How our placement help fits FNU's clinical process

FNU's order, and where we sit in it

FNU's catalog sets out a fixed sequence. You find a preceptor and get a commitment. You then complete a Clinical Site Approval Form (CSAF) and submit it through the Community Map. Your RCF reviews and accepts it, and only then does Clinical Credentialing start its work on the site and the preceptor.

After credentialing comes Clinical Bound, the five-day skills session in Versailles, and then your RCF's final release before your first clinical day. We work at the front of that line: the search, the rule checks and the paperwork you need in hand.

Everything from RCF acceptance onward belongs to FNU, and each of those steps is detailed on our FNU clinical placement process page.

Step by step: our part and yours

Here is how a search runs with us, in order.

1. You tell us your track and your clock. Your program (nurse-midwifery, FNP, WHNP or PMHNP, in the MSN or the PGC), your city and state, and the Projected Clinical Bound Term on your degree audit. List any Community Map contacts and clinicians you've already approached.
2. We search near you first. In-person preceptors within reach of home are the main route, because that is how most FNU students complete their clinicals. Telehealth comes into the plan only where your course allows it and inside FNU's cap for your track.
3. We check the fit against FNU's published rules. License, a year of advanced-practice experience, the preceptor mix your track allows, the family and ownership rule, your RN license in that state, and New York's limits. A lead that fails a rule is dropped before it costs you time.
4. The preceptor commits to you. FNU's sequence starts with a commitment from the preceptor. You speak with them directly before anything is submitted, because they are the one who will be teaching you.
5. We help you prepare the CSAF and credentialing details. Site name and address, practice contacts, the preceptor's credentials and license details, and whatever else the CSAF and Clinical Credentialing ask for. FNU's own CSAF instructions sit in the CB101 course in Canvas; follow them over anything we say.
6. You submit, and FNU reviews. You contact your RCF, submit the CSAF through the Community Map, and record the rotation in My Clinical Plan. Your RCF accepts or declines it, and Clinical Credentialing then handles the contract, insurance and preceptor credentialing.
7. We stay on call. If a preceptor withdraws before or during your practicum, we search again with your remaining hours and visit types in mind.

The checks we run before you submit

Most CSAF problems can be spotted before the form is filed. These are the published FNU rules we test every lead against:

• A valid, unencumbered US license to practice and one year of relevant experience in an advanced-practice or medical role.
• The right preceptor for your track: ideally a CNM or CM as the primary preceptor in midwifery, a psychiatric prescriber for PMHNP, and no more than 40% of FNP hours with an MD, DO or PA.
• No family members as preceptors, and no sites owned or run by a family or household member or where you hold an ownership stake.
• An RN license, or compact eligibility, in the state where the site sits.
• A site that can offer at least the weekly hours your first clinical course requires: 20 a week in NM751, FNP751, WH751 or MH751.
• A location FNU accepts: the continental US or Hawaii, and New York only in the narrow cases FNU allows.

Track-by-track detail is on who can precept an FNU student. If a site has already been turned down, why FNU declines a site covers the usual reasons and fixes.

After you submit: your RCF and Clinical Credentialing

Your RCF accepts the CSAF and, once at least one site is accepted, assigns your Clinical Bound date. FNU will not register you for Clinical Bound until a site has been identified and submitted to Clinical Credentialing, and the catalog also expects a complete clinical plan covering all your visit types and hours.

Clinical Credentialing then gets a signed Affiliation Agreement from the site, verifies the site's professional liability insurance, fully credentials your preceptor, and schedules a Pre-Clinical Site Visit where one is required. FNU says credentialing a site can take several months, which is why the search needs to finish well ahead of Clinical Bound.

These are FNU conversations: your RCF and your Clinical Credentialing Coordinator work with you directly. We stay close by throughout, ready to answer questions from you or the site about the details we gathered together, so a query from credentialing gets a quick reply.

Clinical Bound, your first day and your hours

Clinical Bound is its own course in each track (NM750, FNP750, WH750 and MH750), held on campus in Versailles after your didactic courses. Your RCF gives a final release for the site and preceptor before your first clinical day.

Students starting clinical courses in 2025 or later complete 750 clinical hours over 19 weeks of clinical, plus the visit counts for their track. FNU sets weekly minimums of 20 hours in the first course, 28 in the second and 24 in the third. If one site can't provide the patient volume, FNU expects you to add another, up to four sites in most tracks.

When a site falls short on volume or on a visit type, we can search for an additional site to fill the gap. See FNU clinical hours for the full rules, and falling behind on hours if you are already mid-practicum.

Starting a search with us

Send your details through the form below or open the chat. A placement advisor replies with questions, then a written quote and terms, before you commit to anything. What shapes that quote is explained on our cost page.

Start as early as you can. FNU itself recommends finding preceptors early in the program, and FNU staff describe the RCF approving the clinical plan about four to six months before Clinical Bound.