Identifying and securing your own GW clinical site and preceptor
For almost every GW graduate program with clinical hours, finding the site and the preceptor falls to the student. GW backs you with information, a list of sites past students used and a team that completes the contract, but the search itself begins with you. Here is what the rule covers course by course, where the Acute Care exception sits, and how GW suggests you look.
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GW's rule, word for word
GW Nursing's Clinical Rotations page puts it directly: "You will be responsible for identifying and securing your own clinical site and preceptor (except for students in the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program options)." The same page adds that every preceptor must be approved by GW Nursing faculty and that the placement team will help secure the sites you submit.
GW's FAQ says the same thing from the other side. The school offers "as much support as possible to students who are unable to locate a preceptor," yet "it is the student's responsibility for securing a clinical site." The Compliance and Clinical page repeats the point for certificate students and for every other graduate program with a clinical component.
Two verbs carry the rule. Identifying means finding a qualified clinician in a setting that fits the course. Securing means turning that clinician's interest into a firm commitment GW can review, with the paperwork, the site's signer and the dates in place.
What the rule means program by program
Most GW NP program pages pair encouragement to find your own preceptor with a modest offer: GW "can provide information on local clinical sites if needed." A few programs word their clinical placement tab differently, and the course load you are searching for varies by track.
| Program | Precepted courses | What GW's page says |
|---|---|---|
| FNP (MSN and post-BSN DNP) | NURS 6230, NURS 6231, NURS 6232: 600 hours | Find your own, with the site-information offer |
| AGPCNP (MSN, DNP, certificate) | NURS 6224, NURS 6225, NURS 6229: 600 hours | Encouraged to find your own preceptor; the MSN page leaves out the site-information offer |
| PMHNP (MSN and DNP) | NURS 6244 to NURS 6248: 120 hours each | Find your own, with the site-information offer |
| PMHNP certificate | Rotations begin with NURS 6245 | Requirements are completed in your own community |
| AGACNP (MSN, DNP, certificate) | NURS 6235, NURS 6236, NURS 6237: 600 hours | The exception described below |
| Nurse-Midwifery | NURS 6321 and NURS 6322: 840 immersion hours | Faculty and placement staff help students land sites locally, with a focus on birth centers and home birth |
| Nursing Leadership and Management, MSN/MPH | NURS 6258 and NURS 6259: 150 hours each | A preceptor with a master's or higher; a different preceptor and site for 6259 |
| Post-MSN DNP | 1,000 practice hours, 500 carried from the MSN | Who arranges practice sites is not published; ask your program |
| Accelerated and Veterans BSN, Direct-Entry MSN | Campus-based in Ashburn | GW arranges the placements |
The Acute Care exception
The Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP options (MSN, post-BSN DNP and post-master's certificate) sit outside the own-preceptor rule. Their clinicals happen only in DC, Maryland or Northern Virginia, applicants must live in the region, and GW wants them to bring a year spent working in critical care. GW's sources describe the program director's role three ways: arranging placements on the DNP page, choosing them jointly with the student in the 2026-27 Bulletin, and encouraging students to find their own on the program tabs. Read that as a program director who stays closely involved, and confirm current practice with the program before calling hospitals. The Acute Care placement guide has the details.
What "information on local clinical sites" gets you
GW's offer is information, and it comes in two forms. Write to sonclinical@gwu.edu, the Clinical Placement Team's inbox, and the team will send the names of sites and preceptors GW students have worked with in your state. CORE also holds a Clinical Site Database, a map and list built from former NP students' placements, which GW's 2021 clinical placement guide describes as a resource guide only.
Neither list is a reservation. A clinician who precepted a GW student two years ago may be full, may have changed jobs or may no longer take students, and students report meeting exactly that. The site database guide explains how to work those names efficiently.
The pool behind the lists is real. GW's Become a Preceptor page reports over 200 preceptors working one-to-one with GW students in a year. The practical question is whether one of them is open, near you, in your specialty and in your term.
