Finding an acute care preceptor for UTA's AGACNP track

Admission comes first: the acute care experience rule

UTA's AGACNP track screens for an acute care background before you ever look for a preceptor. The 2026-27 catalog's unconditional admission criteria include “Two years of clinical experience as a Registered Nurse (RN),” two years in a US or equivalent health system for international applicants, CPR certification and a C or better in undergraduate statistics. UTA Online's version is tighter: the two years must be clinical RN work in an acute care setting, in your area of concentration, within the past five years.

The online wording asks for acute care, not just any RN work, and for recent experience. If the catalog and the online page give different answers for your history, ask admissions which applies to your format before you apply.

That experience does more than get you in. The hospitalists, intensivists and acute care NPs you have worked beside are the first people who can tell you who precepts and how their hospital handles students. The limit is UTA's employer rule: no hours in your own department and no current supervisor as preceptor, as clinicals at your employer explains.

The preceptor and setting acute care calls for

The catalog sets the scene for the AGACNP clinical courses: “specialty practice and high acuity health care settings,” managing adolescents, adults and elders with “common secondary and tertiary health care needs.” Settings that can fit include hospital medicine teams, intensive care units and specialty services. The catalog names the acuity, not the unit, so confirm a specific setting with course faculty.

UTA's public floor for preceptors is the same in every track: an active, unencumbered provider license and at least one year in the specialty role. UTA does not publish the per-course lists of acceptable preceptor types. A Fall 2018 UTA practicum syllabus accepted physicians, AGACNPs, ACNPs and master's-prepared PAs, and took other NP and CNS preceptors only case by case. Read that as a signal of fit, then check the current guidelines in Exxat; UTA preceptor requirements has the detail.

Texas Board of Nursing rules point the same way. Under 22 TAC §219.2, an APRN, physician or other Board-acceptable professional qualifies only while practicing in the student's advanced role and population focus, which steers you toward clinicians who practice adult acute care themselves.

Seven states, and travel contracts

UTA's state map opens its MSN nurse practitioner programs, AGACNP included, in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia only, and your clinical site has to be in one of them. UTA's handbook warns that living in, moving to or working in an unapproved state can delay or deny a placement, lead to withdrawal, or mean relocating your clinicals to Texas or another approved state.

Travel contracts are where acute care nurses meet this rule. The handbook requires an email to NursingSOA@uta.edu before you accept a travel assignment, seek a preceptor in another state or move. You also need an RN license valid where the hospital sits, bought at your own cost if yours is not a compact license. Out-of-state clinicals covers moves in the middle of the program.

Why acute care students choose us

The placement desk looks for adult acute care preceptors near you in the settings your course allows, and checks each candidate against UTA's license and one-year minimums and the catalog's setting before you submit. We help with the approval file (preceptor resume, a license check, UTA's forms, the hospital's details) and keep the hospital's onboarding steps in view alongside UTA's.

If a preceptor's schedule changes mid-course, we start the search for someone new right away. UTA gives the final approval and each hospital runs its own onboarding; our part is making sure both receive a complete, accurate file on the first pass. Read how it works for our side, or give us your course and region in the form below.