Using Dragon Network to find a Drexel preceptor

Dragon Network is Drexel's virtual professional development community, found at dragonnetwork.drexel.edu and limited to Drexel students and alumni. For NP students it has a specific use. Drexel's Become A Clinical Preceptor page asks clinicians who want to precept to join and pick the topic "Serving as a clinical preceptor/making connections to potential preceptors," and it tells them students will contact them directly.

That makes it the only tool Drexel names for connecting students with volunteer preceptors. Everyone who selects that topic has raised a hand, which is more than a cold call can promise. The catch is that raising a hand is different from meeting Drexel's rules for your course, practicing near you or having room in the quarter you need.

Because access is limited to Drexel students and alumni, the clinicians you meet are Drexel alumni and other Drexel-affiliated clinicians who signed up to precept. Where they practice depends on where that community lives and works, so the number of names near you will vary with your region.

Before you invest in a conversation, check each volunteer against Drexel's preceptor rules: the clinician must be an NP, a nurse midwife or a physician in a specialty Drexel accepts, hold board certification and a license for their state, and have a year of practice behind them. PAs fall outside Drexel's list. Then check the practice itself. Its patients should match your course population, and it must be somewhere Drexel can place you, which excludes New York and depends on your state of residence. The full criteria are on preceptor requirements and state authorization.

A volunteer preceptor will look at your profile before replying, so make it answer their first questions. Say up front that you are a Drexel NP student and name your track. Then give your RN background in a sentence or two, the city and county where you can train, and the quarter your first clinical course starts.

Use a professional photo if the profile allows one, and keep the tone of a colleague asking a professional favor. List your certifications, such as BLS, ACLS or PALS where your track requires them, because a preceptor in an emergency department or pediatric unit will look for them.

Finally, decide your ask before you search. Know your course number, the hours it requires and the days you can offer. A clear, bounded request is much easier for a busy clinician to say yes to than an open-ended plea for help.

Keep it short, specific and easy to forward to a practice manager. A first message that works covers five points in order:

1. Who you areYour name, Drexel NP track and current RN role, in one line.
2. The course and quarterFor example, NURS 535 in Fall, with 160 clinical hours inside a ten-week quarter.
3. What the preceptor would doSupervise you on clinic days, rate you in E*Value at midterm and at the end, and sign off on your hours there.
4. What Drexel offers themRecognition: they may call themselves Clinical Faculty at Drexel during the rotation, they get a termly certificate recording hours, and they save 10 percent on Drexel CE courses.
5. An easy next stepAsk for a brief video chat and offer to send a one-page summary of dates and requirements.

For the fuller ask, including what to send once a clinician says yes, see preceptor outreach.

A Dragon Network volunteer who agrees still goes through every Drexel step. Collect their CV, state license and board certification right away. Ask who signs legal documents at their practice and whether the organization already has a clinical affiliation agreement with Drexel, then pass that to Clinical Compliance so the contract can start. The process is on the affiliation agreement page. Tell your track director as well, especially if the clinician's specialty sits near the edge of your course population.

Keep a simple log of everyone you contact: name, practice, date, reply and next step. If a week passes without an answer, follow up once, politely, then move on. Volunteers' jobs and schedules change, and one courteous follow-up keeps the door open without costing you weeks of waiting.

If nobody near you has selected the preceptor topic, widen the search rather than wait. Drexel warns that clinical access varies by state and that travel may be required. Ask the department how the clinical placement manager's recruiting can help in your area, and work your own network: former colleagues, other departments at your RN employer and local practices. A clinician you recruit this way can also sign up through Drexel's Become A Clinical Preceptor page.

Students report that direct outreach pays off. Past Drexel PMHNP students advise networking early and not shying away from cold calls. Be careful with large systems, though: CHOP says students are prohibited from contacting its sites or preceptors directly, and requests must come from the school. Our can't find a preceptor page lays out what to do this week.

Dragon Network gives you volunteers; we give you a full search. A placement advisor contacts preceptors across your area, well beyond those registered on the platform, and screens each one against Drexel's rules and your course population before you hear a name. The work moves quickly because finding Drexel preceptors is our whole job, not something squeezed between shifts and coursework.

When a match agrees, you get the preceptor's CV, license and board certification along with the site's contract contact and onboarding steps, ready for Drexel's review. Drexel approves the placement; we make sure what it receives is complete and fits its rules. If a preceptor withdraws mid-program, we stay on call to replace them. Tell us your track and county on the contact page.