Finding NP preceptors in Tennessee as an ETSU student
East Tennessee State University (ETSU) graduate students search a state with more than 18,000 certified nurse practitioners, yet the largest health systems accept NP students only through agreements made school to school. Knowing what Ballad Health, Covenant Health, Erlanger and Vanderbilt ask of schools shows which doors open through ETSU's graduate clinical coordinator and which you can approach yourself.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your ETSU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your ETSU course.
How NP placements work in Tennessee's big systems
Across Tennessee's large health systems the pattern repeats: a nurse practitioner student reaches a hospital-employed preceptor through the school, and the school needs a signed agreement with that system first. The request travels between coordinators, not from a student's inbox to a unit manager.
That shapes how you spend the first weeks of a search. A clinic, practice or community health center can be proposed by you directly, through ETSU's Preceptor Intent Form and a ProjectConcert entry. A system placement begins with a question for the graduate clinical coordinator: is this system an option for my course at all?
The pool itself is large: the Board of Nursing's 2025 annual report counted 18,530 certified NPs at the end of 2024, all but 59 able to prescribe. Reaching them is where planning pays off.
What each system says on its own pages
Each row is that system's own account. None of it says whether a system takes ETSU students; only ETSU's graduate clinical coordinator can say where ETSU's agreements stand, and our coordinator page explains how to work with that role.
| Health system | Where | What its student pages say | Your next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballad Health | 20 hospitals in 29 counties across Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Northwest North Carolina and Southeast Kentucky | Any enrolled APP student may request elective rotations, but only from a program holding a current Ballad affiliation agreement, requested by that program's clinical coordinator; Ballad's student orientation comes before the start | Ask the graduate clinical coordinator whether a Ballad request fits your course |
| Covenant Health | Knoxville | Partner schools have placed students through the Total Clinical Placement System since January 1, 2018; other schools request facility access in Covenant's Student Portal; no NP-specific text | Ask which route applies before contacting a Covenant clinician |
| Erlanger | Chattanooga | Not entering new affiliation agreements for APP student placements; employees in unaffiliated programs may ask for an exception, subject to preceptor availability and manager approval | Mainly relevant if you already work there |
| Vanderbilt Health | Nashville | Affiliation agreements cover NP, MSN and DNP students and define the student's and preceptor's roles; a school without one starts it through its clinical coordinator | Bring any interest to the coordinator |
| UT Medical Center | Knoxville | Its education page covers nurse residency and other staff programs; no NP student process was found | Ask the coordinator before assuming a route exists |
Sites you can propose yourself
For MSN, DNP and certificate students, ETSU's wording is that the graduate clinical coordinator offers contacts and lists of past preceptors, while the student stays proactive in the search. ETSU's paperwork is built for a student-led proposal: the Intent Form asks for the agency's name and address, the preceptor's credentials and the site's daily patient mix.
Any setting that fits your course's population and can have a contract in place is a candidate. That includes outpatient practices, community and federally qualified health centers, and the College's own nurse-led clinics in Johnson City, Mountain City and Sneedville, which take rotation requests on fixed dates; see the Office of Practice clinics.
The Intent Form's sample credentials include MD, so a physician can precept an NP course when faculty agree. Every prescribing Tennessee NP has a collaborating physician, as our Tennessee APRN practice page explains, so a single practice may offer two possible preceptors.
The paperwork every Tennessee site will meet
Whichever route you take, ETSU's steps stay the same. The candidate goes on the Preceptor Intent Form, you file a Preceptor & Clinical Agency Onboarding entry in ProjectConcert, clinical faculty approve the preceptor, the Office of Student Services verifies credentials, and a contract has to exist before your first clinical day. The full sequence is on our placement process page.
Health systems add steps of their own. Ballad requires its student orientation before an approved placement begins. Covenant has students begin its process at least two weeks ahead and finish it seven or more business days before the rotation. Erlanger runs graduate placements through a current contract and orientation in myClinicalExchange.
