When your preceptor drops out before or during a GW rotation
Tell GW first, then replace. Email the Clinical Placement Team, let the site know in writing, bring in your Clinical Experience Faculty, and bring your CORE logs up to your last shift. Whoever replaces your preceptor gets a Site Prospector submission of their own and a check by the Clinical Placement Team before your first shift together, and your hours with them start only once you are cleared.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your GW program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your GW course.
The first 24 hours
- Log what you haveEnter every completed shift in CORE with total hours and patient encounters, so your record shows exactly where the rotation stopped.
- Email the Clinical Placement TeamGW's 2021 clinical placement guide has the team contact you when a site cancels and asks you to email the team yourself when you leave a site. Either way, write the same day with what happened, your last shift and your logged hours.
- Tell the site in writingThe guide also asks you to tell the site directly. If the preceptor is leaving but the practice is not, a short note to the manager keeps the door open for another clinician there.
- Loop in your CEFYour Clinical Experience Faculty oversees your clinical work this term, and GW's 2026 CORE deck tells students to alert the CEF whenever a site or preceptor is no longer suitable.
- Pause patient careWait for GW's confirmation before working with anyone new, including a colleague the departing preceptor offers to hand you to.
Before the rotation or partway through
The same loss lands differently depending on when it happens. Find your row, then read the next section on what every replacement needs.
| When it happens | Where you stand | What to focus on |
|---|---|---|
| Before your request is approved | Nothing is cleared yet, so no hours are at stake | A replacement and a fresh Site Prospector submission before your term's request date |
| After clearance, before your first shift | The cleared placement has lost its preceptor | Telling GW and the site, then clearing a new preceptor before day one |
| Mid-rotation, hours partly logged | Your CORE timesheets show what you finished | Fitting the remaining hours inside the semester dates |
| The site offers another clinician | The practice may already hold a GW agreement | A separate submission and CPT verification for the new preceptor |
When a course ends with a different preceptor than it started with, ask your CEF how the mid-semester and final preceptor evaluations will be handled. GW's 2021 guide says CORE emails those evaluations to the preceptor, so the right name has to be on file.
A replacement is a brand-new submission
GW treats every preceptor as a placement of its own. The 2026 CORE workshop deck requires a Site Prospector submission for each preceptor at each site, for each rotation and term, with that preceptor's license and bio or CV attached. The replacement then travels the same review path your original did, from the program director's look at course fit through to the site's onboarding. The Site Prospector page covers the form itself.
GW's 2021 guide adds the rule that matters most here: nobody new precepts you until the Clinical Placement Team has checked them, whether they replace your preceptor or join them. Hours with the new clinician count from clearance onward, not from the day they agree.
Where the replacement sits changes the timeline. A clinician at your current site, or at a site GW already has a contract with, usually needs a rotation confirmation rather than a new agreement. A brand-new site starts the agreement from scratch, which GW's guide says can run weeks to months.
The mid-semester conversation
Mid-semester is GW's formal checkpoint. Under the 2021 clinical placement guide, a student who reaches the halfway mark with no working site sits down with the CEF and program director to judge whether the course can still be finished as designed this term. Walk in with numbers, not only the story.
Bring to that meeting
- Your logged hours and encounters from CORE, next to the total your course requires
- The last day of your session, so everyone sees how many weeks remain
- Each replacement lead, where it stands, and any GW history at that practice
- A realistic weekly schedule with a new preceptor
The outcome might be a replacement you finish with this term, or a plan built around an incomplete or a withdrawal. Those carry their own deadlines, set out on the semester calendar and incompletes page. If the hours are the real problem, the behind on hours page walks through the math.
Rules your replacement still has to meet
A replacement has to fit the course you are in, not just have an open schedule. Check these before you accept an offer.
- Any course: GW's 2021 guide limits preceptors to NPs, MDs, DOs and CNMs who have practiced at an advanced level for two years or longer and hold an active license with no restrictions (see preceptor requirements)
NURS 6248: a PMHNP or CNS preceptorNURS 6259: a master's-prepared preceptor and a site different from the ones you used inNURS 6258- Acute Care courses: sites only in the District, Maryland or Northern Virginia, and your program director has a hand in the choice
- FNP and AGPCNP courses: the setting GW's 2021 guide assigns to that course, such as the nursing home block in
NURS 6229
How we line up a replacement
A dropped preceptor is exactly the moment our service is built for. Your placement advisor starts the replacement search the day you tell us, beginning with other clinicians at your current site and nearby sites that have hosted GW students, then widening to fresh leads that fit your course setting.
Each candidate is confirmed against your remaining hours and the weeks left in your semester before anything goes to GW. Everything GW will ask about arrives in one packet: license number, bio or CV and the name of the person who signs for the site, ready for your new Site Prospector submission so the Clinical Placement Team can check the preceptor without back-and-forth.
Approval and clearance remain GW's call, made by the program director and the Clinical Placement Team; our work is making sure the replacement lands on their desk ready to approve. Students who start with us stay covered, because we remain on call through the rotation. Use the form below or contact us.
Questions GW students ask
What happens to the hours I already logged?
They stay on your CORE record as the timesheets you entered while cleared at that site. Ask your Clinical Experience Faculty how they will be reviewed alongside hours from a new preceptor, since CORE sends evaluations to each preceptor. Before anything else, make sure every completed shift is entered with total hours and patient encounters.
Can my preceptor's colleague just take over?
Possibly, but not informally. GW needs a separate Site Prospector submission for the new preceptor, the Clinical Placement Team must verify them, and you start only after clearance. A colleague at the same practice is often the quickest route, because GW may already hold an agreement with that site.
Who do I tell first, GW or the site?
Both, on the same day. When a student leaves a site, GW's 2021 guide expects a written note to the Clinical Placement Team plus a direct word with the site. Copy your Clinical Experience Faculty too, since they oversee your clinical work this term. Keep each message short and factual: what happened, your last shift and your logged hours.
Will I fail the course if my preceptor leaves?
Not automatically. Losing a preceptor starts a conversation, not a grade: by mid-semester your CEF and program director weigh what is still achievable, and the answer may be a replacement, an incomplete or a withdrawal. Graduate courses at GW need a B or better, so ask early how your grade will be handled.
How fast can a replacement preceptor be cleared?
GW publishes no fixed time. A preceptor at a site that already holds a GW agreement moves faster, because the Clinical Placement Team confirms the rotation rather than negotiating a contract. A new site may need weeks to months for its agreement, and a complete submission keeps program director review from adding more delay.
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
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next clinical term is all we need to begin.