NKU's 30-day minimum and 90-day recommendation, session by session

NKU's online FAQ gives two timing rules for preceptor information. It must reach NKU "a minimum of 30 days prior to the start of a clinical," and it is "highly recommended that students submit 90 days prior." A second answer in the same FAQ is stricter, asking for requests "no later than 90 days prior to the start of each clinical rotation."

Read together, 30 days is the floor and 90 days is the plan. The second wording also settles a common question: the clock runs for each clinical rotation, not only your first one, which fits the Medatrax practice of filing a new self-placement request for every L course.

Neither line is the final word on your own term. NKU says the actual deadlines are posted in Canvas, and the MSN Clinical Information Canvas is where changes are announced. Turn on its notifications so a revised date reaches your NKU email.

A self-placement request passes through several hands before Medatrax sends the approval email. Your Clinical or Concentration Coordinator reviews the preceptor, the Contracts & Compliance team checks the contract and your compliance record, and all three portions must clear before the placement is final.

Before any of that starts, the preceptor has to send a CV or resume and license, sign the Preceptor Responsibilities form and build a Preceptor Profile in Medatrax. Each piece depends on a busy clinician answering email between patients.

Ninety days absorbs those delays. Thirty days leaves little room if one document is missing, if the site needs a new affiliation agreement, or if the preceptor's schedule changes after they say yes.

Here are both lines for the next clinical starts on NKU's calendar, taken from its preceptor home page and, for Summer 2, its online program calendar. We counted the days ourselves from those start dates; they are not NKU-published deadlines, and your Canvas posting overrides them.

As of late September 2026, both Fall 2 lines have passed and the Spring 1 recommendation is only weeks away. Session names, end dates and the one-clinical-per-session rule live on our 7-week sessions guide.

1. Pin the sessionFind the session your next clinical course falls in from your course sequence or your academic advisor. Clinical courses carry an L, such as MSN 652L.
2. Count back 90 daysUse the table above or your Canvas posting. That date is when your preceptor and site should already be settled.
3. Secure the preceptor earlyAsk well before the 90-day mark so paperwork, not the search, fills the final weeks.
4. Collect the preceptor fileCV or resume, license, the signed Preceptor Responsibilities form and a Medatrax Preceptor Profile. A site with no agreement also needs a named contact person.
5. Submit and watch MedatraxFile the self-placement request, then watch for the official approval email once all three portions clear.

A site without an NKU affiliation agreement is the biggest reason to start early. NKU's requirements page says the agreement has to be signed off by NKU and the site before the term it is meant for, and NKU's FAQ is plain that negotiations may not be finished before class starts.

Your part is small: name a contact person at the site for NKU. The negotiation between NKU and the organization is what takes time, and nothing you do in the final 30 days can speed the other organization's contract process. Our affiliation agreements guide covers what the contact person needs to know.

Sites that already hold an agreement move faster. NKU's FAQ notes that when a preceptor drops out, a replacement at a contracted site, or with a preceptor who owns or manages the practice, can clear in a few days.

If your clinical starts in under 30 days and nothing is on file, you are past NKU's published minimum. NKU does not publish what happens next, so ask directly: email studentclinicalinfo@nku.edu and copy your Clinical Instructor, whose name shows in myNKU under Class Schedule.

Keep searching while you wait for the answer. A preceptor at a site that already has an NKU agreement is the fastest route, and a file that arrives complete on the first send saves days of back-and-forth. Our page on finding a preceptor fast covers the short-notice plan.

If the session is truly lost, move your planning to the next start date straight away. NKU's session starts sit less than 90 days apart, so the next session's 90-day line has usually passed too; work to its 30-day minimum and the date posted in Canvas.

NKU students come to us because we plan from the start date backward, not from the day panic sets in. A placement advisor maps your next L course to its session, sets your 90-day target, and starts the preceptor search for a track-matched clinician in an NKU-approved state near your home.

Once a preceptor agrees, we chase down the resume, license copy and signed Responsibilities form and name the site contact, so your Medatrax request goes in complete and early. Approval is NKU's call, and what reaches its reviewers already fits the rules. If a preceptor withdraws, we are already searching for the replacement. Start with the form below or our contact page.