Finding NP preceptors across Washington, from Puget Sound to the Tri-Cities
Many Gonzaga NP students live in Washington but nowhere near Spokane. The Gonzaga rules travel with you: every Washington clinical site sits inside Gonzaga's in-person site-visit region, and every major system wants a school agreement before a student starts. What changes by region is who employs nurse practitioners, how systems take students and which programs you compete with.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Gonzaga program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Gonzaga course.
What stays the same statewide
Wherever you precept in Washington, the Gonzaga pieces are identical: a preceptor who meets Gonzaga's criteria, a Practicum Site Placement Request, faculty approval, an active affiliation agreement and CPNW clearance before the first hour. Clinical faculty visit you at the site, because Washington is part of Gonzaga's four-state site-visit region, and transportation to the site is yours to budget. The search itself starts from where you live and how far you can drive.
Washington's education rules for in-state programs travel with you too, including the cap of two students per preceptor at a time. Gonzaga is on WABON's approved in-state list, so the limits placed on out-of-state programs do not apply to it. Washington's practice rules covers that side, and Spokane NP preceptors covers the home region.
Seattle, Tacoma and the Puget Sound
The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro is home to more than four million people and to most of Washington's other NP programs, from UW and Seattle University to Pacific Lutheran. Expect crowding in the flagship hospitals, so widen the search to community clinics, specialty practices and suburban primary care. Large systems also plan far ahead: Kaiser Permanente Washington's last public request cycle, for 2024-25, closed on April 8, 2024.
CPNW's healthcare partners here include Swedish at all campuses and Swedish Medical Group, EvergreenHealth, Overlake, Valley Medical Center (part of UW Medicine), Seattle Children's, Fred Hutch, Providence Everett, VA Puget Sound in Seattle and at American Lake, Madigan and Western State Hospital. Kaiser Permanente Washington and MultiCare in Tacoma and Puyallup run their own routes, set out in the table below.
How large Washington systems take students
| System | Where | Student route on its own pages |
|---|---|---|
| Providence Swedish | Puget Sound, Everett, Olympia, Centralia | An Advance Practice Provider Student Placement Request Form in South Puget Sound; a clinical education agreement first in Everett; CPNW partner |
| UW Medicine | Seattle and south King County | Affiliation agreements routed through UW Health Sciences Services; Valley Medical Center is a CPNW partner |
| Kaiser Permanente Washington | Puget Sound and beyond | Schools with an active affiliation agreement submit a Nursing Student Placement Request on an annual cycle |
| MultiCare | Tacoma, Puyallup and Spokane | Affiliation agreement required; the current student portal should be confirmed |
| Providence Southeast Washington (Kadlec, St. Mary) | Southeast Washington | Its own student service portal |
| Legacy Health | Portland and Vancouver | Placements follow contracts between Legacy and each school, with approval from its student placement coordinator |
Every one of these routes begins with a school-level agreement. A clinician's yes starts the process, and Gonzaga's Clinical Placement Team and the system's coordinator finish it. The affiliation agreements page explains the reasons.
The Tri-Cities and southeast Washington
The Kennewick-Richland metro has more than 320,000 residents, and WSU trains nurse practitioners at its Tri-Cities campus, so expect to share the local pool of preceptors. Providence's Kadlec and St. Mary facilities route students through their own portal, a separate door from the Providence coordinators in Spokane and the Puget Sound. Independent practices in Kennewick, Pasco and Richland round out the options.
Beyond the metro, critical access hospitals such as Dayton General, Garfield County Memorial in Pomeroy, Columbia Basin in Ephrata, Othello Community and Quincy Valley each handle affiliation directly. Small hospitals and their clinics are worth a personal approach, and a rural primary care day brings the range of ages and conditions Gonzaga's FNP courses look for.
Vancouver and southwest Washington
Vancouver sits inside the Portland metro, with about 545,000 of its residents on the Washington side. Legacy Health and PeaceHealth Southwest are the anchors: Legacy's student pages tie every placement to its contract with the school, and PeaceHealth's public pages cover medical students and pre-licensure nursing orientation, with no published NP intake. WSU Vancouver also trains nurse practitioners here, which adds competition.
The Columbia River is the catch. Oregon is not a Nurse Licensure Compact state and its board works differently from Washington's, so a Portland clinic across the bridge is a separate question from a Vancouver one. Gonzaga places practicums in the state where you are licensed; read the Oregon guide before counting on a site across the river.
Community clinics, shortage areas and our search
Big systems are only part of the map. HRSA's June 2026 summary counts 260 primary care shortage areas in Washington, covering more than 5.5 million residents with about 42 percent of need met. Community health centers, rural clinics and independent NP practices in those areas are worth a direct approach, and a clinic staffed by nurse practitioners helps FNP students meet Gonzaga's nurse practitioner hours rule.
That is where our search earns its keep. We cover the whole state, from King County suburbs to Palouse clinics, know which systems start with a coordinator and which start with the clinician, and prepare a request packet ready for faculty review. Tell us your city and radius with the form below.
Questions Gonzaga students ask
Can I live in Spokane and precept in Seattle?
Yes, if you can make the trip. Gonzaga places NP practicums in the state where you are licensed, and both cities are in Washington, so the same rules apply. Transportation to clinical sites is your own expense under Gonzaga's FAQ, and the faculty site visit happens wherever your approved site is.
Does Kaiser Permanente Washington take NP students?
Kaiser Permanente Washington's student placement page describes an annual request cycle for schools with an active affiliation agreement, written for nursing students in general. It publishes no separate NP process. A placement there would run through the school's agreement and Kaiser's own cycle, so raise it with Gonzaga's Clinical Placement Team early.
Does every Washington site use CPNW?
Many do. CPNW covers Washington and North Idaho, and its healthcare partners include Providence, Swedish, EvergreenHealth, Overlake, Valley Medical Center, the VA and the state psychiatric hospitals. Gonzaga requires CPNW compliance for every placement, and systems outside CPNW's list, such as Kaiser Permanente Washington, add their own forms.
Do Washington preceptors receive anything for taking a student?
Gonzaga recognizes its preceptors with an hours certificate, adjunct faculty opportunities, DynaMed Plus access and awards. Washington also runs a preceptorship grant through WABON for nurse preceptors of in-state programs, with its own eligibility rules. The Washington practice rules page explains who qualifies and how the grant works.
Will my faculty site visit happen in the Tri-Cities?
Yes. Washington is one of the four states where Gonzaga's clinical faculty visit students at the clinical site, so the visit happens where you precept, whether that is Kennewick, Everett or Vancouver. You coordinate it as the middle of the three points of contact with your preceptor and faculty.
Related pages
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 661PtoNURS 664P, psychiatric care forNURS 661MtoNURS 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.