UTA PMHNP: finding a psychiatric preceptor and clinical sites
UTA's psychiatric-mental health NP track needs psychiatric preceptors for three clinical courses and 720 hours, with patients who are “children, adults, and the elderly.” UTA's own sources disagree on whether the track is campus-based or fully online, which affects your calendar but not the rule that you find the preceptor and UTA approves.
Find a psychiatric preceptor
Tell us your next PMHNP course, the age groups your sites already cover and your county. A placement advisor replies with psychiatric settings that could fit.
What PMHNP sites have to cover
UTA's PMHNP page describes care for “children, adults, and the elderly” in “inpatient psychiatric institutions, community offices and facilities, as well as forensic institutions.” Those three setting types are the map for your search. An inpatient psychiatric unit, an outpatient psychiatric practice or community mental health clinic, and a correctional or forensic service all fit UTA's own description.
The course descriptions carry the lifespan through every stage. NURS 5324 and NURS 5325 cover psychiatric and mental health disorders “across the life span,” and NURS 5650 is framed as family psychiatric mental health practice. Across three courses, your sites together should reach children and adolescents as well as adults and older adults.
What UTA does not publish matters just as much. There are no public PMHNP population minimums, no course-by-course hour split, no public list of which provider types may precept each course, and no statement on telehealth hours. UTA's handbook does say simulation can never replace population-specific hours, so plan for real patients in each age group rather than hoping a case study fills a gap.
Campus-based or “fully online”: reading UTA's two answers
The MSN and PMC handbook puts PMHNP in its campus-based list, not its accelerated online list. We found no UTA Online PMHNP page, so PMHNP has no entry on the 2026-27 online start calendar that UTA Online publishes for its FNP, AG and pediatric tracks. Yet UTA's PMHNP page opens with “The fully online psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) at UTA.”
The two can both be partly true. The same handbook says most courses in the campus-based programs are offered online “with minimal campus presence required,” and UTA's department page describes campus-based hybrid courses as online with “a small number of in-person meetings (typically 3).” A campus-based PMHNP delivered mostly online would fit both descriptions, but only the program can confirm how yours runs.
For placement, the practical result is the calendar. Campus-based programs start in fall and spring and follow semesters, not the 11 and 13-week online blocks, and UTA publishes no week counts for the PMHNP clinical courses. Take your clinical dates from your course schedule, and ask the program director about any required Saturday events, which UTA says some graduate programs hold. UTA's general guide for a full-time campus-based load is 24 to 36 months.
The clinical sequence
Three courses carry the PMHNP clinical hours. Catalog titles, prerequisites and the didactic courses that lead into them are on UTA PMHNP clinical courses; for planning, this is the order.
| Course | Credits | What to plan for | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 5324 | 3 | First psychiatric preceptorship, common disorders across the life span | NURS 5222 and NURS 5223, GPA 3.0 |
NURS 5325 | 3 | Common and complex disorders across the life span | NURS 5324, or alongside it |
NURS 5650 | 6 | Advanced practicum in family psychiatric care | NURS 5324 and NURS 5325 |
UTA's 2020-21 course list puts the track at 46 credits and 720 clinical hours; no current UTA page divides those hours by course. For comparison, Texas programs reported a median of 657.5 precepted hours for master's PMHNP tracks in 2025, according to the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies, so UTA's published figure sits above the state's middle. The cross-track view is on clinical hours by track.
Admission, license and eligible states
For admission, the PMHNP catalog page asks for two years of RN clinical experience, CPR certification and a statistics course. It is silent on whether that experience must be psychiatric. Clinical courses also call for an unencumbered RN license; under the handbook it must be valid in the state where each clinical site is, getting that state's license at your own expense if the state is not in the compact or you do not hold a compact license.
Eligibility by state is narrow. UTA's state-authorization map lists its NP programs, PMHNP included, for Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia only. A “fully online” label can make it tempting to enroll from somewhere else or to plan a rotation near family in another state; before either, email NursingSOA@uta.edu, which UTA requires before seeking a preceptor in another state or moving. See out-of-state clinicals.
Certification matters later too: the Texas Board of Nursing recognizes the ANCC PMHNP (across the lifespan) and AANPCB PMHNP exams for this population, which is one more reason the lifespan coverage in your sites counts.
Psychiatric site types in Texas
Match each of UTA's three setting types to what exists near you. The systems below are examples of where those settings sit, not sites known to accept UTA PMHNP students.
