Preceptors in Greater Nashua and Manchester
Rivier University's campus is in Nashua, and Nashua and Manchester both sit in Hillsborough County. This page sets out the county's federal shortage designations, what Rivier's rules ask of a local preceptor, and how our search works close to campus.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Rivier program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Rivier course.
Close to campus, still a competitive search
Rivier's campus address is 420 South Main Street, Nashua. Nursing is taught in Sylvia Trottier Hall, home to the simulation center and its labs for NP training. For a student who lives nearby, the practicum could in principle be a short drive from class.
Distance is not the hard part, though. The Handbook's placement policy describes NP sites as scarce and notes that students from out-of-state programs arrive looking for preceptors, while some schools maintain waiting lists. A local Rivier student competes for the same Nashua and Manchester clinicians as those students, so the one-year head start the Handbook recommends applies here as much as anywhere.
Shortage designations in Hillsborough County
HRSA designates Health Professional Shortage Areas, or HPSAs, for primary care, mental health and dental care, and assigns each a score. Its current files show these designations in Hillsborough County.
| Designation | Kind | Where | HRSA score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amoskeag Health | FQHC facility: primary care, mental health, dental | Manchester | 20 / 22 / 26 |
| City of Manchester | FQHC facility: primary care, mental health, dental | Manchester | 20 / 21 / 26 |
| Harbor Homes, Inc. | FQHC facility: primary care, mental health, dental | Nashua | 18 / 20 / 26 |
| Hillsborough | Geographic primary care, partially rural, designated October 8, 2025 | Antrim, Bennington, Deering, Greenfield, Hancock, Hillsborough, Windsor | 11 |
The Hillsborough geographic designation reaches past the county line to Bradford and Henniker in Merrimack County, Harrisville, Nelson and Stoddard in Cheshire County, and Washington in Sullivan County. An older designation for the same area, dating from 2007, is marked proposed for withdrawal. HRSA's primary care entries for the three health centers were last updated in September 2025, and the files carry no geographic mental health HPSA for the county.
What the designations tell you, and what they leave open
The three health centers carry primary care, mental health and dental designations, which makes them relevant to both an FNP search and a PMHNP search. The western Hillsborough towns matter mainly to students who live out that way, where the geographic primary care designation applies.
A designation is a statement about need, and it leaves the practical questions open: whether a clinic hosts NP students, whether a preceptor has room this semester, and whether the site holds or can sign an agreement with Rivier. Those answers come one site at a time, first from the clinic, then from Rivier's contract process and graduate faculty review. Shortage areas also appear in a federal preceptor tax credit proposal that is not yet law; the New Hampshire APRN law page explains it.
What Rivier asks of a local preceptor
Training close to campus changes nothing in Rivier's preceptor rules. For FNP courses, the preceptor has to be a physician (MD or DO) or an FNP seeing patients in an outpatient family practice who is two or more years into practice, and the Handbook suggests 4 to 6 patients per 8 hours in NURS 511, 6 to 8 in NURS 513 and 8 to 10 in NURS 515. Ask a Nashua or Manchester clinic about its daily volume as well as its willingness.
For PMHNP courses, Rivier accepts a psychiatrist or a PMH-certified nurse, again with two years in practice; any age group qualifies, inpatient or outpatient, and experience across the lifespan is strongly suggested. AG-ACNP students need a hospitalist for Practicum I and critical care preceptors after that. On every track your RN license has to cover New Hampshire, through the state itself or a compact multistate license, and Rivier and the site must sign a contract, a step the Handbook budgets 30 days for. The FNP and PMHNP requirement pages have the full rules.
Campus days and the practicum calendar
Local NP students have one practical advantage: the campus intensives are on their doorstep. The FNP intensives fall on August 24 through September 4 for fall 2026 and January 4 through 15 for spring 2027, and practicum hours cannot begin before the semester's first day, September 8 in fall 2026. A Nashua-area student can move from the last intensive day to the first clinic week without a trip. The campus intensives page lists every date.
Undergraduates are in a different position. BSN, ABSN and ASN students do not search at all: Rivier assigns their clinical agencies, within roughly a 60-mile radius of campus. The search described on this page is for graduate practicums.
How we search Greater Nashua and Manchester
- Map your radiusWe start from your home and work addresses and the clinic days you can offer, then list family practices, NP-owned practices, community health centers, psychiatric services and hospital groups within reach.
- Screen before callingEvery clinician is checked against your track's credential, setting and two-year rule, and FNP clinics against the suggested patient volume for your course.
- Ask the right questions earlyHas the clinic hosted NP students before, what onboarding does it require, and can it sign a contract with Rivier within the 30 days the Handbook allows?
- Keep a backup warmA second local option stays ready in case the first falls through, because 250 hours must fit inside the semester.
- Hand you a complete fileLicense, credentials, CV and site details arrive ready for the Preceptor Request Form.
Rivier's graduate faculty make the final call on every site, and the coordinator checks the contract and paperwork. Our file is built so neither has to chase a missing piece.
Questions Rivier students ask
Are there NP preceptors at community health centers in Manchester and Nashua?
Amoskeag Health, City of Manchester and Harbor Homes are Federally Qualified Health Centers with HRSA shortage designations for primary care, mental health and dental care. Whether a center has a preceptor with room in your semester, and can contract with Rivier, is settled site by site; we raise both questions on the first call.
What is an HPSA?
A Health Professional Shortage Area is a federal designation from HRSA for primary care, mental health or dental care, given to a geographic area or to a facility such as an FQHC, with a score attached. In Hillsborough County, the designations cover seven western towns and three health centers in Manchester and Nashua.
Which Nashua and Manchester practices qualify for Rivier FNP hours?
Primary care is the default: an outpatient family practice where a physician or FNP two or more years into practice agrees to precept you. When no family practice is available, Rivier's Handbook lets Practicum I use outpatient internal medicine and Practicum II use pediatrics, obstetrics or women's health. Specialty clinics such as dermatology, orthopedics or GI fall outside Rivier's approved list.
How far from Nashua can a Rivier graduate practicum be?
The 60-mile radius in Rivier's Handbook is written for undergraduate clinical assignments. Graduate program sheets say practicums may be completed in your own geographic area, in a state the State Guide accepts and with an RN license there. For most graduate students, the practical limits are commute time, clinic days and 250 hours per semester.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against Rivier's own Nursing Student Handbook, program sheets, catalog, academic calendar and State Guide. Your program of study, your course faculty, your Program Director and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
Rivier asks you to identify a qualified preceptor. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Rivier track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who meet your track's rules, check early whether the site can contract with Rivier, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for, well ahead of August 1 and December 1.
- Preceptors matched to the track: an MD, DO or FNP in outpatient family practice for
NURS 511, a psychiatrist or PMH-certified NP forNURS 521, a hospitalist or intensivist forNURS 638P - Preceptor license, credentials and CV ready for the Preceptor Request Form, with the site's contact details for the contract
- In your own area, in New Hampshire or any state Rivier's State Guide accepts
Start your placement plan
Track, city and semester is all we need to begin.