Affiliation agreements for NKU clinical sites

An affiliation agreement is the contract between NKU and a clinical site that allows NKU students to train there. NKU's Students page lists completing one among the things each student must understand, alongside identifying a preceptor and securing a site.

Some sites already have one. NKU's FAQ says the university holds affiliation agreements with clinical sites, though the list itself is not distributed to students. When your preceptor works at a site already under agreement, that piece is in place. When they work somewhere new to NKU, a fresh agreement becomes part of your self-placement request, and it can be the piece that decides how quickly the whole request is finalized.

If the site is your own employer, NKU's extra rules on unit, supervisor and paid hours apply as well; see clinicals where you work.

NKU's FAQ is specific about the student's role. You provide NKU with a contact person at the site, and NKU and the site negotiate the agreement between them. You are not asked to draft, review or sign it.

The contact has to be the right one. NKU's 2023 readiness checklist asks preceptors to give the student the correct site contact for the agreement, so start by asking your preceptor. Depending on the site, that might be a practice manager, an administrator or an education office. Details worth passing to NKU with the name:

• The contact's full name and job title.
• An email address that person actually reads.
• The site's legal name and address, as it would appear on a contract.
• Whether the site has hosted NKU students before, if your preceptor knows.

NKU's Interested Preceptors page says the agreement must be finalized by both sides "before the intended clinical term." Contracts & Compliance reviews that contract side as one of the three portions NKU approves before finalizing a placement, so a ready preceptor at a site with no agreement is still waiting.

NKU is candid that this step can run late. Its FAQ warns that negotiations with a new site may not be finished before class starts. Two organizations have to agree, and NKU publishes no standard turnaround for how long that takes.

The practical effect for you is simple: a new site adds a step that neither you nor your preceptor controls. Build it into your plan from the first conversation, and ask whether the site has an existing NKU agreement before you settle on it.

Two situations move more quickly, according to NKU's FAQ. When a replacement preceptor is needed, a site that already holds an agreement with NKU, or a practice the preceptor owns or manages, can be cleared in a few days. The FAQ ties this to the replacement case, but the pattern is useful at any point: an existing agreement, or a decision-maker who is also your preceptor, removes the slowest step.

The same answer covers the fallback. If a new agreement can't be completed before class, NKU says the student might train at a different site for the time being. That is worth weighing before you commit to a site new to NKU close to a session start. The replacement scenario itself is covered on preceptor dropped out.

NKU's floor for preceptor information is 30 days before a clinical, and it highly recommends tripling that to 90. At a site already under agreement, the shorter window may be workable. At a site new to NKU, the 90-day lead is what gives a negotiation room to finish before the term. Session-by-session dates are on NKU placement deadlines.

While a new agreement is in progress, the Contracts & Compliance staff member listed for your track on NKU's Students page is the person working the contract side of your request. What that team reviews, and how it finalizes a placement, is on Contracts & Compliance. Keep your preceptor informed too; they may be able to nudge a slow reply from inside their own site.

The site sets the pace of the contract portion, so we plan for the agreement from the first call. When a placement advisor lines up a preceptor, we ask the site straight away whether it already works with NKU and, if not, who handles its student agreements.

That name comes to you with the preceptor's documents, ready for your self-placement request, so NKU has someone to negotiate with from the moment the request lands. Your start date keeps its margin. If a site's contract process looks too slow for your session, we tell you early and line up an alternative at a site that has hosted NKU students before. NKU negotiates and approves every agreement; we make sure it has the right person to talk to from day one. Tell us your session.