Common questions from USI nursing students
Short answers to the broad questions University of Southern Indiana nursing students bring to our placement desk, with links to the guides that go deeper. For a single form, course or deadline, the topic pages carry the detail.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your USI program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Which USI students do you help?
Every USI nursing student who has to find a clinical site or preceptor. For most, that means the online nurse practitioner routes: the MSN in FNP, AGACNP or PMHNP, the three post-master's certificates and the NP versions of the BSN-to-DNP, each with 750 direct clinical hours across three courses.
The other graduate programs need placements too, of different kinds. NEL and HSL students complete 40 direct care hours in NRSG 661 plus practicums, where NEL works under a faculty or clinical educator preceptor and HSL works with mentors. DNP students identify practice partners for their project. The RN-to-BSN's practice experiences in NURS 457, NURS 487 and NURS 492 happen at sites the student identifies, under an RN preceptor with at least six months in practice. The programs page lists each one with its hours.
Preceptors considering a USI student are welcome too; our preceptor page covers USI's expectations of them.
Where can you place me?
Near your home, anywhere your USI program accepts residents and your unencumbered RN license lets you practice. USI requires that license wherever your clinicals take place, and its graduate programs work only with the states they recognize.
Those states vary by program. USI's licensure disclosure lists the states whose residents may not enroll, with separate lists for the MSN NP tracks, the certificates and the doctoral routes, and the table has a few conflicting cells of its own. The licensure disclosure guide sorts it out, and our state-by-state guides describe each board and preceptor picture, including Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois around Evansville.
Planning a move mid-program? Let the Program Chair and APRN Director know ahead of it, since a move can affect both your enrollment and your placement.
How do I get started with you?
Use the form on any page, or reach us through the chat, WhatsApp or text. Tell us your USI track, which clinical course and term you need covered, your city and your license states.
Your placement advisor reviews what your course requires under USI's rules and puts a written quote in front of you listing exactly what is included. Once you give the go-ahead, the search starts and you get updates as each preceptor is found and screened.
If you have already spoken with practices, send us their names and answers. We skip them, and you keep a record USI may want later.
What stays with USI, and what stays with me?
USI keeps every decision. The Graduate Clinical Liaison signs off on every preceptor and site, USI drafts and signs the Clinical Education Agreement with the site, faculty approve the Preceptor Packet, and USI sends the confirmation email that lets your hours begin.
You keep the submission and your own record. You email the Preceptor Packet and agreement request from your USI account, keep your DISA items, BLS (and ACLS for AGACNP) and RN license current, log encounters in Typhon for your preceptor to co-sign, and set up the midterm and final calls between your preceptor and faculty.
We carry the search, the screening and the paperwork groundwork in between, and we stay on call once the course is running.
How far ahead should I plan?
Earlier than feels necessary. The Preceptor Packet must reach USI 6 weeks ahead of the rotation, a second handbook page asks for surveys to be finalized a month before clinicals, and clinical hours have to be underway by Week 3. Since each Preceptor Agreement covers only one course and semester, the planning repeats three times a year for NP students.
For the 2026-27 year, Spring classes begin January 11, 2027 and the first Summer session May 17, 2027. Count back 6 weeks from your rotation's start for the packet date, and further still for the search itself. The MSN NP clinical sequence opens in Fall, so the search for that first course belongs in the spring before it. The deadlines guide explains how USI's two timing rules differ.
What if something goes wrong mid-course?
Tell your preceptor and faculty right away, and tell us at the same moment. USI's roles page lists that report as a student duty, so send it the day you know. Each situation has its own guide.
- A preceptor who leaves partway through: the preceptor dropped out guide
- Hours falling behind the weekly pace: the behind on hours guide
- A missing preceptor that threatens your finish date: the delayed graduation guide
In each case, rescheduled hours need course faculty approval, and any new preceptor goes through the same Preceptor Agreement and approval as the first one. A preceptor who stays but cuts your hours is worth flagging early too, since clinical must continue weekly.
Questions USI students ask
Do you work with USI's campus BSN students?
USI's campus BSN organizes clinical rotations through its faculty, with partner hospitals and Dedicated Education Units in the Evansville area. Our work centers on USI students who identify their own sites: the online graduate programs and the online RN-to-BSN, whose practice experiences run in sites students choose near home.
Will my preceptor be close to home?
That is where every search starts. USI allows clinical requirements to be completed in your own community, and we look there first, widening only as far as you tell us you can travel. USI's handbook notes that securing a placement may require travel, so share your honest limit at the start.
How do you use the information I share?
We use it to answer you and arrange your placement. When we approach a prospective preceptor or site on your behalf, they receive only what they need to weigh your request, as our privacy policy describes. You can ask us to delete your information whenever you like, by chat or the contact form.
Can you still help once my clinical course has started?
Yes. USI requires clinical hours to begin by Week 3 of the course and continue weekly, so time is short, but a focused search can still work, and a replacement search runs the same way. Tell your course faculty where things stand, then send us your course, hours completed and location.
Do you work with preceptors in Kentucky and Illinois?
Yes, provided your RN license covers the state the site is in and your home state is one USI enrolls for your program. Evansville sits on the Kentucky line with Illinois just to the west, so a site across the river or the state line can be the nearest option, and the Kentucky clinicals guide covers that state's licensing and board rules.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against USI's own bulletin, program pages and Graduate Nursing Handbook. Your handbook, course faculty and the Nursing Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
USI makes the search your job. We make it the easy part.
Tell us your USI track, your city and your next clinical semester. We find preceptors who fit the NRSG course and fill the Preceptor Packet and Clinical Education Agreement request with typed, complete details, well before USI's 6-week window.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family primary care for FNP, acute care teams for AGACNP, PMHNPs and psychiatrists for PMHNP
- Preceptor license, certification, years of practice and the site's agreement signer ready for the packet
- Fall, Spring and Summer planned together, close to home in a state USI enrolls
Start your placement plan
Track, city and clinical start is all we need to begin.