Houston and the Gulf Coast: a UTRGV clinical guide
About one Texan in four lives in the 13 counties around Houston, and some UTRGV students live there or have family there. The big hospitals publish exacting student rules, from fixed request dates to six-month lead times, and 191 health center sites spread across the region. This guide sorts what each system says and how the region fits UTRGV's courses.
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Houston-Galveston at a glance
The Houston-Galveston Area Council's 13 counties held 8,058,943 people on July 1, 2025, 25.4% of the state. Harris County alone had 5,045,026, followed by Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria and Galveston; Liberty, Walker, Waller, Chambers, Wharton, Matagorda, Austin and Colorado are far smaller. Houston (2,397,315) anchors large suburbs from Pasadena and Pearland to League City, Conroe, Sugar Land and Baytown.
Houston is roughly 340 road miles from UTRGV's Edinburg campus. This guide is aimed at UTRGV students with roots here: PMHNP certificate students living in the metro, whose clinicals belong in their home state; DNP students whose project site is a Houston clinic or hospital unit; and FNP students spending part of a term near family, who still attend weekly class in Edinburg.
Houston Methodist and Texas Children's: dates and lead times
Both publish detailed advanced practice rules, and both reward planning months out.
Houston Methodist runs a formal application for NP students because, its page explains, requests are many and spaces limited. The student emails a completed nurse practitioner placement form by April 30 (summer), July 15 (fall) or November 13 (spring), and requests sent any other way are set aside. The same page says the system already serves many local nursing students and is not seeking new affiliations right now; its listed schools are Texas Woman's University, UTMB, UTHealth Houston, Prairie View A&M and Texas Tech. Accepted students also need hospital orientation and a badge.
Texas Children's Hospital sends every licensed nursing student, APRN and DNP students included, through its Office of Student Affiliations. Six months or more before the hoped-for start, the student files an Affiliation Agreement Inquiry, and approval work waits until an agreement is fully executed. Only pre-licensure RN students go through CCPS there.
Memorial Hermann, HCA, Harris Health and others
Several large operators say little about outside NP students. Memorial Hermann's nursing education page, seen in an archived copy from June 2026, describes partnerships with schools from certificate through post-baccalaureate study and students from across the country, but no NP process. HCA Houston Healthcare's page for nurses, also archived, covers a University of Houston College of Nursing partnership and new-graduate programs, with no rotation route.
Harris Health, the county hospital district behind Ben Taub Hospital, a Level I trauma center, takes school requests through the Centralized Clinical Placement System (CCPS), according to a search excerpt of its nursing schools page; approval turns on unit, clinic or preceptor availability. A search excerpt of MD Anderson's academic page says the course coordinator or instructor sends its placement request form with clinical objectives. The DeBakey VA names Texas Woman's University, Prairie View A&M and UTHealth Houston's Cizik School of Nursing as academic partners, per search excerpts.
Clinics and shortage designations up the coast
HRSA counts 191 active health center sites here from 22 organizations. Legacy Community Health Services runs 65, 61 of them in Harris County. Stephen F. Austin Community Health Center has 26, most in Brazoria towns such as Alvin, Angleton, Lake Jackson and Freeport. Farther out, Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program serves Bay City and Wharton, Lone Star Community Health Center covers Conroe and Huntsville, and Health Center of Southeast Texas works from Cleveland, Liberty and Dayton.
The designations thicken at the region's edges. Primary care labels cover Austin, Chambers and Liberty county-wide on geographic grounds; Colorado, Matagorda, Walker, Waller and Wharton have low-income designations, Matagorda's scoring 19, the region's highest; Harris, Brazoria and Galveston are designated by tract; Fort Bend and Montgomery have none. For mental health, eight counties, suburban Montgomery among them, are county-wide geographic shortage areas and only Fort Bend has no designation. Colorado, Matagorda, Walker and Wharton are nonmetro, and CMS lists 83 hospitals, six of them critical access and 15 psychiatric.
Matching Gulf Coast sites to UTRGV courses
Houston's hospital rules sit on top of UTRGV's, not in place of them. The FNP syllabi leave arranging the preceptor to you, picking from UTRGV's approved list in Brightspace or proposing a new site on the Clinical Request Form, then waiting 30 to 90 days for its agreement.
| Course | What UTRGV asks | Where to look in the region |
|---|---|---|
NURS 6612, NURS 6613 | 224 and 336 hours with children and adults, 16 then 24 hours a week | Family practices and health center sites in Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria |
NURS 6347 | Two master's-prepared NPs at two sites, one student each | Two separate outpatient practices |
NURS 6311 | Primary care in a rural setting | Clinics in Matagorda, Wharton, Colorado or Walker counties |
NURS 6476, NURS 6620 | ABPN psychiatrist over a year past residency or ANCC-certified PMHNP, not your workplace | Psychiatric hospitals and outpatient psychiatry across the metro |
| DNP project courses | An approved site; physician and/or DNP-prepared APRN preceptor | A unit or clinic that can sign an agreement in time |
PMHNP certificate students will find that UTRGV's live flyer and archived FAQ differ on help with sites; PMHNP placement assistance compares the two.
Why Houston-area UTRGV students choose us
Houston favors whoever starts first, so we start early: approved-list sites in the region come first, then independent practices and health centers with a clinician ready to teach, reached in time for UTRGV's agreement window. We test each preceptor against your course, from the two-NP rule in NURS 6347 to the certification PMHNP hours require, and assemble what UTRGV's forms ask for so faculty see a complete request. The search itself is laid out on finding a preceptor; to start, send the form below.
Questions UTRGV students ask
Can a UTRGV student rotate at Houston Methodist?
Its NP student page lists five affiliated schools, and UTRGV is not one of them; the page also says the system is not pursuing new affiliations. Requests go only through its emailed form, due April 30, July 15 or November 13. For most UTRGV students, a Houston outpatient practice is the likelier route.
How early should I contact Texas Children's for a DNP or NP rotation?
At least six months before your start, by filing its Affiliation Agreement Inquiry. Approval begins only once an agreement is fully executed, and a new UTRGV agreement can itself take 30 to 90 days, so count backward from your term and involve your faculty from the first step.
Is Memorial Hermann an option for UTRGV NP students?
Its archived nursing education page describes many school partnerships but publishes no NP process. Treat it like any site missing from UTRGV's list: find a Memorial Hermann clinician willing to precept, then send the site through the Clinical Request Form and wait for the agreement before logging hours.
Where are rural primary care sites near Houston for NURS 6311?
Colorado, Matagorda, Walker and Wharton are the region's nonmetro counties. HRSA lists health center sites in Bay City and Wharton through Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program and in Huntsville through Lone Star Community Health Center; Wharton and Matagorda also carry low-income primary care designations.
Do Houston hospitals use CCPS for nurse practitioner students?
Harris Health takes school requests through CCPS, per a search excerpt of its nursing page, while Texas Children's uses CCPS for pre-licensure RN students only. Houston Methodist and Texas Children's handle advanced practice students through their own forms. CCPS requests come from the school, not from the student.
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
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