UT Tyler NP clinicals in West Texas and the Permian Basin
West Texas is 46 counties and just under a million people, from Abilene and Brownwood out to Pecos and Fort Stockton. A UT Tyler nurse practitioner student here draws on a few regional hospitals, rural health centers and some of the widest shortage maps in Texas. Start early: the hospitals with the clearest rules want an affiliation agreement first.
Find a West Texas preceptor
Tell us your UT Tyler course and your town, from Abilene to Fort Stockton. A placement advisor starts calling practices near you.
Where West Texas begins and ends
This guide takes Texas DSHS Public Health Region 9 and adds the 19 Abilene-area counties DSHS files under Region 2, from Throckmorton County in the east to Loving County in the west. The Census Bureau estimated 972,883 residents in July 2025. Midland (about 147,600), Abilene (131,600), Odessa (122,700) and San Angelo (100,600) lead, with Big Spring, Brownwood, Snyder, Pecos and Fort Stockton next. Only 8 of the 46 counties are metro.
By routing estimates, Abilene sits roughly 280 miles from Tyler, San Angelo roughly 355 and Odessa roughly 450. That gap matters only for campus dates: your clinical hours stay out here, while an FNP student plans an overnight trip for the exams in the OSCE planning guide.
Three hospital systems that publish student rules
All three were read from archived copies of the hospitals' pages.
- Hendrick Health (Abilene, Brownwood): per a January 2026 copy, the school and Hendrick must already hold an affiliation agreement, and a new one can take several months. Students then file Hendrick's online Application for Clinical Observation and, once its Department of Education makes contact, pay for a background check, drug screen, immunizations, TB test and flu shot. Placement depends on Hendrick's own clinicians being available.
- Medical Center Health System (Odessa): Medical Center Hospital considers students only under a current school agreement, wants documents at least two weeks before the start date, and runs its own orientation and exam before issuing a badge. Nothing addresses NP students specifically.
- Shannon Health System (San Angelo, Big Spring): its April 2026 page covers shadowing and externships and asks for an attestation letter from the college showing a clear background check and drug screen. UT Tyler's onboarding notes already say a facility may request that letter.
None of the three says who finds an NP preceptor. UT Tyler's process settles it: you name the preceptor on the Self-Placement Request, faculty approve, the Clinical Coordinator clears, and a hospital new to UT Tyler signs the paper contract covered in affiliation agreements.
Hospitals to know that list no student route
Some large hospitals appear here only as landmarks. Midland Memorial Hospital (Midland County Hospital District) lists a paid internship and a new-graduate residency but no placement page. Odessa Regional Medical Center, owned by Quorum Health subsidiaries since October 2024, posts jobs only, and neither Rolling Plains Memorial in Sweetwater nor Reeves Regional Health in Pecos mentions students online.
Use current names on your paperwork. Hendrick Medical Center South is the former Abilene Regional Medical Center, and Scenic Mountain Medical Center now appears as Shannon Medical Center Big Spring after Shannon agreed to buy it in January 2026. DSHS lists Medical Center Hospital and Hendrick Medical Center as Level II trauma centers and Midland Memorial (probationary) and Shannon Medical Center as Level III, the acute care landmarks for AGACNP students.
Health centers and shortage counties
HRSA lists 40 health center sites run by nine organizations. Frontera Healthcare Network covers Brady, Menard, Mason and Junction with 12 sites; ResourceCare runs seven from Baird to Breckenridge; Midland Community Healthcare Services has six in Midland and La Esperanza Clinic five in San Angelo. Odessa's Ector County Hospital District runs a look-alike network with family, women's and Healthy Kids clinics, and Cactus Health Services serves Fort Stockton.
HRSA marks 45 of the 46 counties as county-wide mental health shortage areas, with Pecos County scoring 20 of 25. For primary care, 27 counties hold a geographic designation and 17 a low-income one. Patients are plentiful but teaching clinicians few, and TTUHSC's nursing campuses in Abilene and Odessa send their own NP students to the same practices.
Fitting UT Tyler courses to West Texas
| UT Tyler course | What it needs | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
NURS 5453 | Pediatric primary care, 125 hours | Pediatric practices in the four cities; Odessa's Healthy Kids clinic |
NURS 5454 | Sexual and mental health, 125 hours | Women's health and family practices |
NURS 5455 | Adult and geriatric care | Internal medicine and rural health clinics |
NURS 5347, NURS 5349 | FNP internships, 187.5 hours each | The health centers above |
NURS 5367 to NURS 5373 | Psychiatric care; 125 inpatient hours across the program | Three psychiatric hospitals (CMS); city psychiatric practices |
NURS 7383 to NURS 7388 | Acute care, 125 hours each | Level II and III hospitals |
In a small town the only clinic may be your employer. UT Tyler's FNP syllabi expect students at a small NP- or physician-owned employer to rotate elsewhere, and PMHNP students may train in their employer's system only on another unit or service line, under another manager. See clinicals where you work.
The New Mexico line and the telehealth cap
UT Tyler's NP students live in Texas and log every clinical hour in Texas, and PMHNP rotations need a Texas-licensed preceptor at a Texas-licensed facility. The VA West Texas Health Care System shows why this matters here: its clinics in Abilene, San Angelo, Odessa and Fort Stockton are in Texas, but hours at its Hobbs, New Mexico clinic could never count. The Texas-only clinicals guide has the rule.
Distance also pulls PMHNP students toward telehealth. UT Tyler caps it at 63 hours per clinical course, with the teaching done on site beside the preceptor, so a remote psychiatric practice can cover part of a rotation, not the whole. See the PMHNP practicum rules.
Why West Texas students choose us
Your placement advisor works the Permian Basin and the Abilene area practice by practice, confirming each preceptor's Texas license and fit with your exact UT Tyler course before you see a name. Because Hendrick and Medical Center Hospital want an agreement before any rotation, we start early enough for UT Tyler's paperwork and hospital onboarding to finish before the term, and if a preceptor steps away mid-semester, we find the next one. Begin on the contact page.
Questions UT Tyler students ask
Is there a preceptor shortage in Midland and Odessa?
HRSA's data points that way: Midland and Ector counties both carry county-wide geographic shortage designations for primary care and mental health. Six Midland Community Healthcare Services sites and four Ector County Hospital District clinics in Odessa give you places to call, but teaching capacity is thin.
Does Hendrick Health take nurse practitioner students?
An archived January 2026 copy of Hendrick's requirements page covers clinical and observation students from schools with a Hendrick affiliation agreement, and ties placement to the availability of its staff and affiliated practitioners. It sets no separate NP rule. If UT Tyler has no current agreement with Hendrick, allow several months for a new one.
How far is Odessa from Tyler for OSCE days?
Roughly 450 miles by road, a little under eight hours by routing estimates; Abilene is roughly 280 miles. From the Permian Basin, an OSCE day in Tyler realistically means a travel day on each side of the exam, so bank clinical hours in the weeks before it.
Can a West Texas VA clinic host my clinical hours?
The VA West Texas Health Care System publishes no nursing or NP student page, and VA's national academic affiliations office tells nurses to contact their local VA medical center, here the George H. O'Brien Jr. VA Medical Center in Big Spring. Any VA site still needs UT Tyler's approval, and only its Texas clinics can count.
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.