The UT Tyler clinical placement process, from search to your first counted hour
UT Tyler graduate students find and propose their own preceptor and clinical site, and UT Tyler faculty approve them. After that, the placement passes a fixed series of sign-offs: your request, the preceptor's survey, faculty review, a check by the Clinical Coordinator, a signed facility contract with onboarding, and a clearance notice. Only hours logged after every approval count toward your course.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UT Tyler program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your UT Tyler course.
Who does what in a UT Tyler placement
The finding is yours and the approving is UT Tyler's. The School of Nursing's clinical policy leaves the choice of a graduate clinical site to the student, subject to the instructor's approval, and the NP Preceptor Guide has you fill in the placement request with details your preceptor supplies. The exact wording of those rules is on our Self-Placement Request page.
UT Tyler's share of the work is the part that decides whether your hours count. Course faculty coordinate with you and approve each site and preceptor, the Clinical Coordinator verifies the preceptor and clears the placement, and the school sets up affiliation agreements with facilities. No current UT Tyler page promises to find an NP preceptor for a student, so treat the search as your task from the first semester.
Two programs run differently. Faculty assign clinical placements for pre-licensure BSN students, and the DNP-Nurse Anesthesia program places students at its own East Texas hospitals. Every other graduate clinical course follows the path below. For a map of each person involved, see who does what at UT Tyler.
The seven stages, in order
Each stage waits on the one before it. Booking shifts before faculty sign off, or before the facility contract is signed, is how UT Tyler students end up with hours that do not count.
- Find a preceptor and site in Texas. UT Tyler requires NP students to reside in Texas and do all clinical hours in the state, so the search starts near home. The preceptor has to suit the course population and meet UT Tyler's standards, covered on preceptor requirements.
- File the Self-Placement Request. You enter the proposed preceptor and site using information the preceptor gives you, credentials included. The 2023 guide places the form in InPlace; graduate clinical management has since moved to Exxat.
- Your preceptor completes the Preceptor Agreement. Once the preceptor's details check out, the Clinical Coordinator emails a link to a short online survey, and the preceptor agrees there. Nothing is printed or mailed.
- Faculty approve the site and preceptor. Course faculty decide whether that site can give you the patients and experiences the course objectives call for.
- The facility's affiliation agreement is confirmed. If UT Tyler and the facility have no contract yet, one is signed on paper with wet signatures. This is usually the slowest stage.
- Facility onboarding and Exxat clearance. The facility may send its own list of additional requirements, sometimes with a request for an Attestation Letter or a Letter of Good Standing from UT Tyler. Your Exxat compliance record has to be complete too.
- Clearance, then hours. Tracks signal the finish in different ways: AGACNP students upload Good to Go emails, while Administration students need the Clinical Requirements Complete email in hand. Hours logged after clearance count.
The deadlines UT Tyler actually publishes
UT Tyler sets one firm line for every graduate track: sites and preceptors are approved, working with the clinical coordinator, before the semester begins (policy 7.2). No UT Tyler document gives a filing date in weeks, so the practical deadline is the end of the semester before your course.
Syllabi add course-level timing. Fall 2026 PMHNP syllabi rule out starting clinical on day one of the semester and put the usual faculty turnaround for permission to begin at 24 to 48 hours. The AGACNP practicum syllabus budgets 48 to 72 business hours for staff to process paperwork, expects at least a partial tentative schedule by Friday of Week 2, and warns that going past Week 2 without a secured site can seriously affect finishing the course.
Facilities keep their own calendars, and UT Tyler's InPlace guide notes that some enforce deadlines for their process. Logging windows, weekly minimums and the rule on hours before approval are on clinical scheduling rules.
