Appendix A: your request for agency and preceptor approval
Appendix A is the form a Graceland University nurse practitioner student files online, through myGraceland, to ask the School of Nursing to approve a practicum site and preceptor. You file one for every term, every site and every address. The contract coordinators use it to confirm that a site contract exists or to start one, so the details you enter set the pace for everything after it.
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Tell us your Graceland program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
What Appendix A does in Graceland's process
Appendix A is Graceland's formal Request for Agency and Preceptor Approval. The handbook also calls it the Affiliation Agreement Request Form and labels it as completed and submitted by the student, not by the site. Your clinic, your preceptor and your office manager never file it on your behalf.
The form does contract work as much as clinical work. Graceland says it uses the request “to verify that an Agency Affiliation Agreement is in place or to establish the Agency Affiliation Agreement with the site.” A contract coordinator reads your entry, looks for an existing agreement and, if there is none, sends one to the agency built from what you typed. A vague address or a missing site contact therefore slows every step that follows.
In the handbook's flowchart, Appendix A is the third move. You first start your Castle Branch packages, then find a preceptor with help from the Graduate Practicums Coordinator, and only then submit a request for every site, address and preceptor. The full placement process shows the steps on either side of it.
One request for every term, site and address
Graceland counts these requests by place and by term rather than by person. Keep a preceptor from one practicum to the next and you still file a fresh Appendix A for the new term. Follow a preceptor between two buildings and each building gets its own request, because each address needs its own site contract.
| Your setup | Appendix A | Appendix B | Site contracts | Approval emails |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two preceptors at two different sites | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| One preceptor who works from three offices | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| The same preceptor and site in a later term | 1 new | 1 new | Checked again | 1 new |
Map the addresses before you file. When a preceptor splits the week between a main clinic and a satellite office, list both from the start, since every location where you will see patients needs a contract before your first visit there.
You file Appendix A yourself, online, for every term, site and address. A form from the clinic, a paper copy or last term's request does not stand in for it.
Online only, behind your myGraceland sign-in
Graceland takes Appendix A only as an online submission and turns away paper copies. The form opens only while you are signed in to myGraceland, so start from the portal rather than from a link a classmate forwarded.
There are three versions, one each for the FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP tracks, and the Graduate Student Handbook prints the link for each. Choose the one that matches your track. If you are in the BSN-to-DNP, your NP practicums run through the same paperwork as the MSN track you chose.
Replies about the request come to your Sting email account, which Graceland treats as its official channel with students. Watch that inbox in the weeks around your deadline, because a note about a missing item arrives there first.
What to have ready before you open the form
The request exists so a coordinator can locate or build a site contract and match a preceptor to your course. Gather the facts a contract depends on before you start, and the form goes through in one pass instead of three.
Have these in hand
- The practice's full legal name and the exact street address where you will see patients, one per location
- The name and title of the person at the site who handles student agreements
- Your preceptor's name, credentials and the address where they will supervise you
- Your track, the practicum course (for example
NURS6760orNURS5460) and the term - A Castle Branch record that is current, since the coordinators review it alongside your forms
Graceland keeps the form itself inside myGraceland, so treat this list as preparation rather than a copy of the screen. If the form asks for something you do not have, the contract coordinators at soncontracts@graceland.edu can tell you what they need.
The criminal-charge attestation on every request
Each Appendix A carries a checkbox in which you attest that you have no new criminal charges. Graceland ties this to the Iowa Board of Nursing, which requires nursing students to report potential criminal charges that could bar them from the clinical portion of a course.
Because a new Appendix A is due every term, the attestation renews every term too. It sits on top of the background check you complete through Castle Branch by the end of your first term; the background check page covers the Missouri and out-of-state packages.
The rule is framed as a duty to report. If anything has changed since your last term, talk to the School of Nursing before you submit rather than leaving the question to the checkbox.
When Graceland reads your request
Appendix A shares one due date with Appendix B and your Castle Branch items, set per term: June 15 ahead of Fall, October 15 ahead of Spring, February 15 ahead of Summer. The deadlines page has the full table and the two places where Graceland's documents disagree.
Filing months early does not move you up the queue. Graceland holds early submissions until the term before your practicum and does not answer them in the meantime, so the useful early work is securing the preceptor and confirming the site.
Once your request is in, a contract coordinator checks for an agreement and starts one if needed, while your preceptor completes Appendix B. The coordinator then reviews Castle Branch and every form and emails you about anything still missing.
If you opt in to NPHub
Graceland's optional paid partner changes who handles this form. The 2026 handbook says students who use NPHub do not submit Appendix A or Appendix B: NPHub obtains the affiliation agreement and both appendices from the site and preceptor and passes them to Graceland, which reviews them again against your course.
What stays with you on either route is clearance. Your Castle Branch packets, the drug screen and the background check are still yours to complete before Graceland gives final approval. Both routes finish at the same place: a Graceland review, an approval email and a Typhon listing. The NPHub option page explains the opt-in form and how that route works.
Why Graceland students choose us for this step
We start where Appendix A starts: with a preceptor who fits your course and a site ready to sign. Our placement desk searches close to home in your approved state, confirms every address your preceptor uses and finds the person at each practice who signs student agreements. We check each clinician against your track's rules before you ever open the form.
You get everything the request needs, organized by location, well before June 15, October 15 or February 15. When the second preceptor for Graceland's two-preceptor rule comes due, we prepare that site too, so its request is ready when your term is. Send your track and next practicum through the form below.
Questions Graceland students ask
Can I file Appendix A before I have found a preceptor?
The form asks Graceland to approve a site and a preceptor together, and the handbook's flowchart puts it after the preceptor is found. If your deadline is close and you have no site, email the contract coordinators at soncontracts@graceland.edu at least two weeks before the deadline, as the handbook asks, and see what to do when time is short.
Do I need a new Appendix A if I keep the same preceptor next term?
Yes. Graceland wants a request for every term, even when the preceptor and address stay the same, and your preceptor completes a new Appendix B as well. The coordinator uses the fresh request to confirm the site agreement still stands before sending that term's approval email.
Where do I find the Appendix A link?
The Graduate Student Handbook prints separate FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP links, and each one opens only while you are signed in to myGraceland. Use the current handbook rather than a saved bookmark, since links can change between versions. If yours fails, write to soncontracts@graceland.edu from your Sting account.
Does an approved Appendix A mean I can start my hours?
Not by itself. The request leads to approval of the site and preceptor, but hours count only once seven conditions are met, including Graceland's approval email, Student Financial Services clearance, a Typhon listing and the first day of term. The approval email page lists all seven.
Do I still file Appendix A when my clinic has its own student request system?
Yes. The site's process runs alongside Graceland's, not instead of it. Graceland also asks you to tell the contract coordinator whenever a site needs the school to use its own software, website or request process. See sites with their own request systems for examples.
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
Start your placement plan
Track, city and practicum start is all we need to begin.