NSU nurse practitioner clinicals in Volusia and Flagler counties
In Daytona Beach, DeLand, Deltona or Palm Coast, you either name a preceptor to your clinical coordinator two semesters before the course or accept a placement no more than 150 miles from where you live, a circle that takes in Orlando, Jacksonville and Gainesville. Halifax Health is the only local system that publishes a student process, so much of the search here runs through practices and community clinics.
Find a preceptor near Daytona Beach
Tell us your NSU course and your Volusia or Flagler ZIP code.
The Daytona area at a glance for NSU students
Volusia County runs from the beach cities of Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach inland to Deltona and DeLand, the county seat. Flagler County, to the north, centers on Palm Coast, with Bunnell as its seat. Daytona Beach also hosts an FSU College of Medicine regional campus, and Halifax Health runs a family medicine residency.
NSU's closest campus is its Orlando regional campus, which has no nursing program, so your MSN APRN coursework reaches you online. The Florida Center for Nursing (FCN) puts Volusia and Flagler in its East Central region with Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Sumter and Brevard, so the NP workforce you draw on is counted together with metro Orlando's.
Halifax Health: partner schools, CastleBranch and a 30-day window
Halifax Health spells out its student process more fully than any other hospital system in the two counties:
- Partner schools only, as demand allows. Halifax posts its partner list by school and program, most recently updated May 19, 2026.
- A fully executed Educational Affiliation Agreement before you apply. A new one can take up to 4 months, though the FAQ calls 2 to 3 months typical.
- An online application at least 30 days before the start; background checks and drug screens take 5 to 7 days of that.
- CastleBranch clearance through a school account or a student-paid portal, with Level 1 and Level 2 background checks and a urine drug screen.
- Priority for Halifax employees.
Read the partner list yourself and ask your clinical coordinator where NSU stands before you approach a Halifax clinician; this page makes no claim either way. A notice given two semesters out leaves room for a new agreement if one is needed. Your NSU record already lives in DISA CastleBranch, though Halifax's clearance may run through its own account, and the background checks page covers NSU's side of a Level 2 request.
AdventHealth and the hospitals that post nothing
AdventHealth Daytona Beach has no public student-placement page; the only local document found is a 2017 New Smyrna Beach policy saying students start once a school contract is fully executed. Resist borrowing AdventHealth's Orlando rules here. The Central Florida division's APRN student application, where you search for a preceptor by specialty and the preceptor signs, lists Orlando-area hospitals such as Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Celebration and Winter Park, none in Volusia or Flagler.
Where a system publishes nothing, you get in through a staff clinician who says yes to precepting and can ask how their hospital handles outside students. The Florida health systems guide shows the statewide patterns.
Clinics and VA sites, matched to your NSU course
Most NP hours here happen in outpatient care. Examples of settings Volusia and Flagler students look at, none named as a site that takes NSU students:
- Community health centers: Family Health Source (Northeast Florida Health Services) in DeLand, Aza Health (Rural Health Care, Inc.), a True Health site and SMA Healthcare, an FQHC look-alike. FQHCs are among the facility types Florida's TEACH program reimburses for training primary-care APRN students.
- VA: the Daytona Beach clinic and West Side Pavilion plus Deltona and Port Orange clinics, under the Orlando VA system; none turned up in Flagler. VA takes NP trainees through an affiliation agreement the school arranges.
- County health offices: Volusia's and Flagler's branches of the Florida Department of Health.
FNP students need primary care for NSG 5549 and NSG 5559, and the shorter pediatric (NSG 5589) and women's health (NSG 5569) courses each need a preceptor in that specialty. AGACNP courses such as NSG 5629 belong on hospital units, meaning Halifax or AdventHealth. PMHNP courses from NSG 5719 onward need psychiatric practice. HRSA lists one designated primary-care shortage area in Volusia, and Orange City and Pierson count as rural cities.
Naming a preceptor, or a placement anywhere from Orlando to Jacksonville
NSU leaves you two routes. Found a preceptor and site? Your clinical coordinator needs to hear about them a full two semesters before that clinical course opens, and then checks both against NSU's requirements. Without a named preceptor, the coordinator assigns a site anywhere inside a 150-mile radius of your residential ZIP code, and the handbook treats that assignment as final. From Daytona Beach, 150 miles takes in metro Orlando, Jacksonville and Gainesville; from Palm Coast, Jacksonville is nearer still.
A weekly clinical day in DