Finding NP Preceptors in Illinois

Where the rules for your search come from

Illinois sets preceptor rules for pre-licensure RN programs, in 68 IAC 1300.340, and no Illinois rule says who must find an APRN student's preceptor. So the rules that shape your search come from two other places: Olivet, which asks you to begin with your own networks and approves every preceptor, and each health system, which decides for itself which schools and students it hosts.

That second layer is the subject of this page. The systems below publish their NP student processes on their own websites, and none of those pages mentions Olivet. Read them as the steps a system would expect, and check with Olivet before assuming any system is open to you. How collaborative agreements and full practice authority affect the preceptors themselves is covered in Illinois APRN practice and preceptors.

Requirement two: one front door

Systems channel NP students through a single office, and Riverside says plainly that approaching one of its offices directly will not replace that step. Its Graduate Medical Education department places NP students through an online NP Student Application and asks students not to email requests. After placement, the student has the school send Riverside the required documents.

Northwestern Medicine's north and northwest region reviews APRN student applications once a month. OSF HealthCare asks APRN, PA and DNP clinical-track students to write to its advanced practice student inbox, and sends nursing requests for OSF Medical Group and Home Care, including MSN leadership and education students, to a separate student-experience inbox; that second door matters for Olivet NEL students. Carle Health takes NP, PA, CNM and medical student requests through an online Clinical Rotation Application.

Requirement four: the preceptor and the specialty

Systems also set rules about who precepts and which rotations exist. Riverside says its NP students usually rotate with a CNP or CCNS, and that those preceptors must have 2 years in practice. Riverside Medical Group has closed its women's health rotations indefinitely, which matters for an Olivet student planning NRSG 637C in the Kankakee area.

Some forms are not built for NP students at all. Northwestern's west suburbs practicum form covers RN-BSN, MSN and DNP practicums but not APRN students who need patient-care hours. Rush's public clinical rotations page describes undergraduate and CNA group rotations at Rush Oak Park Hospital for contracted schools, and UChicago Medicine's nursing student page describes its extern and intern programs.

Whatever a system requires sits on top of Olivet's own approval, which applies to every preceptor. The preceptor requirements page explains what Olivet publishes and where the rest lives.