How the path varies by UT Tyler track
| Track | Who finds the site | Detail to plan around |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP and post-master's FNP certificate | You, with faculty approval | NURS 5453, NURS 5454, NURS 5455, NURS 5347 and NURS 5349; the clinical instructor approves each site and preceptor |
| MSN PMHNP and PMHNP certificate | You, with faculty approval | Exxat clearance plus site, schedule and faculty approval at the start of each clinical semester |
| Post-master's AGACNP certificate | You; the Clinical Coordinator clears each site | Good to Go emails for every site and preceptor on the schedule; placement secured by Week 2 |
| DNP (post-master's) | You, at a location of your choice | A fully executed affiliation agreement before site hours, even at your employer |
| MSN Administration and MSN/MBA | You select the preceptor | A Clinical Requirements Complete email from the Clinical Liaison before starting |
| MSN Nursing Education | You identify the educator | NURS 5329 practicum hours in an academic pre-licensure RN program |
| MSN Informatics, Quality and Safety | You, if you choose a preceptor | NURS 5390 hours can be met through options with no preceptor or facility |
| BSN in Tyler, Longview or Palestine | Faculty assign placements | The program makes the placement |
| DNP-Nurse Anesthesia | The program | In person, at sites on the program's list of East Texas hospitals and surgery centers |
Online RN to BSN students complete self-directed clinical projects instead of a preceptor placement. Program-by-program detail is on the programs hub.
Where placements stall, and how to keep yours moving
Most delays happen between stages rather than inside them. A preceptor who said yes on the phone may not open the survey email for a week. A clinic may never have signed a contract with UT Tyler, and a hospital may want its onboarding packet well before your start date.
When a preceptor steps away mid-semester, UT Tyler's NP guide puts the fix with you: rework your clinical schedule and resubmit it for faculty review. The new preceptor then passes through the same agreement and approval steps. Tell your faculty the week it happens, since the PMHNP and AGACNP syllabi both ask for prompt notice.
A complete Exxat compliance record is not permission to start. UT Tyler's PMHNP syllabi say so directly, and every track needs faculty approval and the Clinical Coordinator's clearance before a single hour counts.
What the placement desk does at each stage
Our work follows UT Tyler's own order of steps, so nothing reaches your faculty half-finished. Your placement advisor finds a preceptor and site in your part of Texas that suit your exact course, then checks the fit against UT Tyler's rules before you file anything.
What you get from us
- A Texas preceptor matched to the course population: pediatrics for
NURS 5453, psychiatric settings for the PMHNP practicums, acute care forNURS 7383 - Every detail the Self-Placement Request needs, collected from the preceptor's office and checked
- A preceptor briefed to expect UT Tyler's agreement survey and answer it quickly
- An early read on whether the facility already has a contract with UT Tyler, so a new one can start the term before
- Follow-up on facility onboarding until your clearance arrives
- A replacement search right away if your preceptor drops
See how it works for our timeline, or share your program and home county through the placement request form.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Does UT Tyler find preceptors for NP students?
UT Tyler's graduate clinical policy leaves the choice of site with the student, subject to faculty approval, and no current UT Tyler page promises to place FNP, PMHNP or AGACNP students. Faculty do coordinate with you and approve every site and preceptor. Pre-licensure BSN placements work the other way: faculty assign them.
How early should I start looking for a UT Tyler preceptor?
UT Tyler requires approval before the semester starts but publishes no week count. Begin in the semester before your clinical course. The request, the preceptor survey, faculty review and any new facility contract all finish before hours begin, and a new contract alone can run from weeks to months depending on the health system.
Can I count hours I completed while waiting for approval?
No. UT Tyler's Fall 2026 PMHNP syllabi state that hours done ahead of full approval are not counted and can bring disciplinary review, and every graduate track requires approval before clinical begins. Wait for your approval or clearance notice before the first shift, even if the preceptor is ready sooner.
Is the process the same for the post-master's certificates?
Mostly. The FNP and PMHNP certificates share the MSN's clinical courses, so the same request, survey and approvals apply. The AGACNP certificate runs one 125-hour practicum per 7-week session, which compresses everything: its syllabus expects a placement secured by the end of Week 2. See the AGACNP practicums.
What does the Clinical Coordinator do in my placement?
The Clinical Coordinator checks your preceptor's information, sends the Preceptor Agreement survey, works through the facility contract and onboarding, and sends clearance. Policy 7.2 ties semester approval to the clinical coordinator. In Administration courses the same kind of work sits with a Clinical Liaison.
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.