Precepting a TAMUCC nursing student
TAMUCC's graduate nursing students complete their clinical hours with Texas clinicians who volunteer to teach them. If you are an NP or physician weighing a request from a TAMUCC student, this page sets out what the university asks of you, the paperwork each semester, and what TAMUCC gives its preceptors in return.
Offer to precept a TAMUCC student
Tell us your specialty, your Texas practice location and the days you could host. The placement desk replies with TAMUCC students whose course fits your clinic.
Who TAMUCC asks to precept FNP students
TAMUCC's FNP Preceptor Guide sets the bar for the family nurse practitioner program, and it sits above the Texas Board of Nursing's own rule for APRN education, which would also accept other licensed clinicians. For a TAMUCC FNP student, the university looks for:
- A current nurse practitioner, MD or DO license carrying no encumbrances
- National board certification in family practice, or in a specialty close to it
- Two or more years of practicing on your own, not as a trainee
- A clinical setting where a future family nurse practitioner can learn the role
- A real willingness to teach, supervise and evaluate a student
Two relationships rule a clinician out: being the student's workplace supervisor, or being a family member. A colleague at the student's own employer can still precept, provided they have no hand in the student's performance reviews and the clinical takes place away from the student's usual unit. Our preceptor requirements page sets out every condition.
What precepting involves, start to finish
- The site agreementTAMUCC needs an active affiliation agreement with your practice. If there is none, the student requests one through DocuSign, and TAMUCC tells students the signatures can take as long as three months.
- The Preceptor Agreement PacketEach semester you sign a DocuSign packet, even if you hosted a TAMUCC student last term. You attach your CV and a copy of your license no more than 30 days old. Administration looks at the packet first, so your signature request arrives a business day or two after the student sends it.
- Clearance, then day oneThe student's clinical faculty member reviews the proposed schedule and clears the student before any hours begin. TAMUCC expects clinic days to fall mostly within weekday business hours.
- Teaching through the rotationYou supervise in line with Texas law and your site's policies, give feedback, and review and authenticate the student's documentation. Prescriptions, orders and legal documents stay in your hands, since TAMUCC students may not sign them.
- A faculty site visitExpect at least one evaluative visit from the student's clinical faculty member, who comes to observe the student with your patients. The site visits and evaluations page explains what they look for.
- End-of-semester formsYou sign the Clinical Hours Log with the student and the FNP Clinical Coordinator, and you complete an evaluation of the student, both through DocuSign. The student, in turn, evaluates you and the site.
The rotations you might host
TAMUCC's FNP students move through four clinical courses in a fixed order, and the course tells you what kind of caseload fits. Knowing which one a student is asking about helps you judge whether your clinic is the right match before you agree.
| Course | Clinical hours | Focus |
|---|---|---|
NURS 5624 Advanced Health Assessment and Differential Diagnosis | 90 | Early clinical experience |
NURS 5644 Management of Acute and Chronic Illness I | 135 | Pediatrics |
NURS 5645 Management of Acute and Chronic Illness II | 135 | Women's health |
NURS 5746 Integrated Clinical Practice: FNP | 270 | Late clinical, the capstone |
Across the program, each student also needs 75 hours, or 150 documented encounters, with children, in women's health and with older adults. A practice with a mixed-age panel therefore helps a student more than its specialty label suggests.
What TAMUCC offers its preceptors
TAMUCC's preceptors are volunteers; the Student Clinical Guide describes them as volunteering to help teach its MSN students. The FNP Preceptor Guide lists what the university provides in return:
- An hours certificate, generated when the student's hours are verified at the end of the semester
- "Continuing education credit (as applicable per your certifying body)"
- A letter of appreciation, or a letter verifying your service
- Recognition through university awards for outstanding preceptors
- Faculty support and evaluation tools, with the FNP Clinical Coordinator as your main contact
- University professional liability coverage for the student
The certificate comes out of the verified Clinical Hours Log, so signing that log promptly at the end of term is what produces your record of teaching hours. Whether those hours earn continuing education credit depends on your own certifying body's rules.
Educator, leadership and DNP students
TAMUCC's other graduate programs use preceptors in different ways. Nurse Educator students complete a 135-hour practicum in NURS 5459, alongside a preceptor who teaches in a school or a clinical setting. Leadership in Nursing Systems students complete 135 clinical hours in the NURS 5469 capstone. TAMUCC does not publish a separate qualification list for these preceptors, so the course faculty set the expectations for each. Their syllabi require both practicums to wrap up before the semester's final week begins.
DNP students work differently again. They secure a practice organization's Letter of Support and name a community facilitator, who opens doors to sites and resources but does not supervise the student. If a DNP student asks you to be their facilitator, that access role is what they mean.
How we make hosting straightforward
Clinicians who precept through our placement desk meet students who arrive prepared. We match each TAMUCC student to a preceptor whose practice fits the course, then gather what TAMUCC's paperwork needs so that your part is signing and teaching, not chasing documents. Tell us which courses suit your caseload and which terms work for your clinic, and the requests you receive will match them.
Share your specialty, your Texas practice location and the days you could host, and we bring you students whose course and schedule fit. TAMUCC's clinical faculty and the FNP Clinical Coordinator stay your university contacts for the rotation, and they remain the people who approve each student's placement. Learn how the matching works on how it works, or use the form on this page.
Questions TAMUCC students ask
What do TAMUCC preceptors receive for their time?
The FNP Preceptor Guide names an hours certificate produced from the verified hours log, continuing education credit where your certifying body recognizes it, a letter of thanks or of service verification, and eligibility for university awards. Preceptors also get faculty support, and the student carries university professional liability coverage.
How much time does precepting a TAMUCC student take?
It depends on the course. A 90-hour NURS 5624 rotation spread across a 16-week term asks far less of your week than the 270-hour NURS 5746 capstone. The student proposes a weekday schedule that suits your clinic and their clinical faculty member, and all hours must finish by the last class day.
Do I sign a new agreement if I precepted a TAMUCC student last semester?
Yes. TAMUCC asks every preceptor for a Preceptor Agreement Packet each semester, returning preceptors included, each time with an updated CV and a freshly dated license copy. The site's affiliation agreement is a separate contract between TAMUCC and your practice and runs until its own expiration date.
Can I precept a student who works for my organization?
Yes, within TAMUCC's limits. You cannot be the student's boss or weigh in on their job evaluations, and the clinical time must happen outside the unit where the student normally works. Family members cannot precept a TAMUCC student at all.
Who do I contact at TAMUCC during a rotation?
TAMUCC names the FNP Clinical Coordinator as the primary contact for preceptors, and the student's assigned clinical faculty member handles the site visit and day-to-day clinical questions. The FNP Preceptor Guide lists both roles, and the student can connect you with them before the first clinic day.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against TAMUCC's catalog, FNP clinical guides, MSN and DNP handbooks and college pages. Your course, your clinical faculty member and the handbook for your cohort have the final word.
TAMUCC makes the preceptor search yours. Let us run it for you in Texas.
Tell us your TAMUCC program, your next clinical course and where in Texas you can drive. We find preceptors who fit the course and gather what the affiliation agreement and the Preceptor Agreement Packet need, early enough for both to clear.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 5644, women's health forNURS 5645, broad primary care forNURS 5746 - CV, license, board certification and the site's agreement status ready for TAMUCC's paperwork
- In Corpus Christi, the Valley, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and across Texas
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next clinical semester is all we need to begin.