Questions Drexel students ask before hiring placement help
These are the questions Drexel NP students ask most when deciding whether to bring in a placement service, answered from Drexel's own published pages. Each answer points to the page that covers its topic in depth.
Get your Drexel placement plan
Your Drexel track and where you live. A placement advisor replies with what a Drexel-ready preceptor and site look like for you.
Quick facts
- Who finds NP preceptors
- Drexel NP students, with Drexel's resources in support
- Who approves placements
- Drexel, through its contracting and compliance teams
- Placement request deadline
- None published; start around NUPR 520 or earlier
- Our quote
- In writing, before you commit to anything
Does Drexel find preceptors for its NP students?
Drexel's NP program pages leave the search for a clinical site and preceptor to the student, with support from the Division of Graduate Nursing. Drexel names two supports: Dragon Network, an online community where volunteer preceptors can receive messages from students, and a clinical placement manager in the NP and DNP department whose job includes recruiting preceptors.
Other programs work differently. In the MSN in Nursing Leadership, the Leadership track director helps you settle on an acceptable practicum site and preceptor. Drexel's DNP pages say a mentor holding a doctorate must be assigned, but they leave open who makes the assignment, so ask your academic advisor. Dragon Network and the placement manager's role each have their own page.
What exactly does your service do?
Our placement advisors look for a preceptor and a clinical site matched to your Drexel course, in person and near where you live. Each candidate is screened against Drexel's preceptor rules and your track's setting before you hear about them.
When a preceptor agrees, we collect what Drexel's teams need from them and from the site: three credentials from the preceptor (CV, license, board certification), the name of whoever signs contracts at the site, and whatever onboarding the site runs for students. Through the quarter a placement advisor remains on call, and a preceptor who drops out is replaced through a fresh search started at once.
The result is a placement you can hand to Drexel with confidence, organized for its review from the start.
Will Drexel approve a preceptor you find?
Approval is Drexel's decision, for the preceptor, the site and the agreement. What we shape is the quality of what reaches Drexel: an NP, a certified nurse midwife or a physician whose specialty Drexel approves, with a state license, active board certification and at least a year in practice, working in a setting that matches your course. We also confirm the clinic days fit your quarter, since a qualified preceptor with no room in the schedule helps no one.
Drexel's list has no place for physician assistants, so our searches focus on the three professions Drexel names. If Drexel raises a question about a candidate, preceptor not approved walks through Drexel's likely reasons and the fix for each.
When should I start, and does where I live matter?
Start early. Drexel publishes no deadline for placement requests, and its plans of study run NUPR 520 three quarters ahead of the first clinical course. Treat that seminar as your latest comfortable starting point.
Location matters in three ways. Drexel cannot currently admit NP students living in eleven states, from Alabama to Wyoming. New Yorkers may enroll yet must complete every clinical hour in another state. And your RN license must be valid wherever your clinical hours happen: Drexel's pages differ on whether that means a Pennsylvania license or a multistate one, so confirm your case with Clinical Compliance. The Pennsylvania RN license question sets out both readings.
How does the switch to semesters affect my clinicals?
Semesters replace quarters at Drexel from Fall 2027. The 2026–27 quarter catalog, with numbers like NURS 534 and NURS 570, is the current one. The 2027–28 catalog renumbers the clinical courses, moving FNP into the NURS 7600 series, and does not yet publish hours per course.
Summer 2027 is a seven-week transition term. If your clinical sequence crosses the switch, your academic advisor can map out a personal transition plan; pass it to your placement advisor so the preceptor schedule follows it. The semester conversion page has the full crosswalk. Drexel's Graduate College also notes that some health programs keep their own calendars or course sequences, one more reason to confirm dates with your advisor.
What if something goes wrong mid-quarter?
Preceptors sometimes change jobs, take leave or lose a clinic day. Tell your placement advisor and your clinical faculty the same day, keep your logged hours current and let us start the replacement search. Hours your preceptor has already validated in E*Value stay on your record. Preceptor dropped out covers what to do first.
If the problem is falling behind on hours rather than losing a preceptor, adding a second preceptor for part of the week is often the answer. Behind on clinical hours works through the math for a ten-week quarter and shows when to raise it with faculty.
Questions Drexel students ask
How much does your service cost?
Each placement is quoted individually after a conversation about your course, because your track, your location, the weeks left before your quarter, how many preceptors you need and the setting all affect the work. The quote and terms come in writing, and you commit only after accepting them. What shapes the cost lists each factor.
Can I keep searching on my own while you search?
Yes, and it helps. Carry on with your own outreach, on Dragon Network and among colleagues. If someone you reach says yes, tell your placement advisor, who checks the fit against Drexel's rules and gets the contracting details ready just as with a preceptor we found.
Do you help post-master's certificate students?
Yes. Drexel's NP certificates share their clinical course sequence with the matching MSN, so the search works the same way. Board-certified NPs whose Gap Analysis trims their courses and hours get a search sized to the hours they still owe. See Gap Analysis.
Can my clinicals be at my own workplace?
Drexel has not published a policy on doing clinicals where you already work, so ask your track director before counting on it. A different site keeps the learner role clear, and we can search near your workplace and plan around your shifts either way. For the DNP, Drexel encourages experiences beyond your workplace.
Is my information shared with preceptors?
Not until you tell us to proceed with a match, and even then only what a preceptor or site needs to consider you, such as your track, course and clinical dates. The privacy page explains what the form and chat collect and how each detail is used.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against Drexel's own sources. Your track director, the CNHP Clinical Compliance team and Drexel's current catalog have the final word.
Hand us the search. Keep your clinical quarter.
Tell us your Drexel track, where you live and which quarter your next clinical course starts. We find a preceptor and site that fit Drexel's rules for your track, and get the contract and compliance details ready early.
- Matched to your track's population, setting and hours
- Checked against Drexel's preceptor rules before anything is submitted
- Planned across the Fall 2027 switch to semesters
Start your placement plan
A placement advisor replies with what a Drexel-ready preceptor and site look like for you.