How we find your UT Tyler preceptor, from first message to counted hours
You tell us your UT Tyler track, your next clinical course and your home county. Your placement advisor locates a preceptor and site that suit that exact course, tests them against UT Tyler's rules, and gives you every item the Self-Placement Request calls for. UT Tyler faculty then approve, the Clinical Coordinator clears the placement, and we stay with you until the hours are counting.
Plan your next UT Tyler clinical
Share your track, the clinical course coming up, the semester it opens and your Texas county. Your placement advisor follows up to map out the search with you.
Who does what: you, UT Tyler and the placement desk
UT Tyler's clinical policy lets graduate students pick their clinical sites, subject to faculty approval, and NP applicants write about their plans for securing preceptors before they are even admitted. Before any form is filed, someone has to locate a Texas clinician who will take you, whose practice suits the course, and who passes UT Tyler's rules. That job is ours.
UT Tyler keeps every decision that affects your grade. Course faculty sign off on the preceptor and site, the Clinical Coordinator checks the preceptor's information and issues clearance, and the School of Nursing sets up contracts with facilities. Our work runs ahead of those reviews so each one gets complete information the first time; the full chain of sign-offs is on the placement process page.
Our process in seven steps
- You share your course and county. Your program, the next clinical course by number if you know it, the semester it opens and the Texas county you live in. That is enough to begin through the placement request form.
- We read the course before we search. Each UT Tyler clinical course calls for its own population and setting: children in
NURS 5453, adult psychiatric care inNURS 5367, acute care inNURS 7383toNURS 7388. We note the hours, the weekly pace and limits such as the PMHNP telehealth ceiling. - We search your part of Texas. Your placement advisor contacts practices within a workable drive of home, because UT Tyler's residence rule keeps every NP clinical hour inside Texas.
- We test the match against UT Tyler's rules. License, role and years in advanced practice, a specialty that fits the course, and the conflict rules on supervisors, your chain of report and relatives. PMHNP students also get a check that this preceptor has not already covered two of their rotations.
- You receive a request-ready profile. Credentials, license details, practice address, specialty and the days the preceptor can host you, gathered from the preceptor's office and checked, ready to enter in the Self-Placement Request.
- We keep the approval moving. The preceptor is briefed to expect UT Tyler's Preceptor Agreement survey, and we confirm whether the facility already holds a contract with UT Tyler and follow up on its onboarding items.
- We remain on call through the term. If a preceptor cuts days or steps away, your advisor searches again against the same course needs.
When to start, counted back from the first class day
Come to us a full semester before the clinical course. Policy 7.2 has sites and preceptors approved before the semester begins, and the approval chain has several links: the preceptor's survey, faculty review and, at a facility new to UT Tyler, a paper contract signed by hand.
Facilities run their own calendars on top of that. CHRISTUS Good Shepherd in Longview, according to its student page, wants preceptor applications 60 days before the requested rotation. We plan backward from your first class day with windows like that in view.
| Clinical course in | Semester begins | Aim to have your preceptor confirmed by |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2027 | January 7, 2027 | Early November 2026, when graduate registration opens on November 2 |
| Summer 2027 | May 10, 2027 | Early March 2027, about midway through spring |
| Fall 2027 | Not yet in the 2026-27 calendar | Mid-March 2027, when graduate registration opens on March 15 |
Already inside that window? What to do this week sets out the short route.
What your placement advisor hands you
- A named Texas preceptor and site whose patients match your course population and hour count
- A fit check against UT Tyler's preceptor standards and conflict rules, finished before you file
- The full set of Self-Placement Request details, gathered at the preceptor's office and summarized on one page
- A preceptor who already knows the UT Tyler steps: the agreement survey, the Preceptor Handbook you review together, the evaluations and your written objectives
- An early read on the facility's contract status and onboarding list, while there is still time to act on it
- One advisor who knows your file from the first message through the last clinical week
- A fresh search, matched to your remaining hours, if a preceptor steps away
The parts that stay with you and with UT Tyler
A few steps belong to you as the enrolled student, and we plan around them. You file the request in UT Tyler's clinical software, keep your Exxat compliance current (background check, drug screen, immunizations, CPR and your RN license), and finish whatever onboarding the facility asks of you. The complete list is on clinical compliance requirements.
Once the course is running, you agree on day-to-day dates with the preceptor, hand over three written, measurable objectives before the first shift, and log hours inside the window your syllabus sets.
And UT Tyler decides. Faculty weigh whether a site can deliver the course objectives, and the Clinical Coordinator's clearance turns booked days into counted hours.
The first counted hour comes after UT Tyler's clearance, not after the preceptor says yes. Every start date we plan allows for that gap.
Which UT Tyler tracks we help, and how
| Track | What we find | Detail we plan around |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP and FNP certificate | Primary care preceptors for NURS 5453, NURS 5454, NURS 5455, NURS 5347 and NURS 5349 | Whether you follow the 750-hour catalog plan or the earlier 675-hour plan |
| MSN PMHNP and PMHNP certificate | Psychiatric preceptors for NURS 5367, NURS 5368, NURS 5370 and NURS 5373 | Inpatient hours, the telehealth ceiling, and young patients for NURS 5370 |
| Post-master's AGACNP certificate | Acute care preceptors for NURS 7383 to NURS 7388 | One 125-hour practicum in each 7-week session |
| DNP and BSN to DNP | A practice site and mentor for DNP hours, plus NP preceptors in the FNP and PMHNP concentrations | A fully executed affiliation agreement before any site hours |
| MSN Administration, Education and IQS | Leadership or educator preceptors | The credentials each track's preceptor guide lists |
DNP-Nurse Anesthesia students train at the program's own East Texas hospitals and faculty assign BSN placements, so a search adds little there. Program detail is on the programs hub.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
How long does a UT Tyler preceptor search take?
It depends on the course, your county and the time of year. A family practice near a Texas metro is quicker to secure than an inpatient psychiatric unit or a rural pediatric clinic. That range is why we ask for a full semester of lead time: room for the search, then for UT Tyler's approvals, any new contract and onboarding.
Do I still submit the Self-Placement Request myself?
Yes. You file it as the enrolled student in UT Tyler's clinical software. What changes is everything before that moment: the preceptor's details arrive already collected and checked, so filing takes one sitting instead of weeks of calls to a clinic's front desk.
Can you help if I already have a preceptor for some courses?
Yes. Plenty of students cover one rotation through their own contacts and hand us another, often the pediatric or inpatient psychiatric rotation that is hardest to find nearby. Tell us which courses are covered and which are open, and we plan around the preceptors you already have, including UT Tyler's limits on reusing one preceptor.
Do you help UT Tyler students outside East Texas?
Yes. We search wherever you live in Texas, from Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston to the Valley, El Paso and the Panhandle. UT Tyler keeps NP clinicals inside the state its NP students are required to live in, so every search stays local to you. The Texas region guides cover each area.
What if UT Tyler faculty ask for a different preceptor?
Approval is UT Tyler's call, and we build each match to meet it: population, credentials, Texas license and conflict rules are checked before you file. If faculty still want a different site, your placement advisor restarts the search with their reasons in hand, so the next proposal answers them.
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.