UT Tyler NP clinicals in Houston and the Upper Gulf Coast
The 13 counties around Houston hold a quarter of all Texans and 83 Medicare-certified hospitals, yet their big systems ask very different things of a UT Tyler nurse practitioner student. One takes requests only from schools, one wants your preceptor lined up six months out, and one is not adding schools. Here is what each says and which setting fits each UT Tyler course.
Find a preceptor in the Houston area
Tell us your county, your UT Tyler track and your next clinical course, and your placement advisor starts the search near you.
The region: 13 counties from Huntsville to Bay City
The region matches Texas DSHS Public Health Region 6, whose 13 counties also make up the Houston-Galveston Area Council: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller and Wharton. The Census Bureau put their combined population at 8,058,943 in July 2025. Houston alone holds roughly 2.4 million.
Distance from Tyler affects only your trips to campus. FNP students come back for OSCE days near Week 11, and routing estimates put the drive at roughly 145 miles from Huntsville, 170 from Conroe, 210 from central Houston and 290 from Bay City. Clinical hours stay close to home, as long as home and every site are inside Texas under UT Tyler's Texas-only rule.
What Houston's large systems tell NP students
UT Tyler's side never changes by region: your preceptor and site go to faculty on a Self-Placement Request, the Clinical Coordinator handles clearance, and any facility without a UT Tyler agreement signs one before your first hour counts. What differs in Houston is each hospital's own entry point, as its pages read in September 2026.
| System | What its own page says | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Harris Health (Ben Taub, LBJ, ambulatory clinics) | Schools request placements through the Centralized Clinical Placement System (CCPS) and send a student verification form at least three weeks ahead | A school-to-hospital request; its partner list names "The University of Texas at Tyler Master of Science in Nursing" |
| Texas Children's | Licensed and APRN students start with an affiliation inquiry six months ahead; the student or school coordinator secures the preceptor | Arrive with a preceptor who has already agreed |
| Houston Methodist | An emailed NP request form due April 30, July 15 or November 13; not pursuing new affiliations | UT Tyler is not among the five schools it names |
| Memorial Hermann | Preceptor requests go to a placement mailbox; a new pediatric APP agreement can take several months | Start a semester early or look beyond the system |
| MD Anderson | MSN and DNP students are placed through their nursing program at the course coordinator's request | Your UT Tyler faculty make the approach |
UTMB's Visiting Education listing for an APRN practicum asked visitors to check back when research looked. HCA Houston Healthcare, St. Luke's Health and St. Joseph Medical Center publish no student process, so there the route runs through an individual preceptor and an agreement UT Tyler sets up with the facility.
Cold calls can backfire here. UTHealth Houston's pediatric APP placement page, covering Memorial Hermann-TMC and its own clinics, asks students not to contact clinics or providers directly.
Clinics, shortage counties and the rural edge
HRSA lists 203 health center sites run by 22 organizations here. Legacy Community Health is the largest, with 66 sites from Houston and Pasadena to Baytown and Sugar Land. Beyond Harris County, MyCHN covers Brazoria, AccessHealth serves Fort Bend, Lone Star Family Health Center runs clinics in Conroe and Huntsville, and MEHOP serves Bay City and Wharton.
The shortage map splits the region. For primary care, Austin, Chambers and Liberty are county-wide geographic HPSAs, five more counties carry low-income designations, and Fort Bend and Montgomery have none. Mental health is tighter: eight counties, Montgomery among them, are county-wide geographic HPSAs, and Fort Bend alone has no designation. Matagorda posts the top score, 19 of 25, on both lists.
In practice, a psychiatric preceptor search in Montgomery or Galveston County should start earlier and range wider than a family practice search in Fort Bend. Six critical access hospitals, in Anahuac, Liberty, Palacios, Eagle Lake, Winnie and Sweeny, mark the rural edge, home to just 2.3% of the region's people.
Matching each UT Tyler course to a Houston setting
NURS 5453, pediatrics: the three Texas Children's campuses, Children's Memorial Hermann and suburban pediatric practices. The six-month Texas Children's runway rules it out for a late start.NURS 5454, sexual and mental health: health centers such as Legacy, HOPE Clinic and Avenue 360, and women's health practices.NURS 5455, plus the two FNP internships (NURS 5347,NURS 5349): family, internal medicine and geriatric practices from Katy to Kingwood, plus clinics in the shortage counties.NURS 5367toNURS 5373, psychiatric: CMS counts 15 psychiatric hospitals here, and UTHealth Houston's Behavioral Sciences Campus has 538 beds; its HCPC education office coordinates nursing student rotations but posts no application form. The PMHNP practicum rules need 125 inpatient hours and cap telehealth at 63 per course.NURS 7383throughNURS 7388, the AGACNP practica: Ben Taub, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, UTMB Galveston and Texas Children's (contingent) hold Level I trauma designations, and four HCA hospitals plus UTMB Clear Lake hold Level II. Each AGACNP practicum fills one seven-week session.
Why UT Tyler students around Houston choose us
Houston's hospitals run on different calendars, from the Texas Children's six-month runway to Houston Methodist's fixed request dates, so your placement advisor picks the setting that fits your course and works back from its deadlines. We find the preceptor in your own corner of the region, check the fit against your syllabus and UT Tyler's workplace rules, and hand you a complete Self-Placement Request early enough for any affiliation agreement to finish. If a preceptor drops out mid-semester, your advisor goes straight back to the search. Tell us your county and course.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Is Harris Health an option for a UT Tyler MSN student?
UT Tyler appears on Harris Health's published list of clinical affiliation partners as "The University of Texas at Tyler Master of Science in Nursing." Schools request its placements through CCPS, approval depends on unit, clinic or preceptor availability, and the page describes no separate path for APRN students. Ask your course faculty whether a Harris Health request suits your course.
How early should I plan a Texas Children's rotation?
Count back at least six months. The affiliation inquiry goes in that far ahead, then one placement request per rotation 90 days before the start, and those requests often wait 30 to 45 days in the queue. A Baylor College of Medicine preceptor adds a separate approval of up to six weeks. For a spring NURS 5453, planning starts the previous summer.
Do Houston hospitals use a placement portal?
Two use CCPS for part of their students: Harris Health for school requests, and Texas Children's for pre-licensure students only. Other graduate requests move by email and forms, such as Houston Methodist's NP request form and Memorial Hermann's placement mailbox.
Can I train at the Houston hospital where I work?
Often, within UT Tyler's limits. FNP rules bar a preceptor who supervises you, sits in your reporting line or is related to you. PMHNP students inside their employer's system need a different unit or service line, manager and approved preceptor. A large employer such as Memorial Hermann makes that easier than a small physician- or NP-owned clinic, where UT Tyler says employees will likely rotate elsewhere.
How often will I drive from Houston to Tyler?
About four hours each way from central Houston. The trip is for FNP OSCE days, which usually fall near Week 11 of a clinical course, and for up to two hands-on PMHNP campus experiences across the program. The OSCE planning guide covers the campus dates.
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
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