Precepting a Frontier Nursing University student

Who FNU accepts as a preceptor

FNU's catalog sets a common baseline for every track, then adds track-specific rules on top.

• A valid, unencumbered US license to practice.
• At least one year of relevant experience in the advanced-practice or medical role.
• A master's degree or higher in a nursing-related field. CNMs may be approved without a master's; FNU accepts BSN-prepared midwives but prefers an MSN.
• MDs and DOs are accepted, with the share of the student's time depending on the program.

You can't precept a member of your own family, and a student can't rotate at a practice owned or run by their family or household, or one they part-own. Exceptions to the preceptor rules go through the track's Clinical Director together with the Department Chair and the Director of Clinical Credentialing.

Rules by track

For PMHNP students, the accepted site must include a preceptor with psychiatric prescribing authority. The student-facing version of these rules, track by track, is on FNU preceptor requirements.

How approval and credentialing work

The student submits a Clinical Site Approval Form naming you and your practice, and their RCF reviews it. Once the RCF accepts it, FNU's Clinical Credentialing team takes over: it sets up an Affiliation Agreement with your site, exchanges certificates of insurance, and credentials you. After the student submits your contact details, FNU emails you instructions for the Preceptor Login.

FNU provides general and professional liability insurance for its clinical students. FNU notes that credentialing a site can take several months, so an early yes from you gives the paperwork room. The student may not see patients with you until credentialing is complete.

Before the student starts, the RCF makes a Pre-Clinical Site Visit to the primary site. A Clinical Site Visit follows around the halfway point, in person or virtually, and the RCF checks in with you monthly throughout.

Time and schedule

Students starting clinical courses in 2025 or later complete 750 hours across 19 weeks of clinical, usually over three terms. The catalog sets weekly minimums of 20 hours in the first clinical course, 28 in the second and 24 in the third, with a ceiling of 40 clinic hours a week. In midwifery that ceiling depends on the call schedule, and FNU's website lists 32; the website also adds a 10-hour daily limit for the NP tracks.

Students can use up to four sites in most tracks, so you may be one of two or more preceptors. Your orientation is FNU's Gift of Precepting course and the FNU preceptor guide, and the student holds a pre-clinical orientation meeting with you, working through a set agenda, before the first day.

Evaluations through the Preceptor Login

FNU tracks progress with its Developmental Assessment Tools, which you complete through the Preceptor Login. Every preceptor completes the DDAT, and FNU's preceptor troubleshooting guidance asks for it once a week. For CNM and WHNP students, the student also sends you an MDAT at the halfway point of each course. Every track sends an EDAT near the end; FNP and PMHNP students send only the EDAT.

Ratings run from Not Observed through Novice, Advanced beginner and Competent to Safe entry-level practitioner, and FNU asks you to complete each form within a week. The RCF assigns the clinical grade with your input. If concerns arise, FNU works through a Problem Identification Sheet, then a Learning Plan, then a Performance Plan. The forms are explained on FNU preceptor evaluations.

What FNU offers preceptors

• An honorarium based on the program and the number of hours, paid after the student finishes the practicum. FNU doesn't publish the amount. Preceptors can choose to donate it to FNU, where donations help fund a Preceptor Scholarship for students.
• The Gift of Precepting, an ANCC-approved continuing education course worth 6 contact hours.
• A 10% discount on non-matriculating FNU courses.
• DynaMed access, which your student can set up for you through FNU's library.
• Documentation of the hours you spend precepting, for recertification.
• Support from the student's RCF, and recognition during FNU's Preceptor Celebration Week in the second week of August.

How we work with preceptors

We are a placement service built for FNU students, working independently of the university. When we search for an FNU student, we contact clinicians whose practice fits that student's track and explain FNU's rules before anyone commits, so you know exactly what you are agreeing to. The affiliation agreement and your own credentialing are then arranged with you directly by FNU's Clinical Credentialing team.

If you're open to precepting FNU students, use the form on this page with the preceptor option selected. FNU also runs its own Preceptor Inquiry Form, which adds your details to the Community Map that FNU students search. To see a student's search from their side, read how it works.