UT Tyler clinical compliance requirements
Before your first clinical hour, UT Tyler needs a clear background check and drug screen, a complete immunization record, healthcare-provider CPR, a current RN license, insurance and your nursing badge, and the facility may stack its own onboarding on top. Graduate students clear it all in Exxat; BSN students still use CastleBranch. Here is the complete list, the policy behind each item, and how clearance fits with site approval.
Keep clearance moving while we search
Tell us your track and start term, and your placement advisor sends the facility's onboarding list as soon as a preceptor is confirmed.
Where UT Tyler compliance lives: Exxat or CastleBranch
For graduate students, UT Tyler's Spring 2024 checklist moved compliance, the background check and drug screen included, into Exxat, which also replaced InPlace for clinical management. Fall 2026 syllabi refer to Exxat clearance, and you keep an active Exxat subscription in every clinical course. The Exxat page covers the platform and the transition.
Some UT Tyler documents still name CastleBranch: policy 2.1, last reviewed in November 2023, and the 2025-2026 Nursing Student Guide, which warns that missing documentation means a missed clinical day. For BSN students that is still current, and the BSN page tells them to open a CastleBranch account. Graduate students get the clinical software instructions in Canvas during the first week of the semester.
The full UT Tyler clearance checklist
What graduate students clear
- A criminal background check with a clear report, or a Texas Board of Nursing letter clearing your history (policy 2.1)
- A drug screen at a facility the School of Nursing designates, at your own expense (policy 2.2)
- Immunizations and TB testing under graduate policy 2.4, detailed in the table below
- CPR/BLS for healthcare providers from the American Heart Association or American Red Cross
- A current, unencumbered RN license; see RN license requirements
- Health insurance, which the UT System Board of Regents requires of health-related students in clinical courses; a graduate student who waives it accepts responsibility for clinical injuries (policy 2.4.6)
- Professional liability coverage, billed at registration under UT Tyler's group policy with Wortham Insurance & Risk Management
- A P2 Card student ID and a UT Tyler nursing badge, worn at all times in clinicals
- The MSN orientation in the Mission Possible Canvas course, finished before your first course
- An active Exxat subscription for each clinical course
Several items rest on policy pages dated 2023 or earlier. Where your course syllabus says something different, the syllabus is the newer word.
Immunizations and TB testing
Graduate policy 2.4 sets the list. Keep dated records for each item, because facilities ask for the same proof again during onboarding.
| Item | What UT Tyler asks for |
|---|---|
| Influenza | Each season, August to May, or a declination |
| Hepatitis B | Three doses plus a positive titer; a series in process is accepted if finished by the end of your first semester |
| MMR | Required |
| Tdap | Within the past ten years |
| Varicella | Required |
| Tuberculosis | Two-step skin test or a negative IGRA blood test, renewed every year |
The policy bases exclusions on each health care facility, and the School, not the compliance vendor, rules on exemption requests. A facility can still decline you: for undergraduates, UT Tyler warns that declining vaccines may keep you out of specific facilities, and faculty cannot promise another placement. UT Tyler's University Health Clinic offers the immunizations the School requires.
Background check and drug screen
Policy 2.1 lets no student into a nursing course without a clear background report or a Texas Board of Nursing letter finding that any criminal history is not a danger to the public. Graduate students run the check through Exxat. BSN students also complete Board of Nursing fingerprinting through IdentoGO, which UT Tyler says takes at least four weeks.
Drug screens are at your expense at testing facilities the School designates, and the School also runs random and for-cause screens. Under the Nurse Practice Act (ยง301.404), it reports any enrolled student with a positive screen to the Texas Board of Nursing. Screening notices go to your Patriot Email, so check that inbox rather than a personal one; the student tools page covers setting it up.
Facility onboarding on top of UT Tyler clearance
UT Tyler clearance is only half the file. Once a site is set, you may receive an "Additional Requirement(s)" email for that facility, and some facilities want a Letter of Good Standing or an Attestation Letter requested from UT Tyler. UT Tyler's archived InPlace how-to also warned that some facilities enforce deadlines of their own.
Health systems publish their own steps, according to their student pages. CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances in Tyler asks for a resume, proof that your preceptor agreed and a letter of good standing from the school, with requests due March 1, July 1 or November 1 and a new application every semester. CHRISTUS Good Shepherd in Longview wants preceptor applications 60 days before the rotation, and Baylor Scott & White adds an online clinical orientation.
None of that can start until the school-to-facility agreement exists, which the affiliation agreements page explains.
Clearance emails and when you can start
Clearance is confirmed in writing, and the wording depends on your track. Administration students wait for a "Clinical Requirements Complete" email from the Clinical Liaison. AGACNP students upload a "Good to Go" email from the Clinical Coordinator for every approved site and preceptor on their schedule. PMHNP syllabi add that a finished Exxat file does not authorize a start until site, schedule and faculty approvals are also in; the scheduling rules set out the order.
Timing runs in both directions. The Nursing Student Guide holds registration for the next semester until immunizations are documented and CPR and your license are current, and yearly items expire on their own clocks. Put every renewal date on one calendar so nothing lapses mid-rotation.
Watch the items that expire by themselves: TB testing and flu renew yearly and CPR on its card date. The Student Guide ties missing documentation to a missed clinical day, so renew a month early, not the week of.
How we keep your clearance moving
Compliance runs alongside the search, not after it. When your placement advisor confirms a preceptor, you also receive that facility's onboarding list, its deadlines and the letters it expects from UT Tyler, so you can request them while faculty review the placement.
Your placement advisor also reads each facility's own student page before proposing it, so a site with an early request window or an extra orientation module is flagged while there is still time to meet it, not after the semester has begun.
Through the semester we keep your renewal dates in view and flag anything due to expire before your last clinical day, and if a site changes, you get the new facility's list promptly. See how it works or send your details through the request form.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Can I start UT Tyler clinicals with my hepatitis B series still in progress?
UT Tyler's graduate policy accepts a series in process as long as it is completed by the end of your first semester and followed by a positive titer. Facilities can be stricter than the School, so check the site's onboarding list before counting on starting mid-series.
Is a temporary CPR card enough for UT Tyler?
For graduate students, UT Tyler accepts a temporary card for 30 days. The course has to be a healthcare-provider class from the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross, so a general community class will not meet the policy. Upload the permanent card before the 30 days run out.
Does my employer's background check replace UT Tyler's?
UT Tyler's graduate checklist routes the background check and drug screen through Exxat, and its published policies show no exception for a check run by your employer. Plan on completing UT Tyler's own, and ask your program coordinator if you believe an exception applies to you.
Can I decline the flu vaccine as a UT Tyler graduate student?
Graduate policy 2.4 lists influenza vaccination or a declination. Whether a declination works at your clinical site is the facility's decision, because UT Tyler bases immunization exclusions on each health care facility. Ask the site before you commit to it, and keep the answer with your records.
What is a Letter of Good Standing, and how do I get one?
It is a letter from UT Tyler confirming you are a student in good standing, which some facilities ask for during onboarding; others want an Attestation Letter instead. The facility's Additional Requirement(s) email says which one. You request it from UT Tyler, and CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances expects the school to send it.
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.
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