Can't find a preceptor for your Rivier practicum? Start here

Why Rivier searches stall

Rivier's own Nursing Student Handbook is candid about the market. It calls NP clinical sites scarce, points out that programs based elsewhere send their students into New Hampshire hunting for preceptors, and says some schools keep waiting lists. A clinician in Nashua or Manchester may hear from several programs the month you call.

Rivier's requirements trim that pool further, and each organization adds its own contract and onboarding steps. When weeks pass with nothing, the cause usually sits in one of four places.

The four usual causes

• The setting you are targeting is narrower than what Rivier actually accepts for your track.
• The clinician says yes, but the organization will not sign a contract with Rivier or cannot onboard a student in time.
• The lead practices outside your RN license state, or somewhere Rivier's State Guide shows in red.
• The search began inside the four-month window, so every step is now racing a cutoff.

Widen the field without breaking Rivier's rules

Students often chase one ideal setting and skip options the Handbook already permits for their track.

• FNP. The lead preceptor must be a physician (MD or DO) or family NP working in outpatient family care, at least two years into practice. If no primary care office will take you, the Handbook lets Practicum I run in an adult internal medicine clinic and Practicum II in pediatrics, obstetrics or women's health.
• PMHNP. Psychiatrists and PMH-certified nurses with two years of practice qualify, and the patients can be any age, on a hospital unit or in a clinic. Telehealth prescribers can cover up to 300 of the 750 hours.
• AG-ACNP. Practicum I normally sits with a hospitalist, though an ICU or emergency department can substitute; the later two practicums belong in critical care under an intensivist or an AG-ACNP. Telehealth is excluded.
• Education and Leadership. Any RN with a master's working as a nurse educator, or as a nurse leader (a business master's is acceptable), fits the rule.

Each option still needs faculty approval.

When the organization, not the clinician, says no

Sometimes a willing preceptor works for an organization that declines. It may not contract with outside schools, may want onboarding that cannot finish before the semester, or may turn a student away because of background check findings or a vaccine exemption. Rivier's older practicum form says the agency's own requirements take priority over Rivier's.

The Handbook is direct about the last case: when an agency refuses you, Rivier is not required to line up a different site, and finishing the program is not assured. That makes a second option worth holding from the start. The agency refusals page covers what to do next, and the affiliation agreements guide explains what the contract involves.

How we get a stalled search moving

Rivier students come to us when a search has stalled. Your placement advisor takes over the outreach, approaching clinicians near you who already meet your track's rules, and checks license, experience and open clinic days before introducing you.

We find out early whether each organization signs student agreements with a school like Rivier, assemble the license copy, credentials and CV that the Preceptor Request Form calls for, and keep a second option warm in case the first falls through. Rivier's faculty and coordinator approve the site; the file we help you send arrives complete and matched to Rivier's rules. Tell us where you are stuck with the form below.