Who can precept you at FNU, track by track

The floor every FNU preceptor has to clear

FNU's catalog sets one baseline for all tracks. Your preceptor needs "a valid, unencumbered U.S. license to practice" and "one year of relevant experience in the advanced practice/medical role" (FNU Catalog, Summer 2026). The catalog also asks for a master's degree or higher in a nursing-related field.

Two softer edges are published. CNM preceptors may be approved without a master's degree, and FNU's preceptor page says it allows BSN-prepared midwives while preferring an MSN. Physicians (MD and DO) can precept in every MSN and PGC track, but the share of your time they can cover depends on the program.

One year is the only experience minimum FNU publishes; no track sets a longer one. Anything outside these lines needs an exception, which the catalog routes through the Clinical Director together with the Department Chair and the Director of Clinical Credentialing. If a candidate sits near a line, raise it with your Regional Clinical Faculty (RCF) before you ask them to commit.

Track-by-track rules at a glance

The table pulls each track's preceptor rules from the catalog's preceptor section. The middle column shows who can precept; the right column shows the limit that most often decides whether a candidate can carry your hours.

A clinician who doesn't fit the primary column can still be useful as a secondary preceptor for a slice of your hours. Check that slice against your track's cap before you ask them.

Midwifery and WHNP: who should lead your hours

For nurse-midwifery, the catalog says the primary preceptor "should ideally be" a CNM or CM. FNPs, WHNPs, MDs and DOs can fill in around them, which helps when the only local CNM has room for part of your practicum but not all of it.

Supervision rules shape the rest. The catalog applies ACME's "in-the-room" standard to every procedure, birth and suturing, carried out by an FNU-credentialed NP, CNM, CM or board-certified MD or DO. A preceptor who can't be physically present at births can't be the person behind your birth numbers. The nurse-midwifery preceptor guide covers birth settings and counts.

WHNP students have a firmer default: the primary preceptor "should be a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner." CNMs, CMs, FNPs, MDs and DOs are also allowed, and visits supervised by an MD or DO count toward your required totals. The WHNP clinical courses page sets out those totals course by course.

FNP: how the 40% physician and PA share works

FNP students can spend up to 40% of practicum hours with an MD, DO or PA. On the 750-hour minimum, that works out to 300 hours (our arithmetic, not an FNU figure), leaving at least 450 hours with nurse preceptors.

PAs count only if they are NCCPA-certified, so confirm certification before a PA goes on your plan. Whoever is in the 40%, Clinical Credentialing still credentials each of them like any other preceptor, so they need to be ready to complete that step too.

Specialty time has its own cap. The catalog allows specialty sites for no more than 20% of your time and only one specialty rotation, chosen from an approved list in the catalog. A specialist can add depth, but can't carry a large share of your hours.

Before you submit anything, map each preceptor to a number of hours so your RCF can see the split adds up. The FNP preceptor page covers the visit counts those hours have to produce.

PMHNP: prescribers first, therapists capped

Your accepted CSAF has to include a preceptor "who has psychiatric prescribing authority" (FNU Catalog). That can be a PMHNP, a psychiatric CNS with prescriptive authority, or a psychiatrist, and psychiatrists have no limit on how much of your time they cover.

Licensed therapists can precept too, if they hold at least a master's degree and a license in the state where they practice. Their share is capped at 135 hours with a therapy provider across the practicum. Therapist time helps with your 20 psychotherapy sessions, but the 300 medication-management visits need a prescriber.

Every PMHNP preceptor must be at least master's prepared. If part of your plan is remote, the telehealth hour limits apply on top of these rules, and the PMHNP preceptor page covers settings and visit types in more depth.

The family and ownership rule

For MSN and PGC students, a family member can't be your preceptor. The catalog also rules out sites "owned or administered by a family member, member of the household," and any site where you hold a stake in ownership.

DNP students have a narrower version: no site owned or run by a "first-degree family member." A DNP site mentor needs a master's degree or higher plus quality-improvement or clinical expertise, while the site sponsor has no set education level.

The published rule names family, household and ownership. It says nothing about friends or former coworkers, so if a relationship feels close, describe it to your RCF before the CSAF goes in rather than after.

Screening every candidate against your track

When we search for you, we screen each candidate against your track's rules before you spend an ask on them: license, year in role, degree, and whether their hours sit inside the 40% or 135-hour caps. If your first choice can only cover part of your hours under a cap, we look for a second preceptor to carry the balance. We also gather the preceptor and site details the Clinical Site Approval Form asks for.

FNU makes the final call: your RCF and Clinical Credentialing decide whether a preceptor is accepted. FNU's public pages don't list every document Credentialing collects, so we work from the list Credentialing gives you, and any borderline fit goes to your RCF early, before you invest in it.