MRU-assigned preceptor or your own: which route fits you
MRU gives its graduate students two official options: secure your own preceptor, or let MRU appoint one for the one-time Practicum Affiliation Fee. Securing your own can be done alone or with outside help, so in practice there are three routes. Only a preceptor you secure yourself, and MRU approves, waives that fee.
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Tell us your MRU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with what an MRU-ready preceptor and site look like for you.
Where the choice comes from
The rule appears in MRU's Catalog Volume X under the MSN-FNP and each of the three post-master's certificates (FNP, PMHNP, AGACNP), and in the 2026 addendum for the MSN in Healthcare Systems Leadership. In the catalog's words: "Students are required to secure their own preceptor."
That paragraph also offers a fallback. A student who arrives without one is appointed one by MRU for an additional fee, and MRU's fee tables name that charge the Practicum Affiliation Fee. The FNP table's footnote limits the waiver to students who secure an approved preceptor.
Neither route skips approval. The Office of Academic Affairs, the Program Coordinator or a graduate clinical coordinator, depending on your program, must approve the preceptor before the preceptorship begins. Where each version of the rule is written is on the secure-your-own page.
Three routes side by side
| Route | Who searches | MRU's affiliation fee | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Find your own, alone | You | Waived once MRU approves the preceptor you secure | Costs time and contacts; you choose the location and the fit |
| Find your own, with help | You and a placement service | Waived once MRU approves the preceptor you secure | You pay the service's quote; you still choose the location and the fit |
| Let MRU appoint one | MRU | Charged once, as the Practicum Affiliation Fee | Least searching for you; MRU does not publish how it picks the preceptor or site |
All three routes end at the same MRU approval and the same course rules: every hour with an approved preceptor, and logs, case lists and the three-signature evaluation by the course's last day.
Finding your own, alone
This is the route MRU's rule assumes, and for students with a network it can work well. A nurse who already works beside NPs or physicians, or who has a primary-care provider willing to teach, may have the right preceptor one conversation away. The fee is waived, and you pick a site near home on a schedule you can keep.
The cost is time. Practices say no for ordinary reasons: a full schedule, a new hire to train, an owner who does not take students. South Florida hospital systems route students through school affiliation agreements, so a hospital contact alone may not be enough. You also carry every piece of the packet yourself, and because MRU does not publish how long approval takes, a late yes can still arrive too late.
If you go this way, start a semester ahead, ask several practices at once, and check each preceptor against your course before you ask. The South Florida guide covers where self-found preceptorships tend to come from.
Finding your own, with help
A placement service does the calling and the fit-checking; you still end up with a preceptor you secured and submit for approval. MRU's footnote ties the waiver to a student securing an approved preceptor and says nothing about how the student found that person. So this route should leave the affiliation fee waived once MRU approves the preceptor. If you want certainty for your program, confirm with the Office of Academic Affairs before you commit.
What changes is who spends the hours on the phone, and what you pay for it. You pay the service's quote rather than MRU's fee, and you keep control over location and timing. Compare the two amounts yourself; our cost page explains what shapes a quote, and how it works shows what we do and what stays with MRU.
No service can shortcut MRU's review. Ask any service you consider exactly what it will and will not do before you pay.
Letting MRU appoint a preceptor
For some students this is the sensible choice, and nothing in MRU's catalog treats it as second best. If you have no clinical contacts, little time to make calls, or you would simply rather the school choose, paying MRU's one-time fee hands the search to MRU.
What MRU does not publish is how the appointment works in practice: how it chooses the preceptor, how far from home the site might be, how early you need to ask, or what happens if the appointed preceptor later withdraws. Those answers sit in the nursing student handbook on the MRU PORTAL and with the Office of Academic Affairs, so ask before you decide. The fee amount is in your program's fee table; the affiliation fee page explains where to look.
FNP certificate students should ask directly, since that program's fee table omits the affiliation line while its catalog section keeps the appointment-for-a-fee wording.
Questions that settle it
Most students can decide with honest answers to these.
- How many weeks until your clinical course starts, and how many of them can you spend searching?
- Do you already know an APRN, MD or DO who might precept you, or a practice where you are a known face?
- How far can you drive on a clinical day, and which days can you give?
- Does your course need a narrow setting, such as PMHNP child and adolescent hours or AGACNP acute care?
- How does MRU's Practicum Affiliation Fee compare with a service's quote for your course?
- How much does it matter to you to choose the site and the schedule?
If the answers point to MRU's route, ask the Office of Academic Affairs how to request an appointment and by when. If they point to finding your own, start now; the stuck-search guide helps when the first round of calls comes back empty.
Questions MRU students ask
Do I pay MRU's affiliation fee once or for each clinical course?
Once, according to MRU's FNP fee footnote, which labels it a one-time charge at entry to the practicum and ties it to MRU assigning the preceptor. The amount appears in the fee table on your program page and in the Bursar Addendum. This site does not reprint MRU's figures, so check the current table before you compare routes.
Can I find my own preceptor for one course and ask MRU to appoint one for another?
MRU's public documents do not say. The catalog describes a preceptorship that runs through several courses and a fee charged once, but it does not address mixing routes. Ask the Office of Academic Affairs, or your program's approver, before you plan on it, and keep the answer in writing in your MRU email.
If MRU appoints my preceptor, can I ask for a location near home?
MRU does not publish how it chooses appointed preceptors or sites, so there is no public answer. It is a fair question to put to the Office of Academic Affairs before you request an appointment, along with how much notice MRU needs and what happens if that preceptor withdraws mid-course.
Do DNP students face the same choice?
Not in the same form. MRU's fee tables list the Practicum Affiliation Fee for the MSN-FNP and the AGACNP and PMHNP certificates, and the Healthcare Systems Leadership addendum describes assignment for a fee. For the leadership DNP, the program director assigns a project mentor, and MRU's 2025 catalog leaves approval of DNP practicum preceptors and sites to program faculty.
Will MRU treat a preceptor found through a service differently?
MRU's public documents describe one approval step and one credential check for every preceptor, with no distinction by how the student found them. What matters is whether the preceptor and site meet MRU's requirements for your course, and those requirements are set out in the nursing student handbook rather than on the public website.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against MRU's own catalog, addenda and program pages. The nursing student handbook on the MRU student portal and MRU's Office of Academic Affairs have the final word.
MRU says secure your own preceptor. We start the search now.
Tell us your MRU program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We look for preceptors who fit the course and help you gather what MRU checks before approving them.
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