The DNP agency liaison at Gonzaga

What the liaison does

Post-Master's DNP hours are indirect care hours built around your DNP project, so the partner you need is not a clinician watching you see patients. The catalog says NURS 701 students work with mentors and agency liaisons, and the liaison is the one rooted in the organization where your project runs.

A strong liaison helps the project live inside a real organization: they know how decisions get made there, who holds the data you need and which groups must see your plan before it moves. Gonzaga's checklist covers the formal side of the role, and the practical side is why choosing the liaison matters as much as choosing the setting.

The role runs across the practicum courses, from establishing a site in NURS 700 through the final practicum and, if needed, the NURS 704 extension. The DNP practicum courses page lays out that sequence term by term.

Who can serve as liaison

The checklist rules out three kinds of people: relatives, friends and anyone you report to directly. Gonzaga's DNP FAQ repeats the supervisor point for workplace practicums: a liaison preceptor who directly supervises you is not allowed.

That still leaves a wide field. Good candidates are leaders in the setting where your project will run, such as a department director, a quality or informatics lead, a nurse executive or a clinic manager outside your own reporting line, whose role touches the problem you have chosen.

If the setting is your employer, Gonzaga's workplace limits apply too: the practicum has to sit outside your own department and outside paid hours. The workplace practicum rules guide sets those limits out across programs.

The end-of-course evaluation

At the end of each course, the liaison evaluates your work. From Spring 2026, Gonzaga lists NURS 760, NURS 701 and NURS 702 among the courses whose evaluations run through its CORE platform, with the email arriving within two weeks after the practicum ends. Other DNP courses use the DNP Project Student Evaluation web form on the Preceptor Portal.

Tell your liaison which version to expect, and when, so the CORE email gets opened promptly. The evaluation closes each course, and a liaison who has followed the project closely through three real contacts can speak to your work in specific terms, which is one more reason to keep those meetings substantive. Questions about evaluations go to nursingpracticum@gonzaga.edu. The preceptor evaluations guide covers the process in more detail.

Why DNP students choose us

The right liaison opens an organization to your project; the wrong one leaves a proposal waiting in a queue. We search for settings and leaders that fit your practice gap, sit outside your reporting line and have room for three contacts a semester, and we brief them on Gonzaga's checklist before they say yes.

Your placement advisor prepares the liaison's details, the organization's agreement contact and a proposed meeting schedule, so your practicum proposal starts on firm ground. DNP faculty hold the approval; we see to it that the package they review answers every checklist point. If a liaison changes roles mid-project, we start on a replacement right away. Tell us about your project with the form below.