Finding NP preceptors across North Carolina, system by system
Every UNCW NP clinical hour happens in North Carolina, and each large health system runs students through its own gate: a central office, an application window, an agreement list or a platform. UNCW appears by name on some of those lists and not on others. This page sorts the systems by how they take NP students and shows where a UNCW student has an opening.
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.
Which systems name UNCW, and which find the preceptor
Two questions sort the systems: does it list UNCW, and does it locate the preceptor or expect you to bring one?
| System | Where | How NP students get in | UNCW named? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atrium Health | Charlotte | Center for Advanced Practice; active affiliation agreement required | Yes, through 4/30/2029 |
| Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist | Triad | Affiliated schools of nursing list | Yes |
| Cone Health | Greensboro | Cone locates the preceptor | Yes, as a partner program |
| UNC Health (UNC Hospitals) | Chapel Hill | APP Center locates the preceptor in set windows | No; UNC System schools rank third |
| ECU Health | Greenville | Assists with identifying a preceptor | No |
| Duke, WakeMed | Triangle | Rotation Manager; WakeMed through Medical Education | No |
| Cape Fear Valley Health | Fayetteville | School agreement first, then Rotation Manager | No |
| Novant Health | Wilmington and beyond | School request in myClinicalExchange | Not on its placement page |
Being named is a head start, not a placement: an agreement on file spares UNCW a new contract, as affiliation agreements explains, but the preceptor, dates and onboarding still have to line up. Goshen Medical Center, a group of community health centers, completes the four.
Atrium Health: an agreement on file and a request not to call
Atrium's Center for Advanced Practice is the single liaison for advanced practice students across more than 900 care locations. It works only with schools holding an active Clinical Education Affiliation Agreement and has a moratorium on new ones. UNCW's five-year agreement, running to April 30, 2029, is on Atrium's published list, so the pause leaves UNCW students in the running.
The application asks whether you already have a secured rotation, gives Atrium employees in approved programs priority, and asks students not to call Atrium physicians, APPs or facilities about an application. Atrium's timing advice conflicts with itself: the main page says at least three months ahead, its FAQ says three to four, and the form page says four to six. Plan on six. Separately, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist lists UNC Wilmington among its affiliated schools of nursing.
UNC Health's APP Center: windows and priority tiers
At UNC Hospitals and the UNC School of Medicine clinics, every NP student request, placement, contract and onboarding step runs through the APP Center. It locates the preceptor itself; you may request a specific person, though most requests do not, and the agreement goes out only after a preceptor is found.
APP Center application windows
- Fall rotations: apply March 1 to May 31, notified by June 15
- Spring rotations: apply June 1 to October 15, notified by November 15
- Summer rotations: apply November 1 to February 28, notified by March 15
Requests are ranked: UNC-Chapel Hill students, UNC Health employees, other UNC System schools, other North Carolina schools, North Carolina residents in out-of-state programs, then out-of-state students. UNCW, a UNC System school, sits in the third tier, and primary care and general OB-GYN spots are very limited. UNC Health Rex keeps its own process; UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton wants your chosen preceptor's agreement plus an affiliation agreement.
ECU Health, Cone, Duke, WakeMed and Cape Fear Valley
ECU Health in Greenville requires an affiliation agreement and says it will assist with identifying a qualified preceptor, without promising one. Its inquiry deadline is the earliest here: six months before the clinical start.
Cone Health in Greensboro names UNCW as a partner program and finds preceptors itself, with requests due at least 90 days ahead and onboarding at least 60. The same page says Cone has stopped accepting students from programs delivered entirely online and leans toward brick-and-mortar North Carolina schools. UNCW's DNP pairs online courses with required on-campus intensives, so ask the Clinical Placement Team how Cone treats UNCW today.
Duke publishes no NP placement page for outside students. WakeMed handles NP students through Medical Education, among disciplines needing physician oversight. Cape Fear Valley Health in Fayetteville wants the school agreement first and requires the flu vaccine from August through March.
Platforms and the NC Core Orientation passport
Hospital onboarding usually runs inside a platform, and the system decides which.
- myClinicalExchange: Novant Health, and Carteret Health Care in Morehead City, where the school coordinator submits at least two weeks ahead
- Rotation Manager: Duke, UNC Hospitals, WakeMed and Cape Fear Valley, which adds Workday Learning
- The system's own forms: Atrium, the UNC APP Center, ECU Health, Cone and Goshen
Many hospitals also accept a common orientation and credentialing passport, the NC Core Orientation, created by the state's clinical education consortiums with Wake AHEC as host and backed by the NC Healthcare Association since 2014. Some systems add a module, as WakeMed does, and Carteret asks for it yearly. Novant uses no Core Orientation.
At the big systems the door is a central office working with your school. Atrium says plainly not to call its clinicians or facilities about an application.
Looking beyond the hospital systems
UNCW's FNP and AGPCNP courses lean on primary care settings, and much of North Carolina's primary care happens outside the large systems. Community health centers reach counties where hospital programs are thin, and independent practices carry weight too: UNCW's preceptor profiles from June 2024 range from Greensboro and Drexel to Wilmington Health.
UNCW's handbook suggests networking through local and state NP associations and looking for sites that already hold UNCW affiliation agreements, confirmed with the Graduate Clinical Coordinator. NC AHEC's regional centers support community preceptors as well, though schools make those requests; NC AHEC and clinical rotations explains. On the coast, Wilmington NP preceptors maps the Cape Fear counties.
Why UNCW students hand us the statewide search
We line up your course, your drive radius and the calendar against the systems whose windows are still open, so a spring start is never planned around a window that closed in October. For outpatient sites, we find the North Carolina NP, physician or PA, confirm the credentials UNCW names, including those shaped by North Carolina's NP practice rules, and prepare what the Graduate Clinical Coordinator reviews well before UNCW's 8-week deadline.
Agreements sit with UNCW's Clinical Placement Team and approval with its Graduate Clinical Coordinator; what we control is the package they receive, and we make it complete and correct before it goes. Send your program and county through the form below.
Questions UNCW students ask
Is UNCW on Atrium Health's affiliation agreement list?
Yes. Atrium's Clinical Education Affiliation Agreement list, updated March 1, 2025, shows UNC Wilmington with a five-year agreement running from April 30, 2024 to April 30, 2029. Because Atrium has paused new agreements, that existing one matters. You still apply through the Center for Advanced Practice, ideally four to six months ahead.
When do I apply to UNC Health's APP Center for a spring rotation?
Between June 1 and October 15 of the prior year, with notification by November 15. Fall rotations apply March 1 to May 31 and summer rotations November 1 to February 28. UNCW students fall in the third priority tier, behind UNC-Chapel Hill's own students and UNC Health staff, and primary care spots are especially scarce.
Does Cone Health take students from UNCW's DNP?
Cone's advanced practice student page lists UNCW as a partner program, yet that page also says Cone has closed its door to fully online programs in favor of campus-based North Carolina schools. UNCW's DNP combines online courses with on-campus intensives. Confirm Cone's current stance with the Clinical Placement Team before building a semester around it.
Which North Carolina systems help find the preceptor?
UNC Hospitals' APP Center and Cone Health locate preceptors themselves, and ECU Health offers help identifying one. Atrium and the APP Center also let you name a preceptor you already have. In outpatient practices the preceptor usually comes first and the paperwork follows, which fits UNCW's expectation that you locate your own.
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
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