ETSU has published neither a submission deadline nor a contract lead time. Treat that as a reason to begin early and to ask the coordinator what timing suits the site you have in mind; our contracts page covers the planning.
What a Tennessee preceptor must hold
Tennessee's Board of Nursing asks that every preceptor hold a clean, unencumbered license at your target level or higher, good in the state where the teaching takes place, with competencies that suit the experience. For an NP student that points to a certified NP or a physician; for a Nursing Administration student, ETSU's catalog names a nurse administrator. Course-by-course detail sits on our preceptor requirements page.
Tennessee also hands APRN preceptors a concrete reason to agree. The Tennessee Nurse Preceptor Incentive, funded by a state grant and run by the Tennessee Hospital Association with the Tennessee Center for Health Workforce Development, makes one tiered payment per cycle to eligible Tennessee-licensed APRNs who teach APRN students of accredited Tennessee schools. A one-line mention of the preceptor incentive belongs in your first message to a Tennessee NP.
Why ETSU students choose us for a Tennessee search
Our placement advisors search Tennessee the way ETSU's process needs it searched. We begin with your course number and county, look for preceptors whose practices see the population your practicum covers, and confirm the license, certification dates and site details before a name ever reaches you.
When a candidate works inside a large system, we flag at once that the request belongs with the graduate clinical coordinator and needs an agreement, so you can raise it in time. When the candidate runs a practice or clinic, we assemble every detail the Intent Form and your onboarding entry call for, so the submission arrives complete. If a preceptor drops during the term, we find a replacement and prepare the new details the same way.
Share your program, course and county in the form below to start the search.
Questions ETSU students ask
Can I ask Ballad Health for an NP rotation myself?
Ballad's academics page says requests come through the student's program clinical coordinator, and only programs with a current Ballad affiliation agreement qualify. Ballad also requires its student orientation before an approved placement starts. Ask ETSU's graduate clinical coordinator whether a Ballad placement is possible for your course before you approach a Ballad clinician.
Does Erlanger accept NP students from other schools?
Erlanger's graduate placement page says new affiliation agreements for advanced practice provider students are not being taken on at present. Its own employees in programs without an agreement may ask for an exception, which depends on preceptor availability and a manager's approval. Graduate placements that go ahead need a current contract and orientation through myClinicalExchange.
How many nurse practitioners work in Tennessee?
The Tennessee Board of Nursing's 2025 annual report counted 18,530 certified nurse practitioners on December 31, 2024, and 18,471 of them held prescriptive authority. Across all four APRN roles, Tennessee had 22,186 active APRNs, with nurse anesthetists the next largest group at 3,181.
How does Vanderbilt handle NP students from other schools?
Vanderbilt Health keeps affiliation agreements that cover NP, MSN and DNP students and spell out the roles of student and preceptor. Its page says a school without an agreement starts one through its clinical coordinator. The advanced practice placement page requires a sign-in, so bring any Vanderbilt interest to ETSU's graduate clinical coordinator.
Is there a deadline for submitting a Tennessee preceptor to ETSU?
ETSU has not published one, and it has not published how long a new contract takes. Because a contract must be in place before clinicals start, a site with no agreement needs the most runway. Start early, submit as soon as a preceptor agrees, and ask the graduate clinical coordinator what timing fits your term.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against ETSU's own catalog, College of Nursing pages, plans of study and ProjectConcert guides. Your plan of study, your syllabus, your course faculty and the graduate clinical coordinator have the final word.
ETSU asks you to lead the preceptor search. We make it the fastest part of your program.
Tell us your ETSU concentration, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who fit the course's patient population and prepare everything your Preceptor Intent Form and ProjectConcert entry need.
- Preceptors matched to the course: young and middle adults for
NRSE 5012, older adults forNRSE 5014, women forNRSE 5022, children forNRSE 5024, psychiatric care forNRSE 5405 - Credentials, license numbers, certification dates and the site's patient mix ready for faculty approval
- In your own community, in Northeast Tennessee or wherever ETSU approves your clinicals
Start your placement plan
Program, city and semester is all we need to begin.