UTRGV NP clinicals from Brooks County to Corpus Christi
The Coastal Bend runs from Brooks County, its closest point to Edinburg, up to Corpus Christi, Rockport and Beeville. Its hospital systems tell outside NP students little beyond CHRISTUS's agreement rule and Driscoll's placement portal, so health centers from Falfurrias to Robstown and independent practices carry much of a UTRGV search here.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UTRGV program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your UTRGV course.
Eleven counties on the Coastal Bend map
The Coastal Bend Council of Governments lists Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio counties, together home to 587,711 people on July 1, 2025. Nueces County holds 352,992 of them and Corpus Christi 317,247; Kingsville, Portland, Alice, Beeville, Rockport and Robstown come next, and Kenedy County counts just 319 residents.
By road, Falfurrias is roughly 65 miles from the Edinburg campus, Kingsville and Alice about 105, and Corpus Christi and Beeville about 170. FNP students who attend class in Edinburg can pair classes with a site in Brooks, Jim Wells or Kleberg County, while Corpus Christi suits a student already living on the coast; PMHNP certificate and DNP students study online and can search the whole region.
CHRISTUS Spohn, Driscoll and the Corpus Christi hospitals
Three Corpus Christi hospitals stand out on the DSHS trauma list: CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline and Corpus Christi Medical Center Bay Area at Major (Level II), and Driscoll Children's Hospital at Advanced (Level III), contingent.
| System | Its own published rule | How it was read |
|---|---|---|
| CHRISTUS Spohn: Shoreline, South, Alice, Kleberg (Kingsville), Beeville | The CHRISTUS system page names Advanced Practice Practitioners among its rotation disciplines and requires a signed Clinical Education Affiliation Agreement (CEAA) before the placement term; a current student's faculty advisor identifies the site and contacts the CHRISTUS office. Four other CHRISTUS ministries have request forms; Spohn has none. | Live system page |
| Driscoll Children's Hospital, Corpus Christi | Student placements run through myClinicalExchange for programs at approved affiliate schools, starting with the school coordinator; other students contact its Center for Professional Development and Practice. No NP-specific rule. | Live page |
| Corpus Christi Medical Center: Bay Area, Doctors Regional, Northwest (HCA) | Pages found cover physician and pharmacy residencies and HCA's nurse residency; no student-rotation page. | Search summaries of its pages |
| VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend: three Corpus Christi clinics | No NP-student process described; nursing trainees come through a school's VA academic affiliation. | Live locations page |
Look for a Spohn entry on the approved list first; without one, the CEAA must be signed before any hours count, and your course faculty make the contact CHRISTUS asks for. Driscoll runs the same portal at Driscoll Children's Hospital Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, open since May 24, 2024.
Health centers from Falfurrias to Aransas Pass
HRSA's site file counts 28 active health center sites run by four organizations. Community Action Corporation of South Texas, headquartered in Alice, operates 18 across seven counties, in towns such as Kingsville, Falfurrias, Benavides, Sarita, Sinton, Mathis and Beeville. Amistad Community Health Center runs eight in Corpus Christi, Robstown and Aransas Pass.
Atascosa Health Center adds a site in Three Rivers and Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation one in Corpus Christi. CMS also lists a critical access hospital and a psychiatric hospital in the region, and private family, pediatric and internal medicine offices in Corpus Christi, Portland and Kingsville round out the options for the long FNP courses.
Shortage designations across the Coastal Bend
HRSA places every one of the eleven counties in a primary care shortage area. Seven designations cover a whole county on geographic grounds, with Brooks (score 22) and Duval (20) rated high-needs, while Bee, Jim Wells, Nueces and San Patricio are designated for their low-income residents. Eight counties are nonmetro, home to about 23% of the region's people, and HRSA flags Brooks, Duval and Kenedy as border counties.
Mental health designations take in ten counties outright and parts of Nueces, with Bee County scoring highest at 19. A PMHNP student therefore draws on a thin pool of clinicians who meet UTRGV's rule, which admits only ABPN board-certified psychiatrists beyond their first year out of residency and PMHNPs with ANCC certification.
