Your own search, NPHub or a placement service: three Graceland routes compared
Graceland University NP students reach an approved preceptor by one of three routes: a search they lead with Graceland's assistance, Graceland's optional NPHub service, or a placement service like ours working on their behalf. Every route ends at the same Graceland review, affiliation agreement and approval email. What changes is who searches, how the search is shaped and what you file.
Not sure which route fits?
Tell us your track, next practicum course, term and city, and your placement advisor will say which route looks strongest for you.
The three routes at a glance
Read across each row to see where the work sits on each route. The last row is the one that never changes.
| Your own search, with Graceland's help | Graceland's NPHub option | A placement service like ours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who searches | You, with help from the Graduate Practicums Coordinator | NPHub, with Graceland's coordinators reviewing matches | Your placement advisor, with you deciding whom to accept |
| What shapes the search | The clinicians you can reach | The location on your option form | Your address, schedule and preferred clinicians |
| Tracks and states | Every NP track, in an approved state | FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP in most states except Minnesota | FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP in approved states, Minnesota included |
| Appendix A and B | You submit A; the preceptor completes B | NPHub obtains both from the site and preceptor | You submit A and the preceptor completes B, with every detail prepared |
| Affiliation agreement | The contract coordinator sends it from your Appendix A | NPHub obtains it | The contract coordinator sends it; we supply the site's contract contact up front |
| Key timing | Paperwork by June 15, October 15 or February 15 | Option form months earlier; confirm 5+ months before the term | From your first message, aimed at your paperwork deadline |
| Graceland's part | Review, approval email, Typhon listing | Review, approval email, Typhon listing | Review, approval email, Typhon listing |
Route one: your own search, with Graceland's help
This is the handbook's standard path. You find the preceptor, Graceland's coordinators help when you ask, and a contract coordinator or the course's lead faculty approves. It suits students who already know clinicians who fit the course, who work for a large system with separate clinical areas, or who have a term or two of runway before the deadline.
The work is real. You make the calls, explain Graceland's expectations, collect every site address and the contract contact, and keep the timeline yourself. Students on this route do best when they start early and check Graceland's database of approved preceptors first. Finding your own preceptor covers how.
Route two: Graceland's NPHub option
NPHub is the paid service Graceland partners with. You answer yes on the option form, and NPHub, with Graceland's coordinators reviewing the matches, finds a preceptor and gathers the affiliation agreement, Appendix A and Appendix B. It suits students who are comfortable taking a match from a vetted list within reach of home, who can commit early and whose track and state are covered.
It carries its own rules: the option form dates, the Minnesota exclusion, the 120-hour minimum, the advice to confirm five or more months before the term, the charge billed to your Graceland account, and the handbook's plain note that a placement may not be found for everyone. The NPHub option page sets out each step.
Route three: a placement service like ours
A placement service searches for you while you keep the final word. Our route suits students who want the search built around their own city and schedule, who have particular practices or clinicians in mind, who live in Minnesota, or who need a second preceptor or a fast replacement.
Your placement advisor screens each prospect against your Graceland course before asking, then hands you the site and preceptor details laid out the way Appendix A and Appendix B ask for them, including the contact the contract coordinator needs for the agreement. You submit Appendix A, your preceptor completes Appendix B, and Graceland decides. How it works shows the steps, and cost explains how we quote.
Mixing routes across three practicums
The choice need not be one route for the whole program. Graceland requires at least two different preceptors across your three practicums, allows at most two in any one practicum and lets a single preceptor cover up to two of the three terms, so many students plan each practicum on its own merits.
A common pattern is a clinician you already know for one practicum and outside help for the harder one, usually the setting with the fewest willing preceptors near you. The handbook sets an NPHub option form deadline for each term, so ask the contract coordinators how a yes or no on that form carries across your practicums before you plan a mix. The two-preceptor rule page covers Graceland's counting.
Questions that usually settle it
- Do you already know a clinician who fits your next course's setting and credential rules?
- Do you live in Minnesota, or in a state where you still need to confirm Graceland's approval?
- How many weeks remain before June 15, October 15 or February 15?
- Does the course need a split, such as the internist or hospitalist hours plus pulmonology in
NURS5450? - Is there a practice you want to train in because you hope to work there later?
- Who will be your second preceptor, and in which practicum?
If your answers point to a particular place and a tight calendar, a search built around you, whether you run it or we do, tends to fit best; if you are early and flexible, any of the three can work. Either way, tell us about your plan and your placement advisor will say which route looks strongest for you.
Questions Graceland students ask
Does Graceland prefer one placement route over another?
The handbook describes the collaborative search as the standard path and NPHub as an optional service Graceland partners with. The approval does not change with the route: a contract coordinator and/or the course's lead faculty reviews every preceptor and site, and the same conditions apply before any practicum hour counts.
Does Graceland review a preceptor found by a placement service differently?
The handbook describes one review for every preceptor and site it approves. It lets students use preceptors already approved in their area or put forward new ones, and it weighs the preceptor's qualifications, the setting, the patient mix and the paperwork. A preceptor we help you find goes through exactly that review.
Can I change routes after my first practicum?
Each practicum runs through its own paperwork cycle, so a different route for a later practicum is mostly a matter of planning. The piece to check is the NPHub option form, which the handbook ties to term deadlines; an earlier edition warned that opting out might not be reversible. Ask the contract coordinators before you switch.
Which route is fastest?
It depends on your starting point more than the route. A preceptor at a site that already has an affiliation agreement with Graceland moves quickest on any route, while a brand-new site contract takes longest. NPHub asks for confirmation five or more months before the term. If your deadline is close, read need a preceptor fast.
Do all three routes end with the same approval email?
Yes. Whichever route finds your preceptor, Graceland sends one approval email per preceptor and site, lists them in Typhon by the first week of term and expects you to show those emails to your instructor on the first day of class. Without that email, hours at the site do not count.
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.