Additional preceptors, observers and observation hours at USI

Additional preceptors at your preceptor's site

USI's clinical FAQ answers the question directly. If other licensed practitioners in your primary preceptor's office or facility have the chance to precept you, an additional Preceptor Agreement form must be completed and approved by USI before that experience begins. Every clinician who supervises your patient care has to be someone USI has checked and who has accepted its terms.

Additional preceptors usually come from ordinary clinic life. Your preceptor's partner covers a week of leave, a physician in the practice handles a procedure you need, or a heavy day splits you between two providers. Each of those clinicians needs an approved agreement of their own before the time you spend with them counts.

An additional preceptor meets the same standard as your primary: an unencumbered license, specialty certification that fits your track, at least a year as an advanced provider and no personal tie to you. For PMHNP students that means another PMHNP or a psychiatrist. The preceptor requirements page has the full list.

Observers: what you may and may not do

USI lets students take part as observers without a preceptor agreement. The trade-off is strict: as an observer you may not assess patients or implement care plans, and the clinical FAQ states that observation hours do not count toward the required direct patient clinical hours.

Observation still has value. A day beside a specialist or an afternoon in a procedure suite can sharpen your clinical reasoning and your board preparation. Log it for what it is, keep it out of your direct-hour count, and check that an observer visit fits the host's own rules, since skipping USI's agreement does not skip the site's policies.

If you find yourself hoping observation will count, that is a sign the clinician should become an additional preceptor instead. Ask them whether they would sign the agreement.

Rescheduling hours when plans change

Life interrupts clinicals. USI's rule is that, with faculty approval, clinical hours may be rescheduled during the clinical semester because of unforeseen circumstances, and any rescheduled clinical must be approved by course faculty. The phrase that matters is "during the clinical semester": you are moving hours within the term, not past its end.

Two more limits shape any new schedule. USI bars clinical hours on university holidays and on any day courses are out of session, and clinical schedules go to clinical faculty before you attend. If you cannot keep a clinical commitment, the roles page asks you to tell your preceptor and faculty immediately.

If the gap is growing rather than shifting, behind on clinical hours sets out the ways students add time within USI's rules, from extra days with an approved preceptor to a second approved site.

How we build backup into your placement

A strong placement has depth. When we place you, the placement desk asks whether other clinicians at the site would precept and collects their license, certification and practice details at the same time, so an additional Preceptor Agreement can go to USI quickly when your primary preceptor is away.

If you need a second site for a specialty rotation or a split schedule, we find one that fits the course and gather the packet and agreement details for it. And if a preceptor steps away mid-semester, we stay on call to find a replacement; see if your preceptor drops out. Tell us your course, your site and the weeks you need covered in the form below, and we plan the backup with you.