How Drexel's NP clinical placement process works

Drexel publishes no single flowchart for NP clinical placement, but its catalog, compliance pages and preceptor page describe one consistent sequence. Read it as seven stages. Several overlap in time, and the contract and compliance stages usually run side by side once a preceptor agrees.

1. Settle your RN license questionProgram pages want Pennsylvania RN licensure in place before clinical courses, yet the compliance certifications page lets a compact license held in your primary state of residence stand in. Work out which rule covers you on the Pennsylvania license page.
2. Take NUPR 520The zero-credit orientation seminar introduces clinical support services, your track's requirements, contracting and compliance.
3. Find a site and preceptorThis is your search, helped by Dragon Network, the clinical placement manager's recruiting and your own contacts.
4. Send the preceptor's documentsDrexel asks each preceptor for a CV, state license and board certification.
5. Get the clinical contract signedCNHP's Contracts and Compliance team runs the clinical contracting process with the site.
6. Clear complianceBackground checks, drug screen, immunizations, BLS, training and health insurance go into CastleBranch by your coordinator's dates.
7. Complete the rotationYour preceptor validates your hours and files midterm and final evaluations in E*Value.

Each current Drexel NP program page that mentions placement assigns the search to the student, and none promises a spot. Drexel does name two forms of help. Dragon Network lets you message Drexel alumni and affiliated clinicians who have signed up to precept, and a clinical placement manager works on recruiting new preceptors for the department. Both are explained on Dragon Network and the placement manager page.

Geography shapes the search. Drexel cautions that site availability differs by state and that some students travel for clinicals. Pediatric applicants get a specific tip: holding RN licenses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware widens the pool of sites. And New York residents may enroll in the NP programs, but every one of their clinical hours has to happen outside New York.

Three approvals have to line up before you log an hour. First, the preceptor has to qualify: a nurse practitioner, nurse midwife or physician whose specialty Drexel accepts, credentialed for their state, board certified and past their first year of practice. The detail, including the gaps in Drexel's rules, is on preceptor requirements.

Second, the site and Drexel must sign a clinical affiliation agreement. The CNHP Contracts and Compliance team drives it, with Drexel's legal office reviewing the terms. Timing and paperwork are on the affiliation agreement page.

Third, you must be cleared. Your compliance coordinator issues a list and due dates specific to your program, and a document still missing at the cutoff keeps you out of clinical for that term. Proof of comprehensive health insurance is on the list too. Each item is broken down on clinical compliance.

Each Drexel clinical course pairs online class work with the rotation in the same quarter. The load is real. Acute care students, for example, owe 160 hours per clinical course, usually spread over a pair of 8-hour clinic days each week, on top of a required three-hour live class every week.

In E*Value, your preceptor rates your performance at midterm and again at the close of the course, and confirms the hours you logged. They also update your clinical faculty on how you are doing. When the term ends, the preceptor receives Drexel's Certificate of Appreciation showing the hours verified.

One point to confirm: E*Value is the only tracking system on Drexel's current preceptor page, while a 2016–17 handbook for the non-NP Advanced Role tracks used Exxat. Ask in NUPR 520 where you log hours and patient encounters. E*Value at Drexel covers what students see.

Several things students expect to find are missing from Drexel's public pages. There is no deadline for naming a site or preceptor, no current NP clinical handbook, no stated turnaround for affiliation agreements and no rule on telehealth hours. The only detailed paperwork description comes from an older non-NP handbook, which named a Clinical Practicum Placement Worksheet, a Preceptor Agreement Form and a contract time of 3 to 8 weeks. Treat those as history rather than current instructions.

The sample plans are the best guide. They put NUPR 520 roughly three quarters ahead of the first clinical course, which we read as the runway Drexel expects you to need, not a published deadline. Your compliance coordinator's due dates are the ones that bind. Work backward from them with the clinical timeline.

Drexel moves to semesters in Fall 2027, and the course numbers change with it. The quarter FNP sequence, NURS 534 to NURS 538, turns into four semester courses in the 2027–28 catalog (NURS 7600 to NURS 7602, plus NURS 7604), and every other NP track gets new four-digit numbers too. The semester catalog does not publish clinical hours per course.

The awkward term is Summer 2027. It lasts only seven weeks, June 21 through August 7, as a one-off bridge between calendars. Sample plans put many first clinical courses and their week-one On-Campus Intensives in summer, and Drexel has yet to explain how a 160-hour course fits into seven weeks. If your first rotation falls there, ask your advisor and track director early, and read the semester conversion page.

We are built around this exact path. When you send your track, your first clinical quarter and where you live, a placement advisor starts looking for a preceptor and site that fit the course: the right population and setting, enough availability for the hours, and a clinician who meets Drexel's rules on role, board certification and a year in practice. We look for in-person placements close to you.

Then we handle the part that usually stalls students. We gather the preceptor's CV, license and certification proof, identify who signs contracts at the site, and map the site's own onboarding steps, so Clinical Compliance receives a complete file that matches Drexel's rules on the first pass. The approval itself stays with Drexel. Should a preceptor drop out partway through the program, we're on call and searching again right away. See how it works or send your details through the contact page.