Many Nurse Practitioner (NP) students face a significant hurdle during their educational journey: the challenge of securing a clinical preceptor for their required rotations. For those unfamiliar with the term, a preceptor is an experienced NP or physician who mentors students during their clinical training, providing real-world guidance, feedback, and a hands-on learning experience.
Having spent years working in this field, I’ve gained valuable insight into why this process is so challenging for NP students. Since 2014, I’ve been involved in helping students find preceptors. My journey started with Advanced Practice Prep (APP), a company that offers skills courses for medical providers, including NPs. The company was founded to help providers refresh their knowledge and practical skills, such as casting, suturing, and trigger point injections. However, what I quickly realized was that many NP students were struggling to find preceptors for their clinical rotations.
The Rise of Online NP Programs
The root of this struggle can be traced to the rapid expansion of online NP programs that began around the early 2010s. With the rise of these online programs, many schools began offering flexible distance-learning options for students pursuing a Master’s in Nursing to become Nurse Practitioners. While these programs provided much-needed flexibility, they lacked an essential component: a local network of clinical preceptors.
As online NP programs grew exponentially, so did the demand for preceptors. Students in these programs often found themselves enrolling in schools that didn’t have established relationships with healthcare providers in their area, leaving them to search for preceptors on their own. The result? An overwhelming challenge for students who were already juggling the demands of coursework, part-time or full-time jobs, and family responsibilities.
The Birth of Clinical Preceptor Rescue
Recognizing the need for a solution, I worked with APP to help students connect with preceptors. Over time, the demand for this service grew, prompting me to co-found Clinical Preceptor Rescue in 2018. Our mission is simple: to help NP students find preceptors for their clinical rotations.
One of the key challenges NP students face is the lack of significant financial compensation for preceptors. Unlike medical schools and Physician Assistant (PA) programs, which offer stipends to their preceptors to offset the costs of mentoring, NP programs generally do not provide similar incentives. Precepting requires a significant investment of time from providers—time that could otherwise be spent seeing patients or growing their practice. For this reason, we offer honorariums to our preceptors to help incentivize their participation, though this is often a modest sum compared to the stipends that medical schools offer.
Increased Demand and Limited Resources
Since the time I first began assisting students in securing preceptors, the problem has only worsened. NP programs are proliferating at an unprecedented rate. This has led to a ten-fold increase in the number of NP students, all of whom need clinical placement. In contrast, medical schools and PA programs typically have the resources to secure preceptorships for their
students because they offer greater financial incentives and require that students focus solely on their clinical rotations, not juggling jobs and other responsibilities.
What makes the situation even more challenging is the fact that while NP schools are technically required to assist students in finding clinical placements, there are no enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that this requirement is truly met. Many schools simply provide outdated lists of preceptors, leaving students to do the hard work of securing their placements. This often leads to frustration, as students are left with minimal guidance and an overwhelming task ahead of them.
A More Personal Approach
At Clinical Preceptor Rescue, we understand the stress and pressure that NP students face. Our team is committed to making the process as smooth as possible, offering support and personalized attention to each student. We make it a priority to place students in clinical settings close to their homes or workplaces to reduce the burden of travel. We also strive to keep our rates low by avoiding hidden fees and unnecessary costs that other services may charge.
We have been placing NP students since 2014, and our experience has allowed us to build relationships with thousands of preceptors across the country. These established relationships give us the ability to offer more placement opportunities than newer services that are just getting started. We pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service, answering calls, and working directly with students to navigate this challenging process.
The Future of NP Preceptorships
While we hope that NP students can eventually secure their clinical placements independently, the reality is that many will need support. Whether it’s due to the growing number of NP programs or the lack of financial incentives for preceptors, the problem is not likely to disappear anytime soon.
If you are an NP student struggling to find a preceptor, Clinical Preceptor Rescue is here to help. We have placed students from nearly every school and are committed to ensuring that your clinical experience is as seamless as possible. Check our Google reviews, and you’ll see that we’ve built a strong reputation for our ability to help students secure placements, no matter the challenges they face.
Finding a clinical preceptor is no small feat, but with the right support, it’s possible to navigate this complex process. At Clinical Preceptor Rescue, we’ve been doing it for a long time, and we’re here to help you, too.