Drexel clinical compliance: every item, the order to do them, and who pays

Clinical compliance is the bundle of health, safety and background records that Drexel's clinical sites insist on before a student sees patients. At CNHP it belongs to the Clinical Compliance team, which also runs contracts and calls itself the Contracts and Compliance team. Its requirements sit on top of the university's own immunization and health insurance rules rather than replacing them.

There is no single Drexel-wide list. Requirements and deadlines vary by program, and the full checklist for yours comes from your compliance coordinator. Drexel is plain about the stakes: everything has to be received by the dates given before you can begin clinical for that term. Nurse practitioner and MSN students share one coordinator; doctoral nursing students have their own.

Drexel's NP program pages add that some steps may take significant time to complete. The process is introduced in NUPR 520, the zero-credit orientation seminar, and that is where most students begin their pre-clinical requirements.

Drexel sums up its typical package as yearly background and urine drug screenings, a physical, the identified immunizations, training modules and required documentation. Spelled out item by item:

Sites can add their own items through their affiliation agreements, and Drexel follows the immunization rules those executed agreements require. Each item has its own page: CastleBranch, background checks, immunizations and TB and BLS, ACLS and PALS.

Drexel hands you due dates, not a sequence. This order is ours, built around what takes longest and what goes stale, so you finish on time without redoing anything.

1. Start anything that needs several dosesPull your vaccine records the week you're admitted. A Hepatitis B series or a missing titer goes first, since every titer must come back positive.
2. Settle your RN licenseDrexel checks licenses in CastleBranch, and its pages differ on Pennsylvania versus multistate licenses. The license page lays out both readings.
3. Open CastleBranch and start the background packageThe state check runs from the details you enter, and fingerprint results arrive by mail, so allow postal time.
4. Book BLS, plus ACLS or PALS if your track needs themPick a class date that keeps the card valid through your whole clinical term.
5. Finish the training modulesHIPAA and BioRAFT need an active Drexel email account, so do them once yours is live.
6. Leave the drug test and physical until nearer the termDrexel wants the physical within 12 months and some sites set drug-screen windows, so later dates last longer.
7. Confirm insurance and the flu formCoverage has to be active when the clinical term opens, and the flu form is due October 1.

Drexel's compliance FAQ says the package cost varies slightly by program and that most of it is folded into your student fees. The costs Drexel names as the student's own are a short list:

• A blood drug test, on the occasions one is added, is student paid.
• A drug retest is paid by the student, while a reasonable-suspicion test is paid by the program.
• A Pennsylvania Child Abuse Clearance needs payment if you already used a volunteer search in the past 57 months.
• Health insurance premiums, if you buy a plan to meet the clinical coverage rule.

Professional liability works differently. Drexel's Office of General Counsel says students in Drexel's healthcare programs are insured under the Drexel University Medical Professional Liability Self-Insurance Trust, and no current Drexel page tells NP students to buy an individual policy. Certificates of coverage are requested through the department administrator, so point a site that asks for one toward Drexel.

Two separate rules apply, and only one changed. From the 2026 academic year the university stopped requiring fully online students to meet its health insurance policy. CNHP's clinical rule stayed put: you need current comprehensive medical coverage for the whole of your clinical coursework, and without it you will not be cleared for the term.

Part-time students who need a plan can contact the university health insurance office to enroll, and coverage has to be in place on the first day of the clinical term. Because clearance is term by term, recheck your coverage before each new clinical course, not just the first.

Write to dhcompliance@drexel.edu. The team says it replies within 24 business hours on weekdays and 48 hours over the weekend, so a question sent on a Monday usually comes back well before a due date at the end of the week.

Good questions to send: which items your program requires this year, your due dates for the first clinical term, whether the drug test repeats annually on your track, and whether your clinical site has asked for anything beyond Drexel's list. Save each reply with your records.

If you are considering a vaccine exemption, raise it early. Drexel cautions that an exemption can slow your path through the program, because a clinical site may still insist on the vaccine.

Compliance clears you; a placement gives that clearance somewhere to go. We find a preceptor and clinical site that fit your Drexel course and population, then pass on the site's own onboarding requirements early, so they join your checklist well before your compliance due dates. If a preceptor pulls out once you're cleared, we stay on call and line up a replacement who fits the same course.

We work in Drexel's order: site and preceptor first, then the clinical affiliation agreement, then clearance. Drexel gives the final approval, and we make sure what reaches the Contracts and Compliance team is complete and fits its rules the first time. Tell us your track and first clinical term on our contact page.