The USU clinical placement process, from first lead to week one

The seven steps, in USU's order

This is the FNP sequence from the Clinical Handbook. The other programs follow the same pattern with a few changes, covered further down. Each step links to the page that goes deeper.

1. Submit your leads. Fill in Appendix G, the Interest Form, a Google Form behind your USU Google login, with at least three preceptors or sites for each setting. Your CPC checks whether USU already has an agreement with each site or needs to reach out.
2. Build the preceptor packet. Your preceptor completes Appendix H, the Preceptor Information and Acknowledgement Form, one per student, site and specialty. You email it to the OFE with their license verification, CV and, for APRNs, proof of board certification.
3. Credentialing. The OFE sends the packet to the Program Director, who approves or denies the preceptor. The handbook puts this at 4–16 weeks on average, and the review itself has its own page.
4. Affiliation Agreement. You give the OFE the site coordinator's contact details and the OFE sends the contract straight to the site. Stay out of it unless the OFE asks you to step in; the agreement page explains the legal review.
5. Compliance. Order your packages and upload your records in Complio by American DataBank. Complio reviews each item in 2–5 business days, then the OFE updates your status within about 2 more.
6. OFE Approval Letter. When preceptor, agreement and compliance are all approved, the OFE emails the approval letter. Until it arrives you can't be on site or log a single hour.
7. Week one. Upload the letter with the preceptor acknowledgement form in the first week of each clinical course, and start your hours that same week. From then on, each clinical day goes into Project Concert within 48 hours.

Two deadlines that don't match: 6 months and 16 weeks

USU's current documents give two different deadlines, and you need to meet both. The 2026-27 catalog (p. 106) asks for at least three qualified preceptors with valid contact information 6 months before each clinical course starts. The FNP, DNP and practicum handbooks want every site, preceptor and health and safety approval on file with the OFE at least 16 weeks before the course.

The simplest reading is two checkpoints: names due at 6 months, approvals complete at 16 weeks. That leaves roughly ten weeks between them, which is less than a new agreement is expected to take. If your best lead is a site USU has never worked with, 6 months is already tight.

Both clocks apply to each clinical course, not only the first. FNP students take FNP592, FNP594, FNP596 and FNP597 as 8-week courses in year two, so the deadlines stack up fast. The USU clinical deadlines page lines them up against the session calendar.

How the other USU programs differ

DNP students run the same model with a Project Mentor in place of a preceptor, so the DNP handbook spells PAC as Project Mentor, Agreement, Compliance. Mentor identification starts in the program's second course, mentor approval takes 2–16 weeks, and documents are due 16 weeks before the immersion. The coordinator there is called the Practice Immersion Placement Coordinator (CPC).

The RN-BSN, MSN Nurse Educator and Health Care Leadership handbook uses the same partner model and puts the paperwork deadline 16 weeks before MSN578 or NUR378. RN-BSN students find their community agency leader themselves, and that leader sends a resume to the OFE. No separate date is stated for MSN587, and that handbook carries no version date, so confirm both with your CPC and read the current copy on USU's catalog site.