NKU's placement help, your own network and our service, side by side

The routes are not either-or. You can start with your own network, ask NKU what it can offer, and bring in a placement advisor when you want a dedicated search or the calendar is tight.

NKU states that it provides support for students who need assistance with locating a preceptor. That help comes from the MSN Student Placement Team inside Clinical Operations and Outreach, whose staff include a Student Placement Coordinator and a Clinical Placement Specialist. In 2026 NKU advertised that specialist role with a focus on preceptor outreach and placement matches.

NKU keeps its list of affiliated sites internal; if one of those sites has room, NKU works with the student to secure it. NKU is also candid that its help may not land a site close to home. The request process and eligibility details sit in the MSN Clinical Information Canvas. Our NKU placement assistance page explains how to ask.

Self-placement is NKU's default for its online NP tracks: its Students page makes identifying a preceptor, securing a site and completing any affiliation agreement each student's responsibility. NKU's FAQ encourages students to use their professional networks, noting that it helps them manage their schedules, especially when they work.

Your network is strongest where you already know people: a sister unit at your employer, a clinic you refer patients to, a past preceptor from your RN days. NKU's rules still filter every lead, ruling out your supervisor, relatives, friends and anyone short of a year in role. Keep a simple list of who you asked and what they said; it saves time if you later widen the search. Our preceptor outreach guide covers how to make the ask and what NKU offers preceptors.

NKU students choose us when they want a search built around their rotation rather than around who they happen to know. A placement advisor searches near your home, in a state NKU approves, for a clinician who meets NKU's rules for your track and can commit to the 7-week schedule.

When a clinician says yes, the placement advisor assembles the documents NKU asks for and names the site's agreement contact, so your request goes in early and whole. If a preceptor steps away, we start on a replacement. You see a written quote before you commit, and your placement advisor stays your single contact from first message to approval email. Each stage is laid out on how it works.

The best results come from running routes in parallel and keeping each informed. Start early: NKU recommends filing 90 days before the session, so the search itself should begin before that. Ask your network, write to NKU's placement team, and if you bring in a placement advisor, share who you have already contacted so no clinician is approached twice.

When more than one lead comes through, choose the preceptor who best fits your course, your location and the site's agreement status, then file one clean request. A clinician you do not use this session may suit a later course, since NKU allows one to four preceptors across the MSN. Keep those contacts warm for the rotations still ahead on your plan.

Every preceptor and site, however you found them, goes through the same NKU review. Once you submit in Medatrax, coordinators look at the preceptor, Contracts & Compliance handles contracts and your compliance record, and the approval email follows when all three portions are signed off.

NKU gives the final approval on every placement. What changes between routes is how much of the search and the paperwork you carry yourself. Filing always stays with you, in your own Medatrax account, whichever route found the preceptor. Our contribution is a request that arrives with nothing missing. The self-placement request guide covers the review in detail.