How to ask a preceptor to take a Maryville student

Start with people who already qualify

Outreach goes faster when every name on your list could pass Maryville's review. Maryville's February 2026 post “How to Find the Right Nursing Preceptor” sets the bar: an APRN, MD or DO, board certified, with an unencumbered license in their practice state and a year or more of experience. The same post says PAs and CRNAs “don't typically qualify,” and gives PMHNP students three extra options: an LCSW, a PsychD, or a PhD in psychology.

It also rules out people close to you at work or at home: relatives, your direct supervisors and direct reports, the colleagues you work alongside, anyone who evaluates your performance, and your own healthcare provider. That last item removes the NP you see for your own care, often the first person students think of. The full rules are on preceptor requirements.

A 2021 Ask Maryville article points students to public lookups for credentials, such as Nursys for NPs. Run them before you ask, not after. If someone isn't board certified, they may still be usable through a Preceptor Exception Form, subject to the Program Coordinator's approval, but know that before the conversation.

Where to look first

The 2026 blog tells students to begin with their own network, partly because the search itself builds contacts you'll keep. In practice that means clinicians you know through work but don't report to or work beside, former instructors, NPs you met during your RN training, and professional groups in your specialty.

Match the setting to your track before you ask. Maryville's 2023 webinar put FNP, AGPCNP and PNP in primary or preventive care, AGACNP in hospitalist-type settings, and PMHNP with a psychiatric provider who can prescribe. A willing preceptor in the wrong setting costs you a round of review and weeks you may not have.

Keep a running list of who you contacted and when. If your network runs dry, Maryville's own placement assistance is built for exactly that point, and the list shows what you have already tried.

What Maryville will ask of your preceptor

Clinicians say yes more readily when they can see the whole job. Here is what Maryville's public pages show a preceptor, and their site, being asked for.

In the eValue-era guides, preceptors received time-log approval emails every 7 days and an evaluation request 5 days before the rotation ended. Maryville now uses Exxat, and its public pages don't spell out how preceptor sign-off works there, so describe the rhythm in general terms and confirm the system with your course. More on the evaluation is on NP Student Evaluation.

What to put in the first message

Keep the first ask to one screen. Busy clinicians decide quickly whether a request is clear enough to answer.

• Who you are: your name, your current RN role, and that you're a Maryville University online NP student
• Your track and practicum course, such as FNP's NURS 624 or PMHNP's NURS 664
• The term dates and the days each week you can be there
• The hours your course requires, taken from your syllabus or clinical packet
• That Maryville handles the agreement with the site, and what paperwork would reach them
• That your Exxat compliance (background check, drug screen, immunizations, AHA BLS) is done or under way
• Your CV, and an offer to meet briefly

Be straight about pay. Maryville said in its 2023 MSN webinar that it does not pay its clinical preceptors, so don't imply otherwise, and answer plainly if asked. Missouri clinicians may ask about the state's preceptor tax credit, which has its own rules; see Missouri preceptor tax credit.

Follow-up that gets answers

An unanswered first message isn't always a no. Often it simply hasn't reached the person who decides, so the follow-up matters as much as the first ask.

1. Send, then wait about a weekOffice staff often screen requests. One polite follow-up after a week is reasonable; a third unanswered message rarely helps.
2. Ask who decidesFind out whether the clinician, a practice manager or a system education department approves students, and address the next message to them.
3. Offer a short conversationTen minutes by video or in person lets them judge whether you'd fit their clinic.
4. Give them something to readPoint the clinician to precepting Maryville students for a plain summary of what Maryville asks.
5. Confirm in writing when they say yesGet the dates, days, site address and the site contact for the agreement, then submit the request in Exxat.

Asking for more than one term

A preceptor who takes you for two or three practicums saves you whole searches, and Maryville has allowed it for some tracks. In the 2023 MSN webinar, presenters said FNP and AGPCNP students could stay with the same preceptor across terms. For AGACNP, a presenter put the limit at 250 hours with one preceptor, prefaced with “I think,” so treat that figure as unconfirmed.

PMHNP practicums change population, per a 2023 webinar: adult and older adult, then child, adolescent and family, then a specialty rotation. One preceptor may not fit all three, so ask about the populations they see.

The 750 clinical hours in each NP concentration run across three practicum courses, but Maryville doesn't publish how many hours each course needs. Don't quote a per-term figure until you've seen it in your syllabus or clinical packet; clinical hours explains what is and isn't published.

Why students hand their outreach to us

Outreach is slow and mostly silence, and it is the part of the Maryville process we are built to carry. A placement advisor does the searching and the asking, contacting clinicians and sites in your region who fit your track, explaining what Maryville will ask of a preceptor, and following up so good leads stay warm. You hear about the ones who say yes.

When someone agrees, we assemble the license lookups, board certification and site-contact details your Exxat request needs, and if that preceptor later has to step away, we're on call to start the next round. Maryville reviews every preceptor and site and has the final word; the people we bring you have already been screened against its rules. Use the form below.