UTRGV courses matched to Coastal Bend sites
The FNP syllabi leave securing a preceptor to you: pick a name from the roster of approved preceptors and affiliated clinics UTRGV keeps in Brightspace (D2L), or nominate a Coastal Bend clinic on the Clinical Request Form, after which UTRGV negotiates an affiliation agreement, a step its guidelines put at 30 to 90 days.
| Course | Hours | Good Coastal Bend fit |
|---|---|---|
NURS 6305 Advanced Health Assessment | 45 | An Amistad or Community Action primary care clinic |
NURS 6310 Health Promotion | 45 (2022 syllabus) | Well care for children and adults, pregnant patients included |
NURS 6311 Rural Health | 45 (2023 syllabus) | Primary care in Brooks, Duval, Kleberg or Live Oak County |
NURS 6347 Role Development | 45 | Two master's-prepared NPs at two sites, one student per preceptor |
NURS 6612 FNP I | 224 | A family practice seeing children and adults, 16 hours a week |
NURS 6613 FNP II | 336 | A busy primary care practice, 24 hours a week |
NURS 6476, NURS 6620 PMHNP | 220, 300 | ABPN psychiatrist or ANCC PMHNP, not at your workplace |
| DNP project courses | 100 logged in NURS 8211 | An approved site with a physician and/or DNP-prepared APRN |
Each hour you log belongs to a single course, so a clinic covering two courses needs separate blocks. Preceptor requirements lists who may sign off in each one.
Why Coastal Bend UTRGV students choose us
Our search covers the whole Coastal Bend, from Falfurrias health centers to Corpus Christi practices, and starts with clinicians already on UTRGV's approved list. When a new site fits better, we line it up early enough for a CEAA or UTRGV agreement to clear, and pass you the preceptor information UTRGV's request form asks for. Each preceptor has agreed to your course's weekly hours before you hear the name; see how it works.
Questions UTRGV students ask
Does CHRISTUS Spohn take UTRGV nurse practitioner students?
UTRGV's name does not appear on the CHRISTUS pages checked here, and CHRISTUS itself warns that not every interested student lands a rotation. Every rotation needs a signed CEAA first, and Spohn has no request form of its own, so the path runs through UTRGV's approved list and your course faculty.
Can I do NURS 6311 rural hours in Kingsville, Alice or Falfurrias?
Those towns sit in nonmetro Kleberg, Jim Wells and Brooks counties, and NURS 6311 calls for primary care in rural settings, so they are natural candidates. Community Action Corporation of South Texas runs clinics in all three. Confirm the site with your course faculty and, if UTRGV has not used it before, file the Clinical Request Form well before the term.
Can I get pediatric hours for NURS 6612 in Corpus Christi?
NURS 6612 covers common episodic and chronic conditions in children as well as adults, so pediatric time belongs in it. Corpus Christi offers pediatric practices, health centers and Driscoll, whose portal starts with your school's coordinator. How the course's two 7-week rotations may be split between sites is your course coordinator's call, so ask before you commit.
What should a PMHNP student in Corpus Christi know before searching?
Plan around the calendar. The certificate's clinical hours begin in the fall, and UTRGV's guidelines allow as long as 90 days for a new agreement, so start the search in spring. Your own workplace does not count as a site. PMHNP placement assistance sets out what UTRGV's flyer and archived FAQ say about help with placement.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UTRGV's own catalog, course syllabi, School of Nursing pages and Texas Board of Nursing rules. Your course faculty and the School of Nursing have the final word.
From the approved list or a brand-new site, we find the preceptor who fits.
Tell us your UTRGV program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We line up a willing preceptor who fits the course and UTRGV's rules, and hand you the details the Clinical Request Form, the affiliation agreement and the preceptor agreement ask for, well before the semester.
- Family practice preceptors for
NURS 6612andNURS 6613, and two NP sites forNURS 6347 - Board-certified psychiatric preceptors for
NURS 6476andNURS 6620, in your home state - Across the Valley and Texas, from McAllen and Brownsville to San Antonio, Houston and beyond
- A replacement lined up fast if a preceptor drops
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.