How We Place Olivet Students with Preceptors
You tell us your Olivet Nazarene University track, the clinical course you need to fill and where you live. We find a preceptor whose patients fit that course, inside the states Olivet approves for your track, and get the approval and onboarding details in order. Then we stay with you until the last hour is documented, with a replacement ready if a preceptor steps away.
Start your placement plan
Your track, your next clinical course, your city and its start date are all we need to begin.
What we ask you first
Four details start every Olivet plan: your track, your next clinical or practicum course, your home area and the date that course opens. From those we know the patients your preceptor needs to see, the states open to you, and how much lead time compliance and onboarding will need.
Send these with the form below
- Your track: MSN FNP, Post-Graduate APRN (FNP) certificate, MSN Nursing Education & Leadership, the Post-Bachelor's NEL certificate or the RN-BSN
- Your curriculum, if you know it: new (
NRSG 636CtoNRSG 639C) or current (NRSG 665AtoNRSG 665F) - The course number and the day it opens
- Your city and how far you are willing to drive for clinical days
- Anyone you have already approached, so no practice hears about you twice
Not sure which curriculum applies to you? Olivet runs two side by side, and the curriculum comparison explains why your advisor is the one to confirm it.
Matching the preceptor to your Olivet course
Fit comes first. Each Olivet clinical course centers on a patient population, and a preceptor who is ideal for one course can be the wrong choice for the next, so we look for practices whose everyday patients match yours.
| Course | Hours in Olivet's handbook | Who we look for |
|---|---|---|
NRSG 636C Adult and Older Adult Primary Care Clinical | 240 | Primary care preceptors with a steady adult and older adult panel |
NRSG 637C Women's Health Primary Care Clinical | 135 | Preceptors whose practice centers on women's health |
NRSG 638C Pediatric Primary Care Clinical | 135 | Preceptors who see children in primary care |
NRSG 639C Primary Care Across the Lifespan Clinical | 240 | Family practice preceptors with patients of every age |
NRSG 665A to NRSG 665F, current curriculum | 125 each after the handbook's scheduled increases | A preceptor for each course's focus |
NRSG 604 Population Health | 30 direct clinical hours | Population and community health settings |
NRSG 620 Nursing Education and Leadership Practicum | 120 | Nurse educators and nurse leaders |
NRSG 364 Palliative and End-of-Life Care, RN-BSN | 15 | A hospice nurse |
Confirm your own sequence with your advisor, since Olivet's two curricula number the FNP clinicals differently. Olivet's 750 FNP hours breaks the total down course by course in both.
How the search runs
- We map where you can trainYour home area checked against Olivet's approved states. FNP hours may not be done in any of the 13 Not Approved states, even by a student living next door to one.
- We reach preceptors who fitOur placement desk contacts preceptors whose practice matches your course, starting with our own network and widening across your drive radius.
- We confirm the details that sink placementsPatient mix, the days the preceptor can host you, how the site onboards students, and any site charges or systems such as MyClinicalExchange.
- You meet your preceptorYou talk with the preceptor before anything goes to Olivet, so you agree on schedule and expectations.
- We assemble the approval detailsCredentials, license and site information, organized the way your requirements course asks for them.
- You submit, and Olivet decidesYou send the request through the channel your course names, and we help with any follow-up questions.
Ready for Olivet's approval the first time
Olivet approves every preceptor. The criteria, the approval form and the timing sit in your track's Student Clinical or Practicum Requirements Course in Canvas, which is not public, so we work from what your course shows you. Share those requirements with your placement advisor and we build the preceptor's details to match them line by line.
Small gaps cause most approval delays: a missing license detail, a site address that differs between documents, a credential that needs a second look. We catch those before the request leaves your hands. The preceptor approval page covers what Olivet publishes about the step.
Approval belongs to Olivet. Our part is a request so complete that Olivet can decide on it without chasing missing pieces.
Your compliance calendar, kept in view
A confirmed preceptor is only half of a start. Olivet wants every compliance item finished before your first clinical day and current until your last, and some items run on tight windows, so we track those dates with you.
Dates we keep in front of you
- The drug screen, THC included, cleared 2 to 4 weeks before the practicum begins
- A negative TB result and a flu vaccine, each renewed every year
- An in-person AHA BLS card that stays valid through the whole practicum
- Tdap within 10 years, plus positive titers for MMR, varicella and hepatitis B
- Anything extra the site asks for, including MyClinicalExchange onboarding where a site uses it
Your records sit in Verified Credentials QualifiedFirst under the new handbook or CastleBranch under the current one. The compliance checklist lists every item, and the drug screen page explains the timing rule and what a positive result means.
Through your hours, and past a dropout
Once the course opens, you document in Project Concert: competencies and clinical encounters on the FNP tracks, competencies on the NEL tracks. Faculty evaluate your outcomes and may ask your preceptor for input. Your placement advisor checks in along the way, so a scheduling problem surfaces while there is time to fix it.
If a preceptor leaves partway through, we begin a replacement search at once, with the same fit and state checks as the first, so your remaining hours have somewhere to go. When a preceptor drops out walks through that situation from the Olivet side.
Why Olivet students choose us
Olivet asks online graduate students to start the search through their personal and professional networks, and on the FNP track the SON Clinical Coordinator steps in only after 30 unsuccessful attempts. We are built for that gap: a search run by people who know Olivet's courses, both curricula, its approved states and its compliance rules, aimed at your own area wherever you live.
You get a preceptor who fits the course, approval details ready when Olivet asks for them, a calendar that protects your start date, and a desk that stays with you until the hours are logged. Share your track and start date through the form below to begin.
Questions Olivet students ask
How far ahead of my clinical course should I contact you?
As soon as you know which clinical course comes next. Olivet leaves approval timing unpublished, the drug screen must clear 2 to 4 weeks ahead of the practicum, and some sites run their own onboarding first. Starting a full course ahead gives each step room. If your course is already close, send the date and we plan backward from it.
I already asked a few preceptors myself. Can you still help?
Yes. Send us the practices you contacted and how each answered. Those contacts stay yours, and we widen the search around them so no office hears from two people about the same student. If one of your own leads comes through, we can still prepare that preceptor's approval details and keep your compliance dates.
Who submits the preceptor to Olivet, me or you?
You do, through the channel your Student Clinical or Practicum Requirements Course names, and Olivet makes the approval decision. We hand you the preceptor's credentials, license and site details organized to match your course's requirements, then help you answer any questions that come back.
Do you place Traditional BSN students on the Bourbonnais campus?
Olivet's School of Nursing assigns every Traditional BSN clinical, and the campus handbook bars students from contacting sites or would-be preceptors, so those placements come from the school. Our placement work serves Olivet's online tracks, from the FNP and NEL programs to the RN-BSN.
Can you help with only one course, or does it have to be the whole sequence?
Either works. Some students bring us one hard-to-fill course, such as the pediatric or women's health clinical, and cover the rest themselves. Others hand us the whole FNP sequence so each preceptor is lined up before the previous course ends. The cost page explains how scope shapes your quote.
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.