Finding your own preceptor as a UNCW NP student
UNCW's clinical handbook is direct about who runs the search: FNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP students are expected to "Locate and secure their own sites and preceptors." The School of Nursing backs that up with site lists, Canvas postings and advice, but the outreach, the yes and the paperwork start with you. Here is how UNCW frames the job, and how to do it well in North Carolina.
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What "locate and secure" means at UNCW
The full line in the DNP Immersion and Clinical Overview handbook (Fall 2025) reads: "Locate and secure their own sites and preceptors. They must submit preceptor information via their designated Clinical Placement Packet form." Locating is finding a willing, qualified clinician. Securing is a firm commitment for a named course and semester that holds until the rotation starts.
The handbook calls students "active participants in the preceptor selection process," and every student-identified preceptor and site has to meet the clinical objectives of the course and pass the Graduate Clinical Coordinator's approval. PMHNP placements need the PMHNP concentration leader's sign-off as well.
The expectation covers the three BSN-DNP NP concentrations. The MSN-DNP PMHNP pathway shares the PMHNP clinical pages, though UNCW publishes no separate statement for it. Nurse educator students also identify their own practicum site and preceptor, with faculty guidance, while BSN students are assigned clinical placements by the school.
The DNP FAQ: empowerment and relationships
UNCW's DNP FAQ answers the "do I have to find my own sites" question this way: "We offer assistance with finding clinical placement but we place a great importance on empowering the students to seek clinical placement." It adds that the relationships students have built go farther than anything else in securing placement, and it urges future students to start building ties with NPs, PAs and MDs in primary care before the program begins.
Then it widens the map: "We encourage students to think broadly about where their placements will be. This could mean identifying friends or family you would be willing to stay with while in your clinical site." A willing preceptor in another North Carolina town can beat an empty search in your own county, if a relative's spare room makes the rotation workable. UNCW's own preceptor profiles feature clinicians in Greensboro and Drexel, not only Wilmington.
The FAQ page carries a January 2021 date, and the Fall 2025 handbook is the newer word on process. They agree on the core point: the search is yours, and UNCW's help is a supplement to it.
Friends and family: leads and lodging, never preceptors
The handbook's tips for locating a preceptor end with a line set in bold: "Family/friends are not acceptable preceptors." A cousin who works as an FNP in Raleigh cannot sign your evaluations, even if the practice fits the course perfectly.
That rule sits beside two places where family and friends do help. The same tips suggest asking family, friends and acquaintances who work in health care, and even your own primary care provider, for leads. The FAQ suggests staying with people you know near a distant site. The people close to you can introduce you, vouch for you and put you up; the preceptor has to be someone else.
A relative or close friend can refer you or house you, but UNCW will not accept them as your preceptor.
UNCW's search tips, and how to work them
The handbook's "Tips for Locating a Preceptor" read like a checklist. Worked in roughly this order, they turn a cold search into a list of warm leads:
- Join local and state NP associations and use their meetings and member networks.
- Post a clear request on LinkedIn, Sigma or other social media, naming UNCW, the course and the semester.
- Ask family, friends and acquaintances in health care, and your own primary care provider, who they know.
- Identify local providers who see the patients your course needs, and contact them directly.
- Look for North Carolina sites that already hold an affiliation agreement with UNCW, and confirm each one with the Graduate Clinical Coordinator.
- Adapt the sample Seeking Preceptor Letter in the handbook so each message is short and specific.
The Clinical Placement Team will also share site lists on request, and it asks for a record of the sites you have already tried. Keep a simple log of every call and email from the first week, because you will be asked for it.
Searching North Carolina well
Start with the preceptor profile your course needs, not the nearest office. FNP students need primary care, pediatric and women's health experiences with NPs, CNMs, MDs, DOs or PAs practicing in North Carolina. AGPCNP students need at least one NP preceptor across the program and patients from age 13 up, including frail elderly encounters. PMHNP students need psychiatric prescribers, plus therapy hours with licensed counselors, social workers or psychologists. The full list is in UNCW's preceptor requirements, and every site sits inside the state under the North Carolina rule.
Then map the supply. The Sheps Center counted 509 active NPs in New Hanover County in 2025, about 20.7 per 10,000 residents, against 8.1 in Brunswick and 5.6 in Pender. All five Cape Fear counties hold federally designated primary care and mental health shortage areas. For local leads, see NP preceptors in Wilmington; for the Triangle, Charlotte, the Triad and eastern North Carolina, see North Carolina NP preceptors.
Large systems set their own rules for student requests. Atrium Health, for one, asks students not to call its clinicians about an application and asks whether a rotation is already secured. Going through each system's front door keeps a promising lead from closing.
What a secured preceptor looks like on paper
A verbal yes is a lead. A secured preceptor is one you could put in a packet today:
- They agreed to a named practicum course and semester, on a schedule that fits UNCW's clinical dates.
- They hold the credentials UNCW lists, including a minimum of a year practicing as a provider and, for NPs, North Carolina Approval to Practice and board certification.
- Their CV is current, with experience dates and your clinical site listed under professional experience.
- You have their license number, preferred email for evaluation links, and the agency's full name, address and county.
- You know whether the site needs an affiliation agreement, charges an honorarium, or adds items such as HIPAA or OSHA training.
The preceptor details UNCW asks for page covers each field. With all of it in hand weeks early, the 8-week submission deadline becomes a formality rather than a scramble.
Why UNCW students choose us for the search
The search is our specialty, and it is the part of UNCW's process that eats the most hours. We reach out across North Carolina on your behalf, match each preceptor to your course and the populations it requires, confirm credentials against UNCW's list, and assemble the CV, license and agency details your packet needs.
You still decide. We bring options that fit, you choose, and the approval itself rests with UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator, who receives a complete file that fits the rules on the first pass. If a preceptor steps away later, we go straight back to work on a replacement. Tell us your program, your city and your next practicum term in the form below.
Questions UNCW students ask
Does UNCW find preceptors for its NP students?
UNCW helps, but the search belongs to the student. The Clinical Placement Team shares site lists on request, posts available preceptors on Canvas discussion boards and assists as needed. The clinical handbook still expects FNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP students to find and secure their own sites and preceptors, and a site the team hands you is one you are expected to take.
Can a family member who is a nurse practitioner precept me at UNCW?
No. UNCW's clinical handbook states plainly that family and friends are not acceptable preceptors, whatever their credentials. A relative can still help: they can introduce you to colleagues, pass your request around their practice, or give you a place to stay near a site that is far from home.
Can I do my UNCW clinical hours where I work?
UNCW's handbook bars PMHNP students from clinicals in the department where they work. For FNP and AGPCNP students, the published rules focus on whether the site and preceptor meet the course objectives and earn GCC approval, so check an employer site with the Graduate Clinical Coordinator first.
When should I start contacting potential preceptors?
UNCW's placement chart starts outreach half a year to a full year before the course. In the full-time BSN-DNP plans the first practicum falls in semester 5, the spring of year two, so outreach realistically begins during your first year of coursework. The DNP FAQ even encourages building relationships with primary care clinicians before the program starts.
What can I offer a preceptor who agrees to take me?
The School of Nursing does not pay preceptors, but its Preceptor's Corner lists real benefits: NP preceptors may apply 30 precepting hours toward the NC Board of Nursing's 50 CE hours (UNCW calls that requirement annual, while the board's rule counts it every two years), UNCW library access, verification of precepting hours and a potential adjunct faculty appointment.
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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