How our placement help works, in Maryville's order

Before any search: a conversation and a written quote

The search begins once you've read and accepted what you're agreeing to. The first exchange is about your placement, and walking away before you accept the written terms is always open to you.

1. Send the form or open the chatYour Maryville program, when your clinical starts, and your city and state are enough to begin. If you'd rather ask something first, the chat is there for that.
2. Talk through the practicumA placement advisor asks which course comes next, such as NURS 624 or NURS 664, how many of your three practicums you want covered, how far you can drive and which days you can be in clinic.
3. Read the quote and the termsBoth arrive in writing, and going ahead is your decision. What shapes the cost explains what goes into the quote.

Step 1: your track, your practicum and your start

Your concentration decides who we look for. In Maryville's 2023 webinars, FNP, AGPCNP and PNP practicums belonged in primary or preventive care, with “nothing hospitalist,” AGACNP needed a hospitalist-type setting, and PMHNP preceptors needed psychiatric prescribing authority. Those notes are dated, so we check them against your syllabus or clinical packet before the search begins.

Your start decides the runway. Maryville opens Exxat roughly 3–4 months before your first clinical semester and runs six starts a year, so we plan backward from the day your practicum opens. Since Spring 2024, each NP concentration has required 750 clinical hours spread over three practicums, but Maryville doesn't publish the split by course. We plan from the figure in your syllabus, not an assumed even split; Maryville clinical hours explains the curriculum change.

Step 2: looking for a preceptor and site

In-person placement close to home is the main route. Maryville's program pages describe clinicals completed locally, so we search practices and clinicians in your area whose patients match your course and who can take a student on the days you have open.

A virtual arrangement comes into it only if your course and your faculty permit one. Maryville hasn't published a telehealth or simulation rule, so we ask you to get your faculty's answer before we look for that kind of preceptor; virtual clinical options sets out why.

Half a lead is still useful. If a clinic near you might take a student but nobody there has agreed to precept, tell us, and we start from that instead of from nothing.

Step 3: checking candidates against Maryville's rules

Before a name reaches you, we test it against what Maryville publishes. A mismatch caught now costs a phone call; caught by Maryville's reviewers, it costs weeks.

What we check

• The credential: APRN, MD or DO, or for PMHNP students also a PMHNP, LCSW, PsychD or PhD in psychology
• Board certification, or whether a Preceptor Exception Form would be needed
• An unencumbered license where the preceptor practices, and at least a year in practice
• No relationship Maryville rules out: a relative, your supervisor, someone who reports to you, a direct work colleague, anyone who evaluates you, or your own healthcare provider
• How the site handles agreements, and whether it runs its own student onboarding

Every rule, with Maryville's sources, is on preceptor requirements.

Step 4: the Exxat request and Maryville's four approvals

When a preceptor agrees, we assemble what the request needs. You submit it in Exxat, through the course wishlist and My Request, with every field ready to go.

What we help you prepare

• The preceptor's details, with license and board-certification verification; Maryville's older guides point to Nursys for NPs
• Site details, including the person who signs Maryville's MOU or the site's own contract
• Any onboarding the site requires, checked against Maryville's onboarding list

From there Maryville needs four approvals before your first clinical day: current Exxat Compliance, official approval of the site and preceptor request, clearance from the site, and your course faculty. Compliance is yours to keep current. The placement process goes through each approval in turn.

Step 5: your hours, and a preceptor who pulls out

Once all four approvals are in, you start, log your time the way your course asks, and watch your Exxat compliance dates. Hours completed while compliance has lapsed have to be done again, so a renewal that slips past its date can undo real work.

If Maryville declines a candidate, send the placement desk the reason from your request comments and we search with it in mind. If a preceptor cancels before or during the term, tell your course faculty and the Maryville Online Clinical Team first, then tell us, and we look for a replacement who fits the same course. The steps for that first week are on preceptor dropped out.

Between practicums, tell us early whether your current preceptor can continue. Maryville's 2023 webinar said FNP and AGPCNP students could keep one preceptor across terms, which can spare you a whole search.

What you can count on at every step

The process above is built around Maryville's order, not a generic checklist, and that is why students bring us in. Each step comes with something concrete for you.

• A placement advisor who knows your track's settings, Maryville's preceptor rules and how Exxat requests are put together
• Candidates screened for credential, certification, license, experience and relationships before you hear a name
• Your request package, verification and site details included, ready before the day your practicum opens
• Someone on call through the term, and a new search started the day a preceptor withdraws
• Early planning for your next practicum, so the second and third searches don't start from zero

Your Maryville record stays yours: the request, your logs and every message with your faculty go out from you, with our preparation behind them. That keeps your placement and your standing in the program secure. Ready to begin? Use the form below, or look through the FAQ first.