Practicum hours at your own workplace: Gonzaga's four conditions

Gonzaga's rule, word for word

The MSN and Second MSN FAQs answer the workplace question directly: "With faculty approval, you can complete practicum hours at your place of employment. However, a preceptor may not be your direct supervisor, practicum hours must be separate from worked hours and practicum experiences must be performed on units other than where you work."

Read it as one permission with four conditions attached. Faculty approval comes first, then the three safeguards. Missing any one of them turns a convenient placement into a request faculty can decline, so treat each condition as a line to fill in on your Practicum Site Placement Request rather than a detail to sort out after you start.

Gonzaga also encourages students to look beyond their own facilities, so a workplace practicum is one option among several rather than the expected route. It suits students whose employer runs services well outside their own unit and has providers they have never reported to.

The PMHNP version: outside your RN practice setting

Psychiatric-mental health students have a narrower line. The PMHNP Preceptor Packet says: "Students may not complete PMHNP practicum hours in their own specific RN practice setting; they may complete hours within the greater organization." The test is your RN role, not only the name on your unit's door.

Consider an RN on an inpatient psychiatric unit. Under this rule, that nurse could look elsewhere in the same health system, such as an outpatient psychiatry clinic, a consult service or an affiliated behavioral health center, provided faculty approve it. The preceptor still has to be a qualified mental health professional Gonzaga accepts, and the other safeguards still apply: no direct supervisor and no paid time.

For a PMHNP student who already works in behavioral health, the employer can be the most natural site, and the organization-wide permission keeps it usable outside the exact setting where they practice as a nurse. The guide to the PMHNP practicum courses shows which populations each course needs, which helps you choose the right corner of the organization.

Why the supervisor bar exists

Gonzaga is a Washington program, so WAC 246-840-533, the state's education rule for nursing programs, governs who may precept its students. It rules out immediate family, and it rules out anyone whose financial, business or professional ties to you would get in the way of a fair evaluation. A manager who writes your performance review and also grades your clinical judgment has exactly that kind of conflict.

The evaluation carries weight. Gonzaga's FNP guide describes the preceptor's end-of-semester evaluation as the record of your presence in the clinical setting, and it goes into your permanent file. Faculty rely on it to judge your progress, so an evaluator who is also your boss weakens a document everyone depends on.

The same Washington rule limits a preceptor to two students at any one time. At a large employer where several colleagues are enrolled in NP programs at once, that cap can close off a preceptor you hoped to use, so ask early.

Why Gonzaga students choose us when the workplace falls short

A workplace practicum works well when your employer has the right service outside your unit and a preceptor outside your reporting line. When it lacks one of those, or a manager declines, we locate a qualified preceptor elsewhere in your state with no employment tie to you, so the four conditions are settled from the first conversation.

We check every candidate against the workplace conditions and Gonzaga's preceptor requirements, then prepare what the site request asks for: the preceptor's license and national certification, their time in practice, the site contact and a schedule built around your job. Faculty at Gonzaga decide; we see to it that the file in front of them is complete and meets every workplace condition before it goes in. Send your track, state and course through the form below.