Questions Olivet Students Ask Us
These are the broad questions Olivet Nazarene University nursing students ask before starting a placement plan with us. Every answer is short and points to the page that goes deeper, so you can read only what applies to your track.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Olivet program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Olivet course.
Who we work with
Which Olivet students do you help? Everyone in Olivet's online nursing tracks: FNP students in the MSN or the post-graduate certificate, Nursing Education & Leadership students in the MSN or the post-bachelor's certificate, and RN-BSN students. Each needs a different kind of preceptor, from primary care providers for the FNP clinicals to nurse educators, nurse leaders and hospice nurses.
What about the campus BSN? Olivet's School of Nursing places every Traditional BSN student from Bourbonnais itself, and those students are asked not to approach sites or potential preceptors. Traditional BSN clinicals explains how the school builds those rotations.
Can a nurse or provider reach you about precepting? Yes. Use the same form and pick the preceptor option, and the placement desk will talk through what hosting an Olivet student involves.
Timing: when to reach out
When should I start? As soon as you know your next clinical or practicum course and the date it opens. Your compliance items, a drug screen that must clear 2 to 4 weeks before the practicum, any site onboarding and Olivet's approval all have to fit in before day one, and approval time is not published.
Is it too late if my course has already begun? Not at all. Tell us how many hours remain and when the course ends, and we work to that date. Students who are short on hours near the end of a session can read behind on clinical hours for the options Olivet's handbook describes, including the X grade that applies in the NEL practicum.
Can I plan more than one course at a time? Yes, and it helps. Knowing your whole sequence lets us have the next preceptor ready while you finish the current course.
Where you can train
Do I have to train in Illinois? No. Olivet's online graduate students complete practicum hours in their own area. FNP hours must fall in one of Olivet's approved states, 37 states plus DC, and 13 other states are closed to Olivet FNP hours even for a student living in an approved one. Olivet's licensure disclosures list them.
What if I move partway through? Tell Olivet's Online Advising Team about the new address, check the new state's board rules and keep your clinicals in an approved state. The page on moving during your program sets out the steps.
Anything special about Kansas? Kansas is approved for FNP hours, but Olivet notes added state requirements and points Kansas students to its FNPpracticum mailbox.
Olivet's process and our part in it
Who approves my preceptor? Olivet does, for every preceptor, using criteria set out in the Canvas requirements course for your track. Our job is to prepare the preceptor's details so the request is complete the moment you submit it.
Do I need to make 30 attempts before contacting you? No. The 30-attempt threshold on Olivet's FNP page governs when the SON Clinical Coordinator steps in to help. You can bring us in at any point, before your first outreach or deep into your own search. The 30-attempt rule explains the threshold itself.
Who stays my Olivet contact? Your course faculty remain your first Olivet contact, with the SON Clinical Coordinator and your online advisor behind them. Your placement advisor works alongside them on the search, the paperwork and the dates.
Your curriculum and hours
Which curriculum am I in? Olivet runs two FNP and NEL curricula side by side, with different course numbers and different compliance vendors, and does not say which one applies to which start date. Your advisor can confirm it, and the curriculum comparison shows how the two differ.
How many hours will I need? It depends on the track. The FNP tracks total 750 clinical hours, the MSN NEL pairs a 30-hour population health practicum with a 120-hour education and leadership practicum, and the RN-BSN totals differ between Olivet's own documents, so confirm yours with your advisor.
Who logs my hours? You do, in Project Concert, which Olivet uses for competency tracking on every graduate track and for clinical-encounter documentation on the FNP tracks.
Working with your placement advisor
How do we stay in touch? Through the form below, the chat button on every page and email with your placement advisor, who knows your track, course dates and state. The same advisor stays with your plan from the first search to the last logged hour.
What if my preceptor quits mid-course? A replacement search starts right away, run to the same standard as the first one. Preceptor dropped out covers what to tell Olivet and in what order.
What does placement cost? Each plan is quoted on its own, built from your track, courses, location, timing and specialty. The cost page explains each of those inputs.
Questions Olivet students ask
Does using a placement service change how Olivet grades my clinical?
No. Your Olivet faculty judge your performance, and they may ask the preceptor how things went. Olivet grades FNP clinicals as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, and each clinical or practicum course also requires an 83% average across graded work plus every hour documented as satisfactory. How you found your preceptor plays no part in those standards.
Can one preceptor cover more than one of my Olivet courses?
Sometimes. A family practice preceptor who sees adults, older adults and children might suit more than one FNP course, provided the patients fit each course's focus and Olivet approves the arrangement. We check that fit course by course and tell you when one preceptor makes sense and when a specialist will serve a course better.
What should I have ready before I fill in the form?
Your track, the number of your next clinical or practicum course and its start date, your city and how far you can drive, and the names of anyone you have already asked. If you know where your compliance stands in QualifiedFirst or CastleBranch, add that too; it tells us how much time the calendar has to work with.
Do Post-Graduate APRN (FNP) certificate students search the same way as MSN FNP students?
The search itself runs the same way, because certificate students complete the same 750 clinical hours in the same four new-curriculum courses. The difference is on Olivet's side: the certificate page describes substantial support from the SON Clinical Coordinator without the 30-attempt threshold that appears on the MSN FNP page. You can bring us in alongside that support.
Do you work with students who live far from Illinois?
Yes. Olivet's online programs enroll students across the country, and we search wherever you live, provided the state is open for your track. NEL program pages require an approved state without printing a separate list, so NEL students outside Illinois should confirm their state with the Online Advising Team before hours begin.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Olivet's own handbooks, program pages, fee sheet and licensure disclosures. Your handbook version, your Canvas clinical requirements course, your faculty and the SON Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
Olivet asks you to start with your own network. We make the search the easy part of your program.
Tell us your Olivet track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, inside Olivet's approved states, and prepare everything Olivet's approval and the site's onboarding need.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adults and older adults for
NRSG 636C, women's health forNRSG 637C, children forNRSG 638C, education and leadership forNRSG 620 - Credentials, license and site details ready before your clinical course opens, with the drug screen timing on your calendar
- In your own community, in Illinois or any state Olivet approves for your clinicals
Start your placement plan
Track, city and start date is all we need to begin.