What Is a Clinical Preceptor? Their Role in NP Education

What is a clinical preceptor? In nurse practitioner (NP) education, a clinical preceptor is the experienced clinician who teaches and supervises you while you care for patients during your clinical rotations. Your preceptor works with your NP faculty and gives you feedback as your skills grow. If you’re about to start your first rotation, here’s what to expect from your preceptor and how to find one.

TL;DR

• A clinical preceptor is a qualified clinician who works with your faculty to teach and supervise you during your NP clinical rotations.
• Your preceptor practices at your clinical site. Your faculty teach your NP courses, approve your placement and evaluate your progress, using your preceptor’s feedback.
• NPs, physicians, physician assistants and other licensed, certified clinicians can precept you when they meet your program’s criteria.
• The 2022 national standards set a minimum of 750 direct patient care hours, and ANCC and AANPCB certification require at least 500 faculty-supervised clinical hours. A preceptor supervises your patient care during those hours.
• Find a preceptor through your school, on your own, or with a preceptor placement service such as Clinical Match Me.

What is a clinical preceptor?

A clinical preceptor is a licensed clinician who oversees your patient care and teaches you in a clinical setting while you complete your NP program’s clinical hours. If you want the formal clinical preceptor meaning, the 2022 national standards for NP education define a preceptor as “a qualified clinician [health care professional] who collaborates with faculty to facilitate and supervise NP student clinical learning experiences in a faculty approved clinical setting.”

What is a preceptor in healthcare outside NP programs?

Preceptors teach in many parts of healthcare. Experienced nurses precept newly hired nurses during orientation, and preceptors also supervise students in physician assistant, medical, pharmacy and dental programs. For the full definition across healthcare, read our article What Is a Preceptor?

What does a clinical preceptor do?

Your preceptor supervises your patient care, teaches you in their practice area and keeps your faculty informed about your progress. Your program puts your preceptor’s responsibilities in writing, and they typically include:

• Keeping patients safe. Your preceptor stays involved in the care you give, so you gain experience in a safe setting.
• Teaching by example. You’ll see how an experienced clinician assesses patients and makes decisions in their specialty.
• Helping you apply your coursework. Your preceptor guides you as you put what you learned in class into practice.
• Giving ongoing feedback. Your preceptor tells you what you’re doing well and what to work on next, so you build confidence and clinical judgment.

How is a clinical preceptor different from your faculty or a clinical instructor?

Your preceptor teaches you at the clinical site, while your NP faculty are responsible for your education as a whole. Here’s how the roles compare:

• Clinical preceptor. Your preceptor is a practicing clinician at your clinical site. Preceptors typically work with one student, or a small number of students, at a time.
• NP faculty. Your faculty teach the courses in your NP program. Under the 2022 standards, they approve every clinical placement and evaluate your competencies. Each faculty member oversees the clinical learning of up to eight students.
• Clinical instructor. The title varies by school. At the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies, for example, a clinical instructor is a part-time faculty member who oversees students’ clinical education, approves their clinical notes and may supervise students at more than one site.

Who can be a clinical preceptor for NP students?

A licensed, nationally certified clinician who meets your program’s eligibility criteria can precept you. The 2022 standards name nurse practitioners, physicians, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives and social workers, along with other healthcare providers.

Before placing you with a preceptor who’s new to your program, your faculty review their degree, their unencumbered license to practice in their state, their national certification and a CV that shows their current expertise. New preceptors also receive a formal orientation from your program. Since your faculty set the eligibility criteria, the exact rules vary by program. Our guide to NP preceptor requirements goes into more detail.

What should you expect from your clinical preceptor?

Expect supervision, teaching and regular feedback from someone who knows what your course requires. Under the national standards, your faculty give your preceptor your course objectives, required clinical hours, evaluation forms and the competencies you need to achieve. The Clinical Preceptor Guide from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) adds that faculty tell your preceptor what level you’re at and how your skills should progress during the rotation.

