward the program's 125 required inpatient hours; the PMHNP practicum guide lists the telehealth cap and the limit on repeat preceptors. AGACNP students complete a 125-hour practicum in each 7-week session, so each hospital's lead time comes around twice a semester. Every hour has to be in Texas, so an Oklahoma clinic a short drive from Sherman or Gainesville does not count.
Why Metroplex UT Tyler students choose us
In a market where Texas Health wants the preceptor secured before anything moves and UT Southwestern takes fall requests in January, timing is most of the job. Your placement advisor lines up a preceptor matched to your UT Tyler course, rules out conflicts with your own employer, supervisor or relatives, and assembles what the Self-Placement Request and the facility need, early enough for approval and any affiliation agreement to finish before the semester.
Exxat compliance and hospital onboarding get tracked to the finish, and if a preceptor drops out, your advisor is already working on the next one. From Plano to Stephenville, the search starts near your home rather than at the hospital with the longest line. Send your county and course through the request form.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
How does a UT Tyler NP student request a rotation at UT Southwestern?
Through its advanced practice office's online placement request, inside the window for your term: January 1 to March 31 for fall, May 1 to August 31 for spring and September 1 to December 31 for summer. Emailed requests are denied, and you reapply each semester. You may name a preferred preceptor, but the office makes the match, and your school's attestation letter is due 30 days before the start.
Is UT Tyler part of the Centralized Clinical Placement System?
UT Tyler did not appear on the DFW Hospital Council Foundation's July 2024 list of schools using CCPS, the regional tool that hospitals such as Parkland, Methodist Dallas and Children's Health use for student placements. That list is dated, so ask the Clinical Coordinator how a request at a CCPS hospital would work for UT Tyler before you build a semester around one.
Does Children's Health have an agreement with UT Tyler?
Children's Health's contract list, dated January 30, 2026, shows a University of Texas at Tyler agreement running through January 31, 2032, plus a tri-party UT Tyler agreement. An agreement is not a placement: its Primary Care Clinic no longer takes NP students, and a hosting department, not the student, submits each request. Ask your course faculty whether a Children's rotation fits your course.
Can I do clinicals at the Dallas hospital where I work?
Possibly, within UT Tyler's limits: FNP students may not rotate with a supervisor, anyone in their line of report or a relative, and PMHNP students in their own system need a different unit, manager and preceptor. Employment also helps on the hospital side: UT Southwestern ranks its employees first, and Children's Health adds affiliations only for current employees. See clinicals where you work.
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.