What shapes the cost of a UTRGV preceptor placement
Your quote is built from five things: the UTRGV course and its hours, the specialty, where you live, how soon the course starts, and whether your site needs a new affiliation agreement. Send those through the form and a placement advisor replies with a written quote for your placement. UTRGV's own costs, from tuition to Typhon, stay separate.
Get your written quote
Your program, city and start timing are enough to price a UTRGV search. Add your course number if you know it.
The course and its hours
Hours shape the search more than anything else. A 45-hour course asks a preceptor for a handful of clinic days. NURS 6612 and NURS 6613 run at 16 and then 24 hours a week over a pair of 7-week rotations, which means a clinician willing to give one student steady time for most of a semester. The bigger the commitment, the fewer clinicians can say yes, and the more calls it takes to reach them.
| Course | Hours | What the search has to find |
|---|---|---|
NURS 6305, NURS 6310, NURS 6311 | 45 each | A primary care, health promotion or rural practice for a short block |
NURS 6347 | 45 | Two master's-prepared NPs at two sites, one student each: two searches in one summer |
NURS 6612 | 224 | A family practice seeing children and adults, open to 16 hours a week |
NURS 6613 | 336 | A primary care preceptor with room for 24 hours a week |
NURS 6476, NURS 6620 | 220 and 300 | A board-certified psychiatric preceptor in your home state, fall then spring |
NURS 8211, NURS 8512 | 100 logged in NURS 8211 | An approved project site with a physician or DNP-prepared APRN |
The specialty and its preceptor rule
The narrower UTRGV's rule, the more work each match takes. The long FNP courses accept a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant or a physician, the widest field UTRGV allows. NURS 6347 narrows it to NPs with master's preparation. The PMHNP certificate narrows it furthest: board-certified psychiatrists (ABPN, over a year beyond residency) and ANCC-certified PMHNPs only, at a practice that is not your workplace.
Psychiatric searches carry extra checks as well: board status for every candidate, a practice that can offer younger patients (UTRGV's archived FAQ suggested about 120 of the 520 hours with children and adolescents), and a look at how much of the work is by video, since UTRGV caps telepsychiatry hours. A PMHNP quote reflects that work. Every rule is on the preceptor requirements page.
Where you live and how far you will drive
Geography sets the size of the pool. The Texas border has fewer advanced practice nurses per resident than the rest of the state: in 2023 the Department of State Health Services found 87 APRNs for every 100,000 border residents, compared with 118 in the rest of Texas. In the Valley, that can mean a wider radius or more calls before a clinician says yes.
Large metro areas have more clinicians but also more schools asking them, and some Texas health systems say on their own pages that student spaces are limited. For PMHNP students outside Texas, the home state's rules for programs based elsewhere come into play. Telling us how far you will drive, and on which days, lets us price the search you actually need. The Texas regions guides describe each area.
How soon your clinical course starts
Lead time is the factor you control. With a semester to spare, we can work UTRGV's affiliated sites and a new practice side by side, and a new affiliation agreement has its 30 to 90 days to clear. Inside a month, realistic options narrow to practices already affiliated with UTRGV, and the search is packed into days instead of weeks.
UTRGV adds its own lines: FNP students owe the signed agreement and their first weekly time report seven days ahead of clinic, and PMHNP students need clearance from clinical faculty before any hour. In 2026-27, fall classes began August 26, spring classes begin January 19 and Summer I opens June 7, so count back from your course's first week. If your course has already begun, read no preceptor yet.
Whether your site needs a new affiliation
A practice already affiliated with UTRGV is the shorter route: the preceptor paperwork goes in and faculty approve. A practice new to UTRGV needs more. The Clinical Request Form, sent through DocuSign, names the facility, its signer for agreements and the preceptor, and UTRGV then processes its standard affiliation agreement or reviews the facility's own. UTRGV's PMHNP guidelines estimate 30 to 90 days, assuming the details submitted are correct and nothing is missing.
Our job is making that information accurate and complete: confirming the right contact at the facility, gathering the preceptor's credentials for the Typhon data sheet, and following up with the site so its side keeps moving. A new-affiliation search takes more coordination than one inside the approved list, and the quote shows it. The Clinical Request Form guide walks through each step.
UTRGV's own costs, outside our quote
Some costs come with being a UTRGV clinical student, whoever finds your preceptor. UTRGV or its vendors set them, and you pay them the way UTRGV directs, apart from our quote:
- Tuition and university fees for each clinical course.
- Typhon access, which each MSN student buys once to log hours for the whole program.
- Student liability insurance, billed with fall registration and renewed each September 1.
- The criminal background check, which covers seven years and holds while your enrollment is unbroken.
- Immunizations and screenings on the School of Nursing form, with a yearly TB test and flu shot.
- Any onboarding a hospital or clinic asks of students, and your travel to the site.
Graduate drug-screen and CPR rules do not appear in UTRGV's public documents, so ask your course faculty whether your course or site expects one. The compliance checklist covers each item.
What your quote covers
Your written quote is built for your course, specialty, region and timing, and it spells out what is included. For a UTRGV student, the work looks like this:
- A search matched to your course's preceptor rule and weekly load, beginning with practices UTRGV already works with and reaching new ones when needed.
- A check of each candidate's license, board status and patient mix before you hear a name.
- Preceptor and facility details for UTRGV's data sheet and request form, gathered in one pass.
- Follow-through until the preceptor agreement is signed and the schedule fits your time report.
- A new search begun immediately if a preceptor withdraws.
Ready for a number? Request your quote with your program, course, city and start date, or compare your options first in choosing a placement service.
Questions UTRGV students ask
Why is there no price list for UTRGV placements?
Because two UTRGV placements rarely involve the same work. A 45-hour health assessment block near Edinburg and a 300-hour psychiatric preceptorship in another state differ in hours, specialty, region and paperwork. A written quote for your own placement tells you far more than an average would. Send your program, course, city and start date to get one.
Does a placement cost more when my course starts soon?
Short notice usually means more work in less time: more calls a day, and a search limited to practices already affiliated with UTRGV, since a fresh affiliation needs 30 to 90 days by UTRGV's own estimate. Your quote reflects the timeline. Reaching out a semester ahead gives both the search and UTRGV's approval the most room.
Can one quote cover NURS 6612 and NURS 6613?
Yes. The two FNP courses run in back-to-back semesters, so planning them together makes sense, ideally with a preceptor who can host you for both terms. Each course still has its own preceptor agreement and UTRGV approval. Name both courses in your request and the quote covers the plan.
Do PMHNP certificate students get the same quote as FNP students?
Quotes differ because the work differs. The PMHNP rule accepts only board-certified psychiatrists and PMHNPs, the site has to be in your state and outside your workplace, and your state may have rules for programs based elsewhere. FNP searches draw on NPs, PAs and physicians across Texas. Each quote is built from the search it describes.
What happens if my preceptor drops out partway through?
Tell your placement advisor and your course faculty at once. We start a replacement search right away, working from what we already know about your course, hours and region, and the new preceptor still goes through UTRGV's approval. Your written quote sets out how a replacement is handled from the start.
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.
- UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2026-27: Post Master's Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate (clinical hours)
- UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2026-27: Family Nurse Practitioner (MSN), liability insurance and licensure
- UTRGV PMHNP Guidelines for Completion of the Clinical Request Form (archived)
- UTRGV 2026-2027 Academic Calendar
- Texas DSHS, 2023 Supply Report (APRNs in border and non-border counties)
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.