How GW suggests you search
GW's own tips, from its Compliance and Clinical page
- Network with clinicians where you already work (a workplace site has its own considerations)
- Ask NP and midwifery friends, classmates and GW alumni
- Join a local NP or midwifery association
- Use LinkedIn to find and message clinicians
- Visit offices in person and ask to speak with the manager
- Ask the clinicians who treat you and your family
Back in 2021, the page also suggested arranging preceptor swaps with classmates. GW's Clinical Rotations page asks you to bring your resume and GW's clinical requirements to every conversation, then to keep the clinic and your preceptor updated until day one.
Work the list in parallel rather than one name at a time. Clinicians can take weeks to reply, and a search run in sequence can burn a whole term.
What counts as secured
A spoken yes starts the securing step; it does not finish it. Before a preceptor is worth submitting, confirm four things: credentials that meet GW's rules, a setting that fits your course, a site contact who can sign or confirm an affiliation agreement, and your own RN license in the state where the site sits.
GW's 2021 clinical placement guide sets the credential floor: NP, MD, DO or CNM credentials, two or more years of advanced practice work, and an active license with no encumbrance. NURS 6248 calls for a PMHNP or CNS preceptor, and leadership practicum preceptors need a master's degree or higher. Preceptor requirements covers the full list.
Then collect the paperwork while the clinician is still enthusiastic: a license and a bio or CV go into CORE with your Site Prospector submission, and waiting until deadline week invites delays.
A preceptor who agrees is not yet an approved preceptor. GW's program director reviews every one, and the site still needs a completed contract with GW Nursing.
Why GW students hand the search to us
Identifying and securing is exactly the work we do. Our placement desk tracks down a local, in-person preceptor whose practice matches the GW course you are about to take, and takes on the calls, the emails and the follow-up that otherwise eat weeks of a working nurse's evenings.
Securing is where we are most thorough. We check the preceptor's credentials against GW's rules, gather the license and bio or CV, identify the site's signatory and agreement contact, and confirm the evaluation email, so your CORE submission is complete from the first review.
If you are still weighing your options, the comparison of search routes lays out the choices side by side. Approval of each site and preceptor rests with GW's program director, and our role is to hand them a request that already fits GW's rules. Send your program and term through the form below and the search begins.
Questions GW students ask
Will GW find a preceptor for me if my own search comes up empty?
GW publishes no promise to place graduate students outside the Acute Care tracks. Its FAQ offers as much support as possible while keeping the responsibility with the student, and that support means site lists, the CORE database, mentoring and help weighing alternatives. If you are stuck right now, see what to do without a preceptor.
Can I use a preceptor from GW's list of past sites?
Yes, provided they agree and still meet GW's rules. A name on the list is a lead: you still need a firm yes, a new Site Prospector submission for your course and term, and program director approval. A site that already holds a contract with GW Nursing can shorten the agreement stage.
Can I do my clinicals in my home state instead of the DC area?
In most of GW's online programs, yes. The PMHNP certificate page speaks of students finishing requirements in their own communities, and GW has said it is seeking preceptors in most states. Your RN license has to cover each state you train in, and GW limits applicants from certain states. See clinicals outside the DMV.
How early should I start contacting preceptors?
Earlier than the request deadline suggests. GW's own advice is that a lot of preceptors fill their calendars over a year out, while its request dates fall about four months before the term. Starting outreach a year or more out leaves room to lose one preceptor and still file on time. The request deadlines page has the dates.
Can classmates swap or share preceptors?
GW's 2021 version of its Compliance and Clinical page suggested arranging swaps with classmates. The current page no longer lists that tip, so confirm with the Clinical Placement Team. Either way, every student sharing a clinician still files a separate CORE request, and each request gets its own program director review.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against GW's Bulletin and GW Nursing's own program and clinical pages. Your course, CORE and GW's Clinical Placement Team have the final word.
GW asks you to find your own site and preceptor. Hand that search to us.
Tell us your GW program, where you live and which clinical course is next. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the license, bio and site details GW's review asks for, so your Site Prospector goes in complete.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice for
NURS 6230toNURS 6232, older-adult primary care for AGPCNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP - License, bio or CV and the site's agreement signatory ready for your CORE submission
- Close to home, in DC, Maryland, Virginia or wherever you live and hold your RN license
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