From your first message to hours in the log: how we place Gonzaga students

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Gonzaga Preceptor placement team

You tell us your Gonzaga program, your next practicum course and the state where you hold your license. We run the preceptor search Gonzaga asks students to begin, check each candidate against Gonzaga's rules, and hand you a complete set of details for your Practicum Site Placement Request. Gonzaga's faculty approve the site, its Clinical Placement Team finalizes the placement, and your placement advisor stays on call through the term.

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Start with your next practicum

Program, course, city and term are enough for your placement advisor to begin.

Numbered steps. Step by step: 1 Intake; 2 Course fit; 3 The search; 4 Your request packet; 5 Gonzaga's review. — Step by step: 1 Intake; 2 Course fit; 3 The search; 4 Your request packet; 5 Gonzaga's review.

What you hand us, and what you get back

The intake is short. We ask for your program and track, the practicum course coming up (for example NURS 601, NURS 663P or NURS 662M), the state where you are licensed, how far you can drive, and the weeks and days you can give to clinicals. If you already have a lead, such as a clinic manager or a nurse practitioner you once worked beside, tell us and we build around it.

What comes back is a preceptor who has agreed to take you, checked against Gonzaga's published criteria, with the paperwork details ready: the preceptor's license and national board certification, years in the clinical area, the site address, the person who signs agreements, and a schedule that fits the course hours. Your placement advisor walks you through each piece before you submit anything.

Step by step

IntakeProgram, course, licensed state, travel radius and available days. We check the term dates on Gonzaga's online graduate calendar so the plan fits inside the semester.
Course fitWe turn the course into a preceptor profile. FNP courses need primary care across the lifespan, with at least half of your hours beside a nurse practitioner. PMHNP courses need a qualified mental health professional. DNP students need a practice setting and an agency liaison.
The searchWe contact practices, clinics and health systems in your state, confirm a willing preceptor, and screen for at least a year in the clinical area and an unencumbered license where you will be precepted.
Your request packetCredentials, license, board certification, site and agreement contact, dates and course fit, organized the way your site request asks for them.
Gonzaga's reviewYou submit the request. Course or program faculty review it and give final approval, and the Clinical Placement Team confirms or completes the affiliation agreement with the site.
Clearance and day oneYou finish CPNW and your compliance items. About two weeks before the rotation you confirm the schedule with the preceptor and send a CV or resume and written goals.
Through the termYour advisor stays reachable. If the preceptor's situation changes, we start on a replacement right away, inside Gonzaga's limit of two preceptors a semester.

Who does what

Gonzaga describes placement as shared work across staff, faculty, students and clinical agencies. We take the part that eats the most time and leave every decision where Gonzaga puts it, with its Clinical Placement Team and faculty.

The Gonzaga placement path, and who handles each piece
Task	Who handles it
Finding local providers willing to precept	You, by Gonzaga's design; we run this search for you
Checking the preceptor against Gonzaga's criteria	We screen first; Gonzaga's faculty decide
Practicum Site Placement Request	You submit it, with the details we prepare
Final approval of the site and preceptor	Course or program faculty
Affiliation agreement	Gonzaga's Clinical Placement Team with the site
CPNW and compliance uploads	You, in CastleBranch, or CORE if your cohort has moved
Three points of contact and the site visit	You coordinate; clinical faculty take part
Logging hours	You, in Typhon, or CORE if your cohort has moved

When to start

Start the search the term before your practicum, and earlier for a first clinical course or a new health system. Gonzaga publishes no request deadline on its public pages; the Graduate Nursing Student Handbook and your course faculty have the dates. What Gonzaga does publish is the order: an hour counts only after site approval, an active affiliation agreement and CPNW compliance, and only inside the semester dates.

Large systems add their own lead times on top. In Spokane, for instance, Providence asks for its onboarding packet at least four weeks before a student starts. Building those weeks into your plan is part of our job. The full list of when hours count is on the hour accrual rules page.

An hour logged before approval, before the agreement is active or during a university break may not count, and Gonzaga warns that breaking its hour rules can put your place in the program at risk.

