Affiliation agreements: the contract behind every practicum site
Before you see a single patient at a practicum site, Graceland University must have a signed affiliation agreement with that site on file. The rule covers every location where you give hands-on care, however few hours you spend there. A contract coordinator sends the agreement from your Appendix A, and because an outside organization has to review and sign it, this is the step that decides how early you need to begin.
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The rule, and why small sites are not exempt
Graceland's handbook puts it in one line: the agreement “must be in place for each practicum site, where hands-on care is provided, regardless of the number of hours spent at the site.” It must also be signed and on file at the university before any clinical activity begins, not merely requested.
That reaches further than most students expect. A cardiology or women's health office where an FNP student spends part of the specialty allowance in NURS6830 needs its own contract, just like the family practice that anchors the course. So does a pulmonology office an AGACNP student uses for NURS5450 if it sits at a different location from the hospitalist service.
The agreement is also the first of the seven conditions Graceland lists before any hour counts. Until it is signed, the rest of your paperwork, however complete, cannot turn into countable time. The approval email page lists the other six.
How an agreement gets started
You do not negotiate the contract yourself. Graceland's contract coordinators send it, and the details they use come from you.
- You file Appendix AYour request names the site, the address and the preceptor. Graceland uses it to confirm an existing agreement or to set a new one in motion.
- A contract coordinator checks the fileIf Graceland already holds an agreement that covers your address, the coordinator confirms it. If not, the coordinator starts one.
- The agreement goes to the agencyThe coordinator sends it using the information on your Appendix A, which is why the right signer and the exact address matter.
- The site reviews and signsFrom here the timing rests with the agency and its own review steps.
- Approval follows the paperworkWith the agreement signed, Appendix B in and Castle Branch current, the coordinator sends your approval email for that preceptor and site.
Your contribution is accuracy. A current address and the name of whoever handles student agreements at the practice let the coordinator send the contract to someone who can act on it. The contract coordinators page explains who does what.
Networks, satellite offices and second addresses
A contract with one clinic does not automatically reach the rest of its network. Graceland warns students that an agreement with one clinic is no promise of an agreement with every clinic or address in the same system, even when the clinics share a name and a parent organization.
Each location where care happens is its own contract. A preceptor who rotates through three offices produces three site contracts, and two preceptors at two sites produce two; the Appendix A page sets out the full count of forms and emails for each setup.
Before you agree to follow a preceptor to another building, ask whether that address already works with Graceland. If it does not, it needs its own agreement and its own lead time, and hours there wait until it is signed.
An agreement with one clinic in a health system does not cover the system's other clinics. Every address where you see patients needs its own signed contract before your first visit.
Why Graceland talks about a year of lead time
Graceland's handbook cautions that contracting with preceptors and sites “can take a considerable amount of time” and that some students have to begin a year or more ahead of their first practicum. The agreement is the part you control least, because it waits on another organization's review.
Older handbooks gave a figure. The 2017 edition said contracts usually took about eight weeks, and longer with large or military agencies. The current handbook drops the number in favor of the year-ahead advice, so plan by today's wording rather than the old estimate.
Your term's paperwork cutoff, whether June 15, October 15 or February 15, is when every piece must be in. A new site found in May for an August start is racing both that date and the agency's calendar; the deadlines page shows how the dates line up.
Sites that already work with Graceland
Graceland keeps contact information for currently approved preceptors and practicum sites in its school-selected online database, and the handbook invites students to use current preceptors and agencies in their area or to put forward new ones. A site already under agreement can shorten your timeline, since the coordinator is confirming a contract rather than starting one.
Hospitals and large systems sometimes add a step before any contract: an application window, a committee review or a compliance platform. Graceland asks you to tell the contract coordinator when a site requires the school to use its software, website or request process. The request systems page gives examples from Kansas City and Des Moines.
Iowa's rule on preceptors and written agreements
Iowa, which approves Graceland's MSN, post-graduate certificates and DNP, builds the site relationship into its rules for nurse practitioner programs. Under 481 IAC 616.16, a preceptor must be employed by, or hold a current written agreement with, the clinical facility where the preceptorship happens, and the program reviews written preceptorship agreements every year.
In practice, a preceptor on staff at your site, or under a current written agreement with it, fits both Graceland's contract and Iowa's rule. The same rule says the nursing education program and the student find the preceptor together, and it wants most of your precepted hours spent beside an ARNP or physician whose role and population focus match the certification you are working toward. The Iowa preceptor guide covers the state's licensing side.
Where we fit: sites that are ready to sign
Graceland students choose us because we think about the contract from the first call. We confirm every address your preceptor uses, identify who at the practice signs student agreements and check early whether the site runs its own request process, so the contract coordinator can send the agreement to the right desk as soon as your Appendix A arrives.
We aim everything at your term's deadline with room for the agency to sign, and when a second site is part of your plan, we prepare it at the same time. If an agency's review runs long, we keep a second option moving so your term stays on course. Tell us your track and start term with the form below.
Questions Graceland students ask
Does Graceland already have an agreement with my clinic?
Your Appendix A answers that, because the contract coordinator checks the file when the request arrives. You can also look for the site in the school-selected database of approved preceptors and sites, or ask soncontracts@graceland.edu. An agreement with one clinic in a network may not cover a different address.
How long does an affiliation agreement take at Graceland?
The current handbook gives no fixed turnaround. It says contracting can take a considerable amount of time and that some students need to begin a year or more before their first practicum. The 2017 handbook's figure of about eight weeks is historical, and even then large or military agencies took longer.
Do I need an agreement for a site where I only spend a few hours?
Yes. Graceland requires an agreement at every practicum site where hands-on care happens, regardless of the hours. A specialty clinic you visit for a few days of your final practicum needs a signed contract before your first patient there, and that site also needs its own Appendix A and approval email.
Who signs a Graceland affiliation agreement?
Graceland and the agency. A contract coordinator sends the agreement to the site using the details on your Appendix A, and the site's authorized signer returns it. Your role is to give accurate site and contact details so the agreement reaches the person who can sign.
Can I start observing at a site while the agreement is pending?
No. The agreement must be signed and on file before any clinical activity, and hours count only after Graceland's approval email and the other conditions are in place. Even the observation hours at the start of a practicum wait for the contract.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Graceland's own catalog, program pages and Graduate Student Handbook. Your handbook, your track coordinator and the contract coordinators have the final word.
Graceland's practicums are arranged by you, with Graceland's help. We do the searching.
Tell us your Graceland track, your city and your next practicum. We find preceptors who fit the course, line up what Appendix A and Appendix B ask for, and aim everything at Graceland's paperwork deadline for your term.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP, hospital and ICU clinicians for AGACNP, psychiatrists and PMHNPs for PMHNP
- Site address, contract contact and preceptor details ready before the June 15, October 15 or February 15 deadline
- Close to home in your approved state, with a second preceptor planned for Graceland's two-preceptor rule
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