Library, writing help and student support at UTRGV
UTRGV nursing students share the university's support services with every other student: the library and its Brightspace reading lists, the Writing Center, tutoring at the Learning Center, Student Accessibility Services, and counseling that includes round-the-clock online care through TimelyCare. This guide explains what each one offers, which options work for online PMHNP and DNP students, and where the School of Nursing itself comes in.
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.
The UTRGV Library and reading lists in Brightspace
The UTRGV Library reaches into your courses through Library Shelf, a Brightspace tool instructors use to create and manage reading lists. When a course's readings sit on its Library Shelf, you open them from inside the course instead of tracking each one down separately.
For nurse practitioner students the library does its heaviest work in the writing that surrounds the clinicals. In the MSN-FNP, NURS 7302, the Practice Intervention Project, ends with a written and oral presentation of a project in your own clinical or functional area. DNP students design a clinical scholarship project in NURS 8210, carry out implementation and data collection in NURS 8211, and submit an IRB proposal in the first weeks of NURS 8512. Each of those rests on current evidence you have found, read and cited.
Start evidence searches well before a proposal is due; the library's own site, linked in the sources below, is the front door. DNP project hours explains where the project work meets the clinical site.
The Writing Center
UTRGV's Writing Center works with students of every classification and discipline, at any stage of the writing process, from first ideas to a final draft. It runs three formats: in-person appointments, Zoom appointments, and sending in your assignment for feedback.
The two remote formats matter for graduate nurses. PMHNP certificate students study fully online and many live outside Texas, DNP students are online as well, and FNP students in their final year carry 16 to 24 clinical hours a week on top of classes in Edinburg. A session you can book around a clinic day, without a drive to campus, is one you will actually use.
Good uses include the NURS 7302 project write-up, the DNP project proposal, and the reflective and case assignments that clinical courses set. The Writing Center helps with clarity, structure and citation; the clinical judgment in the paper stays yours.
Tutoring at the Learning Center
UTRGV's Learning Center tutors in math, the natural sciences, engineering, business, American Sign Language, music and nursing. It works from two rooms: room 100 of the ELCTR building in Edinburg and room 2.118 of the BMSLC in Brownsville. Both cities also host the School of Nursing's offices, so a campus day can cover a tutoring session and a stop at the School.
Nursing is on the list without any detail on which courses it covers, so ask before you count on it for graduate content such as advanced pharmacology or pathophysiology. BSN students, whose nursing courses run on both campuses, are the clearest fit. For graduate students the stronger study partners tend to be course faculty and, in the clinical courses, the preceptor who works through cases with you each week, which is another case for a preceptor who truly fits the course.
Student Accessibility Services
Student Accessibility Services promotes equitable access and meaningful participation for students with disabilities. It is the UTRGV office to contact about accommodations, and graduate nursing students use it on the same footing as everyone else.
Clinical courses add a layer to plan for. The School of Nursing keeps technical standards among the policies on its Student Policies page, and a clinical placement brings a site, a preceptor and a weekly schedule that is often set weeks ahead. If an accommodation could touch your clinical hours, raise it with Student Accessibility Services and your course faculty before your preceptor is confirmed, so the placement is built around it from the start rather than patched mid-rotation.
Tell your placement advisor the schedule and setting you can keep, and we shape the preceptor search around it.
Counseling, TimelyCare and your own health care
UTRGV's counseling center offers confidential counseling to UTRGV students. Beyond office hours and campus locations, TimelyCare provides 24/7 online mental health and wellness support, and the School of Nursing lists TimelyCare on its own student resources page as round-the-clock virtual care.
The clinical year is heavy: long days with a preceptor, a time report every week and a course grade that rides on finishing the hours. Reaching out early is ordinary, and an online service is easier to fit around a clinic schedule than an appointment across town.
One rule to keep in mind: the archived 2023-24 Graduate Nursing Student Guide calls it unacceptable for students to seek health care from faculty, preceptors or clinical sites. Keep your own care separate from your placement, and use UTRGV's services or your own provider.
Who to ask inside the School of Nursing
Campus offices cover study, writing, access and health; program questions belong to the School of Nursing. The graduate catalog assigns each MSN-FNP student an advisor to help prepare the graduate program of study, and the School's contact page lists a student services program coordinator for graduate and DNP program requests.
Clinical questions go to the faculty on your course: the course coordinator in FNP courses, the clinical faculty member assigned to each PMHNP student, and the DNP project faculty advisors for the doctorate. Who does what sorts out each title.
Apart from the PMHNP flyer's placement-assistance line, no UTRGV support office lists a preceptor search among its services, and for FNP courses the syllabi put arranging the preceptor on the student, working from the approved list in Brightspace. That is the gap our placement desk fills: we locate a preceptor who agrees to teach you, suits your course and meets UTRGV's rules, then prepare what the approval steps need. See how it works and PMHNP placement assistance.
Questions UTRGV students ask
Where are the UTRGV School of Nursing offices?
The School of Nursing has two offices: room 2.201 of the Health Affairs Building East in Edinburg and room 2.720 of the Life and Health Sciences Building in Brownsville. FNP classes and labs meet in the Edinburg building, while the PMHNP certificate and the DNP run fully online.
Can online PMHNP and DNP students use the Writing Center?
The Writing Center serves UTRGV students of all classifications and disciplines, and two of its three formats, Zoom sessions and sending in an assignment, work from anywhere. If you live outside Texas, confirm any scheduling details with the center when you book.
Is there help with the DNP project IRB proposal?
Your DNP project faculty advisors come first: NURS 8211 requires at least four meetings with them in the semester, and NURS 8512 asks for the IRB proposal by its second week. The Writing Center can help with clarity and structure, and the library's Brightspace reading lists support the evidence review.
Where can UTRGV nursing students find scholarships?
The MSN-FNP program page advertises a Graduate Select Scholarship, and the School of Nursing says a variety of UTRGV and outside scholarships are available. UTRGV's BSN page also describes Tuition Advantage, which covers tuition and mandatory fees below a family-income threshold. Financial aid runs through ASSIST in myUTRGV.
Does UTRGV help nursing students find a preceptor?
For FNP courses, UTRGV posts a list of approved preceptors and affiliated sites in Brightspace and asks students to arrange their own from it or bring a new site through the Clinical Request Form. The PMHNP flyer lists placement assistance without defining it. Our placement desk works alongside either route.
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.