The UofM preceptor agreement form and how it gets approved
Every UofM MSN and graduate certificate practicum needs an approved preceptor agreement form before the first clinical day, and the approval belongs to the Loewenberg College of Nursing's Office of Community Partnerships and Practice. UofM keeps the form itself off its public site, so the strongest preparation is a preceptor and site whose details are complete and already fit your track when the paperwork begins.
Have your agreement details ready early
Share your track and term, and we start on a preceptor who fits UofM's rules.
The rule, in UofM's words
The 2026-27 LCON Academic Bulletin states it in one sentence among the MSN clinical policies: "Before the first day of clinical, the preceptor agreement form must be completed, and reviewed and approved by the Office of Community Partnerships and Practice." The 2025-26 Bulletin carried identical wording.
Three conditions are packed into that line. The form has to be complete, the partnerships office has to review it, and its approval has to exist before you spend any time at the site. A form still under review on your first scheduled day means that clinical day has to wait.
The sentence is just as telling for what it omits. It names no party responsible for filling in the form, lists none of its fields and sets no submission deadline, and memphis.edu does not post a copy. The rest of the clinical placement process shows where the form sits among UofM's other steps.
Who approves it, and how that changed
The Office of Community Partnerships and Practice is led by the Assistant Dean for Community Partnerships and Practice. Alongside preceptor agreements, the office reviews vaccine waiver requests and holds the college's clinical site affiliations.
The approver has not always been this office. The 2020-21 MSN Student Handbook and the spring 2025 Academic Bulletin both gave review and approval to the Clinical Coordinator. The AY 2025-26 and 2026-27 Bulletins moved it to the partnerships office. If an older handout or a classmate describes the clinical coordinator as the approver, follow the current Bulletin.
Track coordinators connect your program to that office. LCON's Faculty Handbook gives them the job of working with the partnerships office on preceptor, site and compliance concerns, which makes your track coordinator a sensible first contact when an agreement seems stuck.
One of three gates before hours count
The agreement is the first of three approvals that together let a practicum begin.
- Preceptor agreement formApproved by the Office of Community Partnerships and Practice before the first clinical day.
- Site clearance in myClinicalExchangeUofM holds back clinical site approval until every required training module and document is finished and accepted, and renewal dates have to run past the end of the placement.
- Clinical scheduleSubmitted to clinical faculty by Monday of the semester's second week for their approval, with any change sent in writing a week before it applies.
Complio sits underneath all three. UofM issues no clinical permits to a student with incomplete health data, so an expired TB result or BLS card can hold up an agreement that is otherwise ready. See Complio compliance and myClinicalExchange.
Affiliation agreements are a separate layer
The preceptor agreement covers one preceptor. Clinical sites sit under LCON Affiliation Agreements, which the Bulletin cites when it warns that clinical requirements can change under contracts between sites and the college. UofM does not publish who requests a new affiliation agreement for a site, or how long one takes to finalize.
Health systems around Memphis add conditions of their own. Regional One Health requires a signed and executed affiliation agreement before any preceptorship or clinical rotation starts. Baptist Memorial wants its graduate preceptorship application at least three months before the proposed start, with every preceptor named. Memphis NP preceptors covers how local systems handle NP students.
What to gather before the form
Details worth having in hand
- The preceptor's full name, credentials and the state that issued their license. Tennessee ties a preceptor's license to the state where the precepting happens, and Tennessee schools monitor preceptor licenses through Nursys e-Notify.
- The preceptor's national certification and role, which also shows whether the rotation counts toward your track's NP-precepted requirement.
- The site's name, address and practice type, such as family practice, internal medicine, inpatient, critical care, or outpatient or inpatient psychiatric care.
- Whether the site already holds an affiliation agreement with LCON, and any application or lead time the site's health system sets.
- Your course number, such as
NURS 7643orNURS 7612, with a planned start date and weekly hours. - Current Complio items whose expiration dates fall after the term ends.
Because UofM does not publish the form's fields, treat this list as preparation rather than a copy of the form. Your track's advising site and your clinical faculty hold the version in use for your term.
Approval, not submission, is the finish line: the partnerships office must approve the form before your first clinical day.
How we prepare your agreement
With or without UofM's help on the match itself, we place the preceptor agreement form at the center of our work for you. Before anyone commits, we confirm the preceptor's license, certification and practice setting against your track, collect the site's particulars and check for any health-system application or lead time that applies.
Everything is gathered well before the term, so the form can be filled in without back-and-forth. We line up your Complio and myClinicalExchange dates with the placement, stay reachable while the agreement is in review, and if a preceptor withdraws, we find a replacement and rebuild the details for the new match. The Office of Community Partnerships and Practice makes the decision; our job is to hand it a file that is complete and correct on arrival. Learn more about how it works.
Questions UofM students ask
Where can I download the UofM preceptor agreement form?
UofM does not post the form on its public website. The Academic Bulletin names the form and sets the approval rule, but the document itself is not linked from memphis.edu. Your track's advising site, your clinical faculty or your track coordinator can point you to the version in use for your term.
Is there a deadline to submit the preceptor agreement?
No submission date is published. The fixed point is that the Office of Community Partnerships and Practice must approve the form before your first clinical day. Some health systems ask for applications months in advance, so starting the agreement as soon as a preceptor and site are settled is the safest plan.
Do I need a new agreement for each practicum?
UofM ties the approval to the first day of clinical, and each practicum course has its own start. If your preceptor or site changes between courses, or within one, expect fresh paperwork, and a site change also needs written approval from the clinical faculty and the clinical coordinator. Confirm the per-course rule with your clinical faculty.
Can clinical hours count while the agreement is pending?
They should not start at all. The Bulletin requires approval before the first clinical day and separately bars any clinical practice without the clinical faculty's prior approval, calling a violation grounds for dismissal from the course. Hours worked ahead of those approvals put the course at risk instead of moving you forward.
What makes a preceptor qualified at UofM?
UofM refers to preceptor qualifications without publishing a list of license types, years of experience or certifications. At Tennessee sites, the state looks for a preceptor licensed, without restriction, where the precepting takes place and at your target level or higher. Track rules then add role and setting requirements, covered in preceptor and rotation rules.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UofM's 2026-27 catalog, the LCON Academic Bulletin, program pages and licensure disclosures. Your clinical faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
Whether UofM helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your UofM concentration, your next practicum and the town you train near. We find preceptors and sites that fit the course and prepare what the preceptor agreement form needs, early enough for approval before the first clinical day.
- Preceptors matched to the rotation rules: an NP preceptor, family practice for FNP, inpatient and critical care for AG-ACNP
- License, certification and site details ready for the preceptor agreement form, with your Complio items in order
- Across the Mid-South, Tennessee and the states UofM serves
Start your placement plan
Your concentration, your town and your next clinical semester is all we need to begin.