Lubbock, Amarillo and Wichita Falls NP preceptors for UT Tyler students
The Panhandle, the South Plains and the Wichita Falls area add up to 55 counties and about 1.14 million people. None of the region's major hospitals posts a placement page for NP students, so a UT Tyler student here builds each rotation around a clinician who agrees to teach, with UT Tyler's faculty and Clinical Coordinator approving every site.
Find a Panhandle preceptor
Tell us your UT Tyler course and whether you live near Lubbock, Amarillo, Wichita Falls or a smaller town. A placement advisor starts the search there.
Three hubs, far apart
This guide joins DSHS Public Health Region 1, the 44 counties of the Panhandle and South Plains, with the 11 Nortex counties around Wichita Falls. The Census Bureau estimated 1,142,334 residents in 2025, 3.6% of Texas. Lubbock (about 273,100) and Amarillo (205,100) lead, Wichita Falls (102,000) anchors the east, and Plainview, Pampa, Hereford, Borger and Vernon follow. Forty-one counties are nonmetro, home to roughly 348,000 people.
The drive from Tyler splits the region. Wichita Falls is roughly 240 miles away, a little over four hours by routing estimates; Lubbock is roughly 445 miles and Amarillo roughly 460, close to eight hours. That shapes the FNP trip to Tyler covered in the OSCE planning guide, not your clinical hours, which stay near home.
What the major systems publish
- Covenant Health, Lubbock (a member of Providence): Covenant Medical Center, Covenant Children's and hospitals in Plainview and Levelland. An archived copy of its workforce page invites schools, not students, to ask about clinicals; its student page otherwise covers internships and shadowing.
- UMC Health System (Lubbock County Hospital District): University Medical Center, UMC Children's and the newer UMC Health & Wellness Hospital. UMC hires nursing students as paid assistants and techs but describes no NP rotation route. It is TTUHSC's primary teaching hospital and, by its own 2025 assessment, the only Level I trauma center within 400 miles.
- BSA Health System (an Ardent Health affiliate since 2013) and Northwest Texas Healthcare System (run by a UHS subsidiary), Amarillo: archived copies of both sites show no student placement page. Both are Amarillo teaching hospitals for TTUHSC's School of Medicine.
- United Regional, Wichita Falls: sends school rotation requests to its Clinical Education department and notes that many nursing students rotate there each semester. Its public programs are paid apprenticeships, externships and a graduate residency.
- Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center, Amarillo: its internships page is still marked 'Coming soon.' VA-wide, a school needs an affiliation agreement and must list each trainee on a credentials verification letter before training starts.
With no NP route posted anywhere, the first step is a preceptor who says yes, entered on UT Tyler's Self-Placement Request. Faculty approval, the Clinical Coordinator's clearance and, for a facility new to UT Tyler, a signed agreement come next.
Small-town hospitals and health centers
Outside the hubs, CMS counts 25 critical access hospitals, among them Coon Memorial in Dalhart, Ochiltree General in Perryton and Swisher Memorial in Tulia, plus a rural emergency hospital in Crosbyton. Pampa Regional (a Prime Healthcare Foundation member), Golden Plains in Borger, Memorial Hospital in Dumas and Hereford Regional publish nothing for students. Kell West Regional Hospital in Wichita Falls ended clinical operations in December 2025.
Five health center organizations run 37 sites: Community Healthcare Center in Wichita Falls and Vernon (13), Community Health Center of Lubbock (12), Regence Health Network in Plainview, Amarillo and Hereford (five), South Plains Rural Health Services in Lamesa and Levelland (four) and three Lubbock sites of the TTUHSC School of Nursing's Larry Combest center. For family practice hours, they are the obvious first calls.
Shortage designations across the High Plains
Mental health need is nearly universal. HRSA gives 51 of the 55 counties a county-wide geographic designation, and the other four (Cottle, Foard, Lubbock, Potter) a low-income one; Young and Gaines counties score 19 of 25. For primary care, 33 counties are geographic shortage areas and 17 more low-income ones, Lubbock, Potter and Randall have tract-level designations, and Hall County scores 20.
TTUHSC's post-graduate PMHNP certificate runs fully online with clinical hours in each student's home area, so psychiatric clinicians across the region may already hear from other programs' students. UT Tyler PMHNP students here should secure preceptors a semester ahead.
Course by course in the Panhandle
NURS 5453pediatrics: Covenant Children's and UMC Children's anchor pediatric hospital care in Lubbock; for a primary care course, look to outpatient pediatric practices in Lubbock, Amarillo and Wichita Falls.NURS 5454,NURS 5455and the internshipsNURS 5347andNURS 5349: family practices, the health centers above and the 11 rural health clinics HRSA lists with facility shortage designations.- PMHNP
NURS 5367toNURS 5373: psychiatric practices in the three hubs for outpatient hours, and for the 125 inpatient hours UT Tyler requires, the six psychiatric hospitals CMS counts in the region, none of which posts a student route. - AGACNP
NURS 7383toNURS 7388: UMC (Level I), Covenant Medical Center, Covenant Children's, Northwest Texas Hospital and United Regional (Level II) and BSA (Level III).
Rules that bite near two state lines
The Panhandle borders Oklahoma and New Mexico, and UT Tyler counts only clinical hours completed in Texas by students living in Texas. Covenant's network reaches Hobbs, New Mexico, which falls outside that rule, and PMHNP rotations need a Texas-licensed preceptor and facility with patients in Texas. The Texas-only clinicals guide explains.
Small towns raise the workplace question. If the one clinic in your county employs you, UT Tyler's FNP rules point you elsewhere when it is a small NP- or physician-owned practice, and neither the FNP nor the PMHNP track lets you train under your supervisor or a relative. See clinicals where you work.
Why Panhandle students choose us
Your placement advisor calls the practices in Lubbock, Amarillo, Wichita Falls and the towns between them, checks each preceptor against your UT Tyler course and its rules, and hands you everything the Self-Placement Request asks for. Where the big hospitals post no NP route, that legwork is the placement, and we start it early enough for any new agreement to clear before the semester. If a preceptor drops out, we line up the next one. Tell us your course on the contact page.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Does my Panhandle preceptor have to be a nurse practitioner?
Not always, and UT Tyler's documents differ on the balance. The Fall 2026 FNP internship syllabus recommends a quarter of program hours with an advanced practice nurse and allows physicians or PAs for the rest, while UT Tyler's preceptor page expects most hours with an APRN. PMHNP primary preceptors are PMHNPs, psychiatrists or PAs with a psychiatry CAQ. See preceptor requirements.
How far is Amarillo from Tyler?
Roughly 460 miles by road, a little over eight hours by routing estimates. Lubbock is roughly 445 miles and Wichita Falls roughly 240. The distance matters for UT Tyler's campus dates, such as the FNP OSCE days, and not for clinicals, which stay in your part of Texas.
Where can PMHNP students find inpatient hours in the Panhandle?
CMS lists six psychiatric hospitals in the region. They include Wichita Falls State Hospital and Vernon State Hospital, state hospitals that the 2025 Legislature separated after nearly 30 years as one unit, and Northwest Texas Healthcare System's behavioral health hospital in Amarillo. None publishes a student placement page, so inpatient hours start with a psychiatric clinician willing to precept, then UT Tyler's affiliation process.
Why is Wichita Falls grouped with the Panhandle?
This site pairs the 11 Nortex counties around Wichita Falls with the Panhandle; DSHS itself groups them with the Abilene area in Public Health Region 2. If you live toward Jack, Young or Montague County, compare this page with the Dallas-Fort Worth guide before you settle on a search area.
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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