Applying to NP School

If you seek out reputable state bricks-and-mortar schools you may find that they organize your preceptors for you. My school organizes all our clinical placements for us.

The vast majority of NP programs make you find your own preceptor, even B&M programs.

There's is facebook group for students searching for preceptors and there are many cases where people have sat out for multiple semesters.

Finding preceptors is by far one of the biggest challenges to NP school. If you don't mind moving then going to a school that arranges them would save you a lot of time.

You'll see many threads about this topic. One thing you won't see are the positives about finding your own preceptors. Although it took me nearly 9 months (!) to find mine I was able to choose who and where and I had very good experiences.

So my advice is start early and use what professional contact you have made. I did know of several students that were desperate and took 'anything' so take that for whatever it's worth. I think having so little nursing experience may make it a little tougher for you. Anyways, good luck!

The schools in our area offer clinical placement but if you read the fine print, they do not guarantee clinical placement.

I would definitely seek out a school that arranges clinical rotations for you. It's a huge hassle to find receptors on your own. People aren't as helpful as you'd like them to be. The school that I attend allows us the option to find our own preceptors so long as they meet certain criteria. However, they will set up clinical rotations for us so long as we make the request well in advance prior to the start of the rotation.