Your preceptor dropped out of your UNCW practicum

Updated September 24, 2026 · Reviewed by the UNCW Preceptor placement team

Tell the Graduate Clinical Coordinator the day it happens, bring your Typhon log up to date, and start on a replacement at once. Because a UNCW clinical course can use as many as four preceptors, a loss can be absorbed, but each new preceptor needs approval before you see a patient, and the course's hours still close on the last day of classes.

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Tell us your UNCW program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UNCW course.

4preceptors at most in one UNCW clinical course, replacements included

5 daysto log each encounter in Typhon, so finished work stays on record

The first 24 hours

Notify the Graduate Clinical CoordinatorExplain who left and when, how many hours you have logged, and what the course still needs. The Clinical Placement Team can help, with one string attached: a site it offers you comes with the expectation that you take it.
Tell your course facultyClinical faculty confirm hours in Typhon, make site visits and complete evaluations, so they need to know the plan has changed. Ask how the departing preceptor's evaluation should be handled.
Bring Typhon currentEnter any encounter still missing. Under UNCW's Typhon logging rules, your completed work should already be there; make sure it is.
Pause clinic daysStay out of patient care until a replacement is approved. Hours with an unapproved preceptor risk disqualification.
Part on good termsThank the preceptor who left. UNCW lets you return to a previous preceptor with the coordinator's approval, and a warm exit keeps that door open.

Before the semester or in the middle of it

UNCW's handbook sees these losses coming. Its advice is to stay in contact with your preceptor until the rotation begins, since providers change specialties, practices are bought by other health groups, lives change and site orientation paperwork stalls. If your preceptor withdraws before day one, you are back in the race against the 8-week and 90-day submission lines, and need a preceptor fast is your playbook.

A mid-semester loss is a different problem. The hours you completed are logged, but the remainder still has to be earned with an approved preceptor inside the same term, ending with its last day of classes. Every week spent searching shrinks the weeks left to finish, so run the replacement search and the paperwork side by side, not one after the other.

Replacing a preceptor inside the four-per-course cap

A UNCW clinical course can use four preceptors at most, and each site or preceptor needs a Clinical Placement Packet of its own. If the one who left already precepted you, plan as though they used one of your four slots, and ask the coordinator how a preceptor who never started is counted. A replacement means a new packet, the coordinator's review, the new preceptor's DocuSign signature and, if the new site requests one, an affiliation agreement that can take six weeks or longer.

The quickest replacements come from places where the paperwork is light:

Another qualified provider at the same practice, on a new packet.
A preceptor from an earlier course, with the coordinator's approval.
A practice with a UNCW agreement already signed, or one that asks for none.

Check your track's rules as you choose. If the preceptor who left was your only NP, remember that AGPCNP students must have an NP preceptor at some point in the program, as must FNP students under the handbook. PMHNP replacements also need the PMHNP concentration leader's approval, a preceptor can host one PMHNP student per clinical day, and your own department at work is off limits. More on the cap at preceptors per course.

If the hours will not fit before classes end

Sometimes the math fails even with a quick replacement. UNCW's DNP handbook lets course faculty set a time frame for finishing a clinical course left incomplete for missing hours or encounters, but program progression stops until that incomplete is cleared. The graduate catalog adds an outer limit: an incomplete not resolved within 12 months becomes an I/F, which the DNP handbook's grading scale treats as dismissal.

Withdrawing runs on its own clock. From the second through the twelfth week a withdrawal earns a W; from the thirteenth week it becomes a WF, another grade the DNP handbook ties to dismissal. Decide with your course faculty before choosing either path, and check the academic calendar page for the dates. If you do drop, UNCW asks you to notify both the site and the Clinical Placement Team.

Your deadline does not move when your preceptor does: every hour you still owe must come from an approved preceptor before the last day of classes.

How we line up your replacement

UNCW students choose us because the match is not the end of our work: we stay on call for the whole practicum. When a preceptor drops, we restart from what we already know about your course, your remaining hours and the encounter types still open, and we go after providers who close that exact gap rather than anyone with an open afternoon.

We confirm each candidate's credentials and whether their site needs an agreement, then hand you every detail the new packet calls for. If no single provider can take all the remaining hours, we build a split inside UNCW's four-preceptor limit. The coordinator decides; we make that decision easy with a replacement packet that answers every question up front. Use the form below to tell us what happened.

Questions UNCW students ask

Do the hours I logged with my old preceptor still count?

UNCW's handbooks do not address this case directly. Hours logged in Typhon with an approved preceptor are part of your clinical record, and clinical faculty are the people who confirm hours there, so ask your course faculty how your completed hours carry forward and keep every entry current in the meantime.

My preceptor moved to a new practice. Can I follow them?

Possibly. The person is the same but the agency is not, so expect a new placement packet for the new site, a fresh Graduate Clinical Coordinator approval and, if the new employer asks for one, an affiliation agreement. UNCW's handbook lists a preceptor changing work focus among the last-minute changes students should watch for.

Does a replacement preceptor have to meet the same requirements?

Yes, the bar stays the same for a replacement. NPs and CNMs must hold an RN license, current North Carolina Approval to Practice and active board certification; physicians and PAs must hold a North Carolina license and board certification; and every preceptor needs a year or more as a provider. Track rules still apply, so check preceptor requirements before you ask anyone.

Should I take an incomplete or withdraw?

That depends on how many hours remain and how far into the term you are, so decide with your course faculty. An incomplete keeps the course alive but halts progression until it is finished. A withdrawal before week 13 records a W; after that it becomes a WF, which UNCW's DNP handbook lists among grades that lead to dismissal.

Can the Clinical Placement Team give me a replacement site?

Ask. Helping with placements is part of the team's job, and it tracks the sites and preceptors already secured for UNCW students. Know the condition first: once the team offers you a site, turning it down can end with withdrawal from the course. Share your travel limits and schedule when you ask, so the offer you get is one you can accept.

Max 4Preceptors per courseUNCW allows up to 4 preceptors per clinical course, one site for the whole program except in PMHNP, and a return to a past preceptor with GCC approval.GCCGraduate Clinical CoordinatorWho does what in UNCW's clinical process: the Graduate Clinical Coordinator, the Clinical Placement Team, course faculty, program leads and advisors.HoursBehind on clinical hoursBehind on UNCW clinical hours? See what counts, the telehealth caps, how a second preceptor helps, how incompletes work, and how we add capacity to your term.CalendarAcademic calendar 2026-27UNCW 2026-27 dates for nursing students: fall and spring semesters, 7-week sessions, drop/add, withdrawal, incompletes, leave, and a site lost mid-term.RushNeed a preceptor fastClose to UNCW's 8-week or 90-day placement line with no preceptor? See what is still possible, which NC sites move faster, and how we run a rush search.

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 650 to NSGL 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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