What shapes the cost of your UNCW preceptor placement
Every quote we give a UNCW student is built for that student. Your track and practicum course, the hours involved, the specialty, the part of North Carolina you can reach, how soon you start and how many practica you want covered all move it. UNCW's own clinical charges are separate and are billed by UNCW.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UNCW program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UNCW course.
Why every quote is individual
Two students in the same UNCW cohort can need very different searches. An FNP student in Wilmington with a flexible schedule and a full semester of lead time is a different job from a PMHNP student in a rural county who needs a child and adolescent rotation soon. One flat price would overcharge the first student and underserve the second.
So we quote after a short intake, once we know your course, your region and your dates. The quote covers our work: the North Carolina search, matching each preceptor to your UNCW course, and preparing the preceptor and site details for your packet. You see it before any search begins, and it is revisited with you if your plans change.
Your track and practicum course
Each UNCW track asks for a different preceptor profile, and some profiles are harder to find. FNP practica build toward primary care, pediatric and women's health experience, with encounter minimums that run from newborn exams to men's health visits. AGPCNP practica need patients from age 13 up, frail elderly care and at least one NP preceptor across the program. The nurse educator practicum needs a master's-prepared educator with three years of teaching who works at the site.
Where the course sits in your plan matters too. A first practicum such as NSGL 650 covers broad primary care, while a 240-hour capstone like NSGL 653 or NSGL 663 asks one practice for more of its time. The clinical hours guide sets out every course.
Specialty: why psychiatric searches take more work
PMHNP placements are the scarcest. UNCW accepts only psychiatric prescribers as primary preceptors (PMHNPs, psychiatrists and PAs with a psychiatric focus), limits each preceptor to one student on any clinical day, and asks PMHNP students to use more than one site over the program. Each of the four 187.5-hour practica from NSGL 646 to NSGL 649 needs its own fit, across inpatient and outpatient care, medication management and therapy hours.
The wider picture adds pressure. Every county in the Cape Fear region carries a federal mental health shortage designation, so psychiatric clinicians are stretched before any student asks. More outreach for each yes means more work in the quote. The PMHNP practicum courses page explains each rotation.
Where in North Carolina you can go
UNCW keeps NP clinical hours inside North Carolina, and NPs are spread unevenly across the state. In 2025 New Hanover County had roughly 20.7 active NPs for every 10,000 residents, while Pender had about 5.6. A student who can drive an hour, or stay with relatives near a distant practice as UNCW's FAQ suggests, opens more of the map, and a wider map usually means a quicker, simpler search.
At UNCW, getting to the site is the student's job whatever the distance, and travel time never counts as clinical hours. Weigh the drive against the search itself when you tell us your range. North Carolina NP preceptors describes each region of the state.
Timing, and how many practica you want covered
Lead time changes the work. A search that opens two terms ahead can wait for the right clinician; one that opens inside UNCW's submission window has to reach many more practices at once. Sites that ask for an affiliation agreement add weeks of processing, and UNCW wants any site that charges an honorarium submitted inside the Placement Packet Application Window posted in Canvas, so a late search has fewer doors open.
You can ask us for one practicum or plan every remaining one together. Planning several courses at once can let one practice carry you through more than one term, which UNCW permits for FNP and AGPCNP students when the site meets each course's objectives. PMHNP students move between sites by rule, so their plan is built rotation by rotation.
What UNCW bills separately
Our quote covers our service. UNCW's own clinical charges run through UNCW and stay separate:
- Tuition and course fees for each practicum course, set by the university
- The compliance platform, Certiphi or Castle Branch depending on your cohort, plus the yearly background check and 12-panel drug test, which students pay for
- The professional liability insurance fee UNCW bills to your student account in clinical semesters
- Any honorarium a site charges: UNCW processes it through its Graduate Clinical Placement Team and bills it to your UNCW student account, and students may not pay a site directly
- Your own travel to the site and any short-term housing near a distant practice
The honorarium rule has its own page, paid clinical sites at UNCW, and the compliance items are listed on the compliance page.
Getting your quote
Send your program, practicum course, term, city and travel range through the form below or the chat, and your placement advisor replies with a quote built on those facts. Students already partway through a practicum can ask too: say which hours or encounter categories are short. If you are still weighing your own search against a service, the quote gives you something concrete to compare.
Add the details that change a search: whether you follow the Fall 2025 course sequence or the earlier one, how many hours you still need, and any preceptor you already have in mind. A clinician you found yourself still needs a credentials check and a full set of packet details, and the quote reflects that smaller job. See how it works for every step the quote covers.
Questions UNCW students ask
Why is there no price list on this site?
Because UNCW placements differ too much for one number to be honest. A primary care search near Wilmington with months of lead time and a psychiatric search in a rural county a few weeks out are different amounts of work. An individual quote after intake reflects your actual course, region and timing.
Does your quote include a site's honorarium?
Site honoraria are handled by UNCW, not by us. Under UNCW's handbook, any fee a clinical site charges goes through the School of Nursing's placement team and your UNCW student account. Our quote is for our own work: the search, the matching and the paperwork that gets your packet ready.
Is a PMHNP placement quoted differently from an FNP placement?
Usually, yes. UNCW's PMHNP rules narrow the pool of eligible preceptors, cap each preceptor at one student per clinical day and require a change of site across the program. Those limits mean more outreach per confirmed preceptor, and the quote reflects the extra work.
Does a close deadline change the quote?
It can. A search that starts inside UNCW's submission window needs faster, broader outreach to reach a confirmed preceptor in time, and that is more work than a search with months to spare. The earlier you contact us, the more room there is to find the right fit at the right pace.
Can I get a quote for just one practicum course?
Yes. Many students ask about their next course only, such as a single FNP or AGPCNP practicum, and plan the rest later. Others prefer to map every remaining practicum at once. Tell your placement advisor which approach you want, and the quote will match it.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against UNCW's catalog, handbooks and School of Nursing pages. Your course, your cohort's handbook and UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
UNCW asks you to find your own North Carolina preceptor. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UNCW program, your practicum course and where in North Carolina you can travel. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the CV, license and agency details UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator reviews, well before the deadline.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care, pediatrics and women's health for
NSGL 650toNSGL 653, adult and older-adult care for AGPCNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP - Preceptor CV with dates and site, license number and agency details ready for your submission
- In Wilmington, the Cape Fear region or wherever in North Carolina your clinicals can happen
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next practicum term is all we need to begin.