San Antonio and the Alamo Area for UTRGV NP students
Nearly three million Texans live in the 13 Alamo Area counties around San Antonio. The city's hospitals publish firm rules for outside NP students, the rural ring around it carries federal shortage labels, and two community health networks run more than 50 sites. Here is how each fits UTRGV's courses and approval steps.
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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.
Thirteen counties with Bexar at the center
The Alamo Area Council of Governments draws this region around Bexar County, which held 2,160,088 of the region's 2,930,089 residents on July 1, 2025 (9.2% of Texas). Comal and Guadalupe come next, then Medina, Wilson, Kerr, Atascosa and Kendall, with Gillespie, Bandera, Frio, Karnes and McMullen, home to just 544 people, at the edges. San Antonio counted 1,548,422; New Braunfels, Schertz, Seguin, Cibolo, Converse, Kerrville and Boerne follow.
San Antonio lies roughly 230 road miles north of the Edinburg campus. This guide is written for three kinds of UTRGV student: MSN-FNP and post-master's FNP students with relatives in the city, DNP students who live in the region and need a local project site, and PMHNP certificate students who make their home here, since that certificate puts clinicals in the state where the student lives.
What San Antonio hospitals tell outside NP students
Each system here with a published student rule wants a signed school agreement first; after that, they differ on who finds the preceptor and how much notice they need.
| System | Its own rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| University Health (University Hospital, Level I trauma) | Lists "University of Texas Rio Grande Valley" among its current education partners. New agreements go only to not-for-profit, Texas-based schools requesting more than one student and average six to eight weeks. | Live page |
| CHRISTUS Santa Rosa and CHRISTUS Children's | A current agreement with your program plus a preceptor you have "already secured"; the office does not find preceptors. Forms are due four weeks before the start; a Baylor College of Medicine preceptor needs extra approval of up to six weeks. | Live page |
| UT Health San Antonio | A visiting student first secures a sponsoring department or individual sponsor; admission is selective and space dependent. | Live page |
| South Texas Veterans Health Care System | Over 200 nursing placements a year, mostly undergraduates from UT Health San Antonio and the University of the Incarnate Word. | Live page |
| Baptist Health System (Tenet) | The school's affiliation must be on file before a request; NP students return paperwork to its rotation coordinator. | Search excerpt |
| Methodist Healthcare (HCA) | Pages found cover nursing residency and physician visiting rotators; no NP student route. | Search excerpt |
A partner listing is not a preceptor; ask your course faculty whether an NP rotation at University Health is realistic before you plan on one. The CHRISTUS and UT Health rules point the same way: a willing clinician or sponsor comes first.
Health centers, rural counties and shortage labels
HRSA's site file lists 72 active health center sites run by six organizations. In the city, Barrio Comprehensive Family Health Care Center operates 31 and El Centro Del Barrio 24, reaching New Braunfels, Schertz and Converse. Beyond Bexar, South Texas Rural Health Services covers Dilley, Pearsall, Devine and Hondo; Atascosa Health Center serves Pleasanton, Poteet, Lytle, Floresville and Karnes City; Frontera Healthcare Network runs three Fredericksburg sites.
The shortage map darkens as you leave Bexar. Seven counties (Atascosa, Frio, Karnes, Kerr, McMullen, Medina, Wilson) are county-wide geographic primary care shortage areas, Bandera and Gillespie hold low-income designations, and Bexar is designated by tract, its low-income San Antonio East area posting the region's top score of 18. Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall have none. For mental health, every county but Bexar and Kendall is a county-wide geographic shortage area, Karnes scoring 18.
USDA classes Frio, Gillespie, Karnes, Kerr and McMullen as nonmetro, 4% of the region's people, and CMS lists three critical access and four psychiatric hospitals. Rural primary care fits the Frio and Karnes clinic towns best; psychiatric preceptors need an early, metro-wide search.
Lining up the Alamo Area with UTRGV courses
A Bexar County clinic goes through the same UTRGV approval as one in McAllen. Under the FNP syllabi the arranging is yours: pick from UTRGV's approved list in Brightspace, or name a new San Antonio clinic on the Clinical Request Form and give its affiliation agreement 30 to 90 days.
NURS 6612(224 hours) andNURS 6613(336 hours): a family practice or health center seeing children and adults, able to host two 7-week rotations at 16, then 24, hours a week.NURS 6347: a San Antonio health center NP plus a second master's-prepared NP at another practice, each precepting only you.NURS 6311rural health: primary care in nonmetro Frio or Karnes, or small-town clinics in shortage-rated Atascosa and Medina.NURS 6476andNURS 6620(PMHNP): a psychiatric practice anywhere in the region whose preceptor is ABPN-certified and more than a year out of residency, or ANCC-certified as a PMHNP, and is not your employer.- DNP project courses: a project site UTRGV approves, precepted by a physician or an APRN holding a DNP.
Before accepting a San Antonio site, FNP students should map the week: Wednesday class in Edinburg is where NURS 6612 gathers the Mandatory Weekly Time Report, and faculty can drop in on sites at random. PMHNP students can compare UTRGV's live flyer and archived FAQ on PMHNP placement assistance.
Why UTRGV students in the Alamo Area choose us
Our search opens with Alamo Area sites already on UTRGV's approved list, then widens to clinicians in Bexar and its neighbors early enough for UTRGV's paperwork to clear. Each preceptor is checked against your exact course, from all-ages patients in NURS 6612 to board certification for PMHNP hours, and you receive the details UTRGV's forms ask for. If a preceptor drops out mid-term, your placement advisor goes straight to a replacement. Every step is on how it works.
Questions UTRGV students ask
Can I do UTRGV FNP clinicals in San Antonio while staying with family?
Nothing UTRGV publishes confines FNP sites to the Valley. A clinic near your family can join through UTRGV's list or a new Clinical Request Form. The harder part is the calendar: FNP classes meet in Edinburg every week, so raise the plan with your course coordinator early.
Will CHRISTUS Santa Rosa help me find a preceptor?
Its clinical learning page says no. Students must arrive with a preceptor already in place, and the rotation office does not search for one or arrange schedules. Your program also needs a current CHRISTUS affiliation agreement, and its forms are due four weeks before you start.
Can a UTRGV student rotate at UT Health San Antonio?
Its visiting student page says an outside student must first secure a sponsoring department or individual sponsor, then apply online. Its School of Nursing reports more than 400 agency contracts within 60 miles, for its own students. A sponsor who precepts you still needs UTRGV's site approval.
Where are rural sites for NURS 6311 near San Antonio?
HRSA lists health center sites in Dilley and Pearsall (Frio County) and Karnes City, both nonmetro counties, plus small towns in metro-classed counties: Devine and Hondo in Medina, Pleasanton, Poteet and Lytle in Atascosa, Floresville in Wilson. All five counties are county-wide geographic primary care shortage areas.
Who can precept a PMHNP certificate student living in the Alamo Area?
Two credentials qualify under UTRGV's rule: a psychiatrist board-certified through the ABPN whose residency ended more than a year back, or a PMHNP board-certified through the ANCC. Your employer is excluded. With 11 of 13 counties rated geographic mental health shortage areas, start well before fall clinical hours.
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.