Your preceptor will expect things from you, too. According to AACN, you’re responsible for:

• Communicating with your faculty and your preceptor before and throughout the rotation
• Meeting the clinical site’s health and regulatory requirements, including confidentiality, HIPAA and any security clearance
• Sharing your learning needs and the objectives your faculty approved for the rotation

For more advice, read our tips for working with clinical preceptors.

What is a clinical preceptor’s role in your evaluation?

Your preceptor gives feedback on your clinical performance, and your NP faculty use it to evaluate you. Here’s how evaluation works in a program that follows the national standards:

• Preceptor feedback. Your preceptor reports on your performance using the evaluation forms and competencies your program provides.
• Faculty observation. Your faculty also assess you directly, through site visits, recorded encounters, simulation or remote observation.
• Joint meetings. Your faculty, your preceptor and you meet to discuss your progress.
• Clinical logs. Your faculty review the encounters you log to see the number and type of patients you’ve cared for.
• Your feedback. You evaluate your preceptor and clinical site, too. Early in each rotation, your faculty, your preceptor and you review the placement together.

If an evaluation shows you need more work on a competency, your program makes a plan with you to address it.

Why does every NP student need a clinical preceptor?

Your preceptor supervises the clinical hours you need to graduate and to take your certification exam. The 2022 national standards set a minimum of 750 direct patient care hours for every NP population-focused track. ANCC and AANPCB certification require at least 500 faculty-supervised clinical hours. ANCC, for example, lists that minimum in its FNP-BC eligibility requirements.

Simulation can’t replace those hours. The standards say simulation “is not direct patient care,” although care you give patients through telehealth can count.

Common clinical preceptor questions

Do clinical preceptors get paid?

It depends on the arrangement. Some preceptors teach students without pay, and a few states offer tax credits to preceptors who do. Through Clinical Match Me, preceptors earn $1,000+ per rotation, and the price you pay us includes their honorarium. You’ll never pay a separate fee to the preceptor.

Do you have to be certified to be a preceptor?

To precept NP students in a program that follows the 2022 national standards, yes. Those programs document each preceptor’s degree, license and national certification, and faculty set any other eligibility criteria.

Is being a preceptor worth it?

It can be. If you’re certified by AANPCB, you can count up to 120 hours of precepting toward as many as 25 non-pharmacology continuing education contact hours when you renew. As a Clinical Match Me preceptor, you’ll also earn $1,000+ per rotation, and you decide which students to send offers to and how many to take. If you’re considering it, see how to become a preceptor with us.

What is a clinical preceptor in medicine?

In medical education, a clinical preceptor is a practicing physician who supervises medical students as they care for patients, much as your preceptor guides you. Physicians can precept NP students too, when they meet your program’s criteria.

How do you find a clinical preceptor?

Start with your school, then search on your own or use a preceptor placement service. However you find your preceptor, your faculty review and approve them and your clinical site.

• Your school. Ask your clinical coordinator how your program places students and which preceptors it already works with.
• Your own search. Contact practices in your specialty and ask whether a clinician will precept you. Our guide on how to find NP preceptors on your own has ideas to try.
• A preceptor placement service. Post one placement request and start receiving offers from preceptors who meet your requirements.

Clinical Match Me is a preceptor placement service for NP and PA students in every clinical specialty. Our founder is a nurse practitioner who struggled to find a preceptor as a student, and since 2014 we’ve helped more than 10,000 students find preceptors.

To find a nurse practitioner preceptor with us, submit a placement request with your specialty and rotation dates. Choose the states you’re willing to travel to, or enter your zip code and how far you’re willing to travel. We’ll match you with preceptors in those areas. Preceptors review your placement request and send you offers, so you choose your preceptor instead of being assigned one. Our AI preceptor outreach also contacts qualified providers near you, even when there are no matching preceptors in our network.

Although many students are placed within days, try to submit your placement requests as early as possible. The sooner you do, the sooner we can place you.

Free to join and no credit card required. Pay nothing until you accept an offer. Once you do, you’re protected by our Money Back Guarantee. If your school rejects your preceptor for any reason, or your preceptor cancels, you get a full refund or a replacement preceptor at no extra cost.

Sign up free and submit your first placement request today.