Inpatient psychiatric units sit inside hospitals, and hospital systems set their own student rules. Parkland in Dallas says it does not place students directly and that students should go through their school. An archived JPS Health Network page in Fort Worth says it serves as a rotation site for advanced practice nursing providers. Houston Methodist runs an NP-student program but is not pursuing new affiliations, and UTA is not among its five partner schools.
Community offices and facilities include outpatient psychiatric practices and public mental health services. Lubbock's local mental health authority, StarCare, is one example of that kind of public provider. Forensic settings, such as jail or correctional health services, are the third type UTA names; ask course faculty early whether a forensic site fits the course you are entering.
Need and supply do not line up evenly. A June 2026 Texas DSHS presentation projects the Rio Grande Valley will have the state's highest unmet psychiatrist demand in 2036, at 71 percent, and notes nurse practitioners cluster in counties with major cities. If you live far from a metro, expect a wider search radius.
Timing, telehealth and who to ask
Count back from the first day of NURS 5324 on your semester schedule; UTA's online FAQ measures its 12 to 16-week lead time from that first clinical course. Clearance runs on its own clock, with everything except the background check and drug screen due in your first 60 days of graduate coursework, and your request is filed through Exxat MyRequest once the course appears.
Telehealth deserves its own question. If a psychiatric preceptor offers video visits, ask before you count them: no UTA source we reviewed addresses whether telehealth encounters count toward clinical hours. The handbook's rule is that the minimum must be direct patient care. Ask course faculty in writing before you plan a rotation that is largely virtual.
UTA's directory lists a PMHNP mailbox for its Graduate Clinical Coordination Team, PsychNP@uta.edu, for questions about a specific preceptor or site.
Do not assume a site that sees only adults will carry you through all three courses. Settle where child and adolescent patients will come from before NURS 5650.
Why PMHNP students choose our search
The hard part of a PMHNP placement is often coverage across ages and settings rather than a single yes. A placement advisor searches for psychiatric preceptors near you and looks at your plan across all three courses: which setting and age groups each site adds, and what is still missing before the practicum.
Where your course allows a virtual option, we look at those too, once course faculty have confirmed whether it counts. When a preceptor agrees, we help you prepare the documents UTA's clinical team checks: a resume or CV, proof of an unencumbered license, the site information and the agreement forms. If a preceptor leaves partway through a term, we keep searching with you. UTA rules on every preceptor, site and agreement, and yours arrives with each piece it asks for. Read how it works or use the form below.
Questions UTA students ask
Can a licensed therapist or LCSW precept UTA PMHNP hours?
UTA's public pages do not answer this. A hidden block of text on UTA's Preceptor Resources page, about its 2024 Preceptor of the Year award, lists LCSW and therapist alongside NP, PA, MD and DO, but that is award wording, not a rule. The acceptable categories for each clinical course sit in your course materials. See preceptor requirements.
Does UTA offer the PMHNP post-master's certificate online?
UTA lists a Family PMHNP certificate among its campus-based post-master's certificates, and the UTA Online certificate list does not include it. The catalog puts it at 23 credits with the same clinical courses as the MSN, NURS 5324, NURS 5325 and NURS 5650, and a gap analysis sets the rest. More on post-master's NP certificates.
What if my first PMHNP site only sees adults?
That can work for one course, but plan the rest early. The PMHNP courses describe care across the life span, UTA publishes no age-group minimums, and its handbook says simulation cannot replace population-specific hours. Ask course faculty what child and adolescent exposure they expect by NURS 5650, then line up a second site or preceptor to supply it.
How many PMHNP clinical hours do Texas programs require?
Texas rule sets a floor of 500 clinical hours for each role and population focus. Programs go above it: in 2025, Texas programs reported a median of 657.5 precepted hours for master's PMHNP tracks and 607.5 for post-graduate certificates. UTA's 2020-21 course list puts its MSN PMHNP at 720, and UTA waives none of them.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-23
We check these pages against UTA's own sources. UTA's current handbook and your course faculty have the final word.
Hand us the search. Keep your term.
Tell us your UTA track, your county and when your clinical course opens. We look for a preceptor and a site that fit what UTA asks for, and we help you put the approval packet together.
- Matched to your track's population and setting
- Paperwork prepared the way UTA's clinical team expects it
- In person near you, or a virtual option where your course allows it
Start your placement plan
A placement advisor replies with what a UTA-ready preceptor and site look like for you.