Philadelphia clinical sites for Drexel NP students

Three patterns repeat across the city's large systems. An affiliation agreement between the school and the system comes before anything else. Several systems want the request to come from the school, not the student. And few publish a graduate or NP process at all; many public pages describe only undergraduate groups or nurse externs.

For a Drexel NP student, that means asking early whether Drexel already has an agreement with a system and how that system wants requests made. Drexel's side of an agreement runs through its clinical contracting process, covered on the Drexel affiliation agreement page.

Research found no centralized Philadelphia, Southeastern Pennsylvania or Delaware Valley placement system of the kind some regions run. Drexel has a listing in ACEMAPP, but no Philadelphia system was confirmed to require it, so each system's own route is the one that counts.

The table sums up what each system's own pages say. Several could only be read through search summaries because the sites blocked direct access, so confirm any detail with the system or with Drexel before relying on it.

CHOP's nursing student page is explicit. A contract or affiliation agreement must be in place with your school and stay current beyond your rotation dates. Graduate and doctoral requests travel on a Graduate/Doctoral Student Clinical Placement Request Form that the school's clinical site coordinator sends with course objectives and syllabi, and CHOP lists its own request deadlines: May 1 for fall, October 1 for spring and March 1 for summer.

CHOP also states that students are prohibited from reaching out to individual clinical sites or preceptors directly. Graduate students need a valid Pennsylvania RN license, or a New Jersey license if applicable, plus a criminal background check, child abuse clearance, FBI fingerprinting, BLS and immunizations. Drexel is not named on the page. If CHOP fits your pediatric track, ask Drexel's clinical placement manager whether a request is possible for your term; the hours involved are on the PNP clinical courses.

Penn Medicine requires a current institution affiliation agreement for all nursing students, and affiliated programs apply for rotations with a Request for Student Placement form, according to search summaries of pages that now redirect to a general nursing page. Its hospitals include HUP, Penn Presbyterian, Pennsylvania Hospital, Chester County, Lancaster General and Penn Medicine Doylestown Health. Lancaster General has an Advanced Practice Nursing Clinical Rotation Request page whose content could not be read.

Jefferson Health, which now includes Einstein and Lehigh Valley Health Network, publishes an undergraduate group process run by a school's clinical coordinator under an agreement with TJUH. No graduate NP route turned up.

Main Line Health (Lankenau, Bryn Mawr, Paoli, Riddle) is the most open about graduate students, who can request preceptors through its Graduate Nursing Data Collection Form once an agreement is in place. Main Line says a request does not assure a preceptor and encourages schools and students to use their professional connections.

Outside the big systems, published rules are thinner. Drexel's Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services is a nurse-managed center that gives Drexel students across the health professions clinical experience; Family Practice & Counseling Services Network has managed its operations since 2002. Ask your track director whether it can host NP hours in your specialty.

PHMC says it partners with universities without describing an NP rotation route, and the city's health centers page lists no trainee information. The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center lists no nursing or NP student programs; VA trainees generally need an affiliation agreement and a Trainee Qualifications and Credentials Verification Letter arranged through the local Designated Education Officer.

Mercy Catholic Medical Center, part of Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, describes clerkships for Drexel College of Medicine students, not nursing students.

If you live elsewhere in Pennsylvania, systems there name their platforms and timelines more openly. Use this list as a map of where to look, then confirm each rule with the system.

• Lehigh Valley Health Network (Jefferson) runs placement requests and student requirements through InPlace; requests are due at least four weeks ahead and documents at least two weeks ahead.
• UPMC requires a student experience agreement and uses myClinicalExchange; you apply after securing a preceptor, no later than three months before the rotation.
• Allegheny Health Network uses myClinicalExchange and its APP Student Education Office; since December 2024, students and schools may not contact providers directly.
• Penn State Health takes an Advanced Practice Student Clinical Request Form, gives Penn State students priority and bars private requests to providers.
• WellSpan accepts students from accredited NP programs, with applications 8 weeks to 6 months ahead, and gives its own employees priority for PMHNP and FNP spots.
• St. Luke's asks for NP students' documents at least four weeks before the rotation, and Geisinger says onboarding can take six weeks or more.

State-level rules for preceptors, hours and licenses are on Pennsylvania rules for NP clinicals.

We work each system the way it asks to be approached. Where a system takes requests only from the school, we prepare what Drexel needs to make that request. Where independent practices and community sites welcome outreach, we contact preceptors for you and confirm each one fits Drexel's NP, CNM or physician rule.

Every package carries the preceptor's CV, license and board certification and the site's contact for Drexel's affiliation agreement, so contracting starts cleanly. Drexel approves the preceptor, the site and the agreement, and we see that what reaches Drexel is complete the first time. If a preceptor drops, we are on call. Across the river, see New Jersey and Delaware clinical sites, or send your track and neighborhood through the request form.