Practicum sites that run their own student request systems
Some hospitals and clinics decide on student placements through their own software, application windows or committees, and Graceland University asks you to tell the contract coordinator as soon as a potential site works that way. These systems keep their own calendars, which often close well before Graceland's paperwork deadlines. The Kansas City and Des Moines examples below each describe that system's own published policy.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Graceland program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Graceland's rule for sites with request software
The Graduate Student Handbook has a short section headed “Site with Request Process Software.” It says some sites require proprietary software to request preceptors and practicums, and that you must notify the contract coordinator if a potential site requires Graceland to use any software or website, or has its own process for requesting student placements.
Graceland names no vendor, because each site picks its own. What matters is sequence. At some of these sites the request has to come from the school, or pass through the system, before a clinician can say yes, so the coordinator needs to hear early enough to act inside the site's window.
Put it in writing from your Sting account to soncontracts@graceland.edu, Graceland's single inbox for practicum matters, as soon as you learn how the site works.
What to send the contract coordinator
A useful first message lets the coordinator act without writing back to you for basics.
- The site and system name, plus the address where you would see patients
- A link to the site's own student placement page
- The application window or deadline for the term you need
- Whether the site wants the request from the school, from you, or from both
- Any compliance platform the site uses, such as myClinicalExchange
- Your preceptor's name, if one has already agreed
Then file your Appendix A as usual. A site's own system runs alongside Graceland's steps and does not replace them: you still need the preceptor's Appendix B, a signed affiliation agreement, current Castle Branch items and Graceland's approval email before any hour counts.
Kansas City examples
None of the pages below mentions Graceland. Each describes that health system's own rules for students in general, and they can change at any time, so read the live page before you plan around it.
The University of Kansas Health System publishes its own process for graduate nursing and physician assistant students. At its main campus at 39th and Rainbow, a centralized process for pairing students with preceptors began in March 2026, and the system asks students not to contact individual preceptors. Requests come from the academic program, or from the student as the program directs.
Its windows run February 1 to April 30 for a Fall rotation, June 1 to August 31 for Spring and October 1 to December 31 for Summer, and it notes limited preceptors in family medicine, women's health, pediatrics and psychiatry and mental health. Its Olathe and Paola sites want requests no less than 60 days and no more than six months before the rotation, and currently list no women's health or pediatrics placements.
Children's Mercy Kansas City publishes clinical affiliation standards for schools of nursing and participation requirements for students and observers. Its public pages do not lay out request steps for NP students, so the contract coordinator is the place to start. The Kansas City preceptor guide covers the metro more widely.
Des Moines examples
UnityPoint Health - Des Moines hospitals offer acute care rotations for NP students, with areas that include mental health, reviewed by an APP Clinical Preceptorship Committee. By the system's own page, applications are due February 1 for Fall, July 1 of the prior year for Spring and November 1 of the prior year for Summer, and every application is considered without a promise of placement.
Blank Children's Hospital reviews NP preceptorship applications quarterly, in January, April, July and October. UnityPoint Clinic considers a rotation only when the student's school has an active affiliation agreement with it on file, asks students who have secured a preceptor to submit the rotation to their school first, and runs rotation compliance and training through MyClinicalExchange.
MercyOne Des Moines leaves arranging NP rotations to students, who contact its offices directly, and asks for documentation at least 45 days before a rotation. Broadlawns Medical Center requires an affiliation agreement with the college, wants at least 30 days before the start date and moved nursing clinical and preceptorship requests to myClinicalExchange from Spring 2026. The Iowa preceptor guide covers the state's rules.
How those windows sit against Graceland's deadlines
Set side by side, the systems' dates come first in every term, often by months. A student who starts looking at one of these sites when Graceland's deadline approaches has usually missed that term's window already.
| Term | Graceland paperwork due | KU Health System window (39th and Rainbow) | UnityPoint Health - Des Moines deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | June 15 | February 1 to April 30 | February 1 |
| Spring | October 15 | June 1 to August 31 | July 1 of the prior year |
| Summer | February 15 | October 1 to December 31 | November 1 of the prior year |
Graceland's own dates, and what is due by each, are on the deadlines page. When a system's window is the earlier date, it is your real deadline.
Planning around a site with its own process
- Read the site's student page firstLook for a published process, window and contact before approaching a clinician. At some systems, contacting a preceptor directly runs against the published process.
- Tell the contract coordinatorSend the details listed above so Graceland can register, request or sign whatever the site requires.
- Work to the earlier dateMeet the site's window, then Graceland's June 15, October 15 or February 15 date for Appendix A, Appendix B and Castle Branch.
- Keep a second option movingCommittee and quarterly reviews can answer late or decline, so keep another site in view until you hold an approval.
- Plan for the site's onboardingA site with its own compliance platform may ask for its own training and documents on its own timeline, in addition to Castle Branch.
Where we fit: a wider search on Graceland's calendar
Large systems are one route among many, and Graceland students choose us because we search wider. Our placement desk looks at independent practices, community clinics and hospital groups whose paperwork can move on Graceland's calendar, matched to your course and close to home.
When a system with its own process is the best fit, we flag its window early and gather everything the contract coordinator needs to act inside it. We keep a second option in view as well, so a closed window or a committee's late answer has a ready alternative. Tell us your track, city and next practicum with the form below.
Questions Graceland students ask
What should I do if a hospital says the school has to request my placement?
Tell the contract coordinator at soncontracts@graceland.edu straight away, with the site's student page, its window and the term you need. Graceland's handbook asks students to notify the coordinator whenever a potential site requires Graceland to use software, a website or its own request process.
Can I contact preceptors directly at a large health system?
It depends on that system's published process. The University of Kansas Health System, for example, asks students not to contact individual preceptors at its main campus, while MercyOne Des Moines has students reach its offices directly. Read the system's student page before you make contact.
Does Graceland have agreements with these Kansas City and Des Moines systems?
Graceland does not publish a list of its site agreements. The contract coordinator checks when your Appendix A arrives, and you can look for approved sites in the school-selected database. The examples on this page describe each system's own rules, not arrangements with Graceland.
Does a hospital's own request system replace Graceland's paperwork?
No. A site's process is an extra step. Graceland still needs your Appendix A, the preceptor's Appendix B, a signed affiliation agreement, current Castle Branch items and an approval email before any practicum hours count. Treat the hospital's steps as extra lead time on top of Graceland's own.
How far ahead should I plan for a hospital with an application window?
Work back from the site's window, not from Graceland's deadline. The windows above close months before each term, and Graceland itself says some students need to start up to a year or more before their first practicum. Starting a year out keeps both calendars within reach.
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 University Graduate Student Handbook (Version 2026, 9-10-26 updates)
- The University of Kansas Health System: APP and graduate nursing student clinical placement
- UnityPoint Health - Des Moines: AGACNP and PMHNP preceptorship
- MercyOne Des Moines: PA and NP students
- Broadlawns Medical Center: nursing clinicals and preceptorships
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.