If a preceptor steps away mid-term

Preceptors change jobs, take leave or lose clinic space. Gonzaga caps each student at two approved preceptors in a semester, so a replacement has to be right the first time. When a preceptor leaves, we search for a second who fits the same course, prepare a fresh request, and help you keep your remaining hours inside the term. Hours already logged with the approved first preceptor still belong to the course, so the new search only has to cover what is left.

If too little of the term is left, Gonzaga's practicum extension courses and flexible progression plans give you room, and we plan the next placement around them. See when a preceptor drops out and the two-preceptor limit for the details.

Why Gonzaga students choose us

We specialize in Gonzaga's process. We know that course faculty audit FNP logs for coverage across ages and populations, that a PMHNP student's observation time is capped, that a DNP project needs an agency liaison who is neither a friend nor a supervisor, and that a preceptor in Arizona or Alaska means an extra Spokane day for the faculty site visit. That knowledge goes into every search.

We also search wherever you are licensed among Gonzaga's ten western states, in cities and in rural counties alike. You get one placement advisor, a request packet that is complete before it reaches faculty, and a plan that runs from your first practicum to your last. Tell us about your next term with the form below, or read what shapes a quote.

Questions Gonzaga students ask

How long does it take to find a Gonzaga preceptor?

It depends on your state, your course and the season. A primary care preceptor in a large metro can come together quickly, while a psychiatric or rural placement usually takes longer, and health systems add their own onboarding windows. Starting a full term ahead leaves room for Gonzaga's review, the affiliation agreement and CPNW before your first hour.

Do I still submit the Practicum Site Placement Request myself?

Yes. The request is yours to submit through Gonzaga's process. We prepare the preceptor's credentials, license and certification, the site and agreement contact and the proposed schedule, so the form is complete when faculty open it. Faculty review each request and give the final approval.

Do you help Post-Master's DNP students?

Yes. A Gonzaga DNP practicum is built on indirect project hours with an agency liaison, so we look for a practice setting that fits your project and a liaison who meets Gonzaga's checklist, including no friendship or reporting relationship with you. See the DNP agency liaison.

Can you place me outside Washington?

Yes. We search in whichever of Gonzaga's ten western admission states you are licensed in, from Alaska to Arizona. Students in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana get faculty site visits at the clinical site, while students in the other six plan an extra day in Spokane alongside an immersion.

What if I already have a preceptor in mind?

Bring the name. We check the fit against Gonzaga's criteria, such as a year in the clinical area and a license in your state, fill any gap in your semester plan, and prepare the request details. Plenty of students use their own contact for one course and our search for the next.

ProcessClinical placement processHow a Gonzaga NP practicum comes together, in order: local preceptors, the site request, faculty approval, the agreement, CPNW, hours, site visit, evaluation.Site requestSite placement requestWhat Gonzaga's Practicum Site Placement Request covers, what to have ready before you submit, how faculty review it, and what has to follow approval.Placement helpCostWhat shapes the quote for a Gonzaga preceptor placement: your program, course, state, setting and timing, plus the Gonzaga costs that are billed separately.Placement helpChoosing a placement serviceWhat the best placement service for Gonzaga nursing students does: questions to ask, the Gonzaga rules it should know, and what stays with you and Gonzaga.First stepIdentifying local preceptorsWhat Gonzaga means when it asks students to engage local providers first: who can precept each track, where to look, and what to bring to the first call.

Last checked 2026-09-25

We check these pages against Gonzaga's catalog, FAQs, preceptor packets and Department of Nursing pages. Your course, the Graduate Nursing Student Handbook and Gonzaga's Clinical Placement Team have the final word.

Gonzaga asks you to find local preceptors first. Let us run that search.

Tell us your Gonzaga program, your practicum course and where you live and can travel. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the license, certification and site details your Practicum Site Placement Request needs, early in the semester before.

Preceptors matched to the course: primary care across the lifespan for NURS 661P to NURS 664P, psychiatric care for NURS 661M to NURS 663M, an agency liaison for the DNP
Credentials, license, board certification and site contact ready for your site request
In Spokane, across Washington or wherever in the ten western states you are licensed

Start your placement plan

Your program, city and next practicum term is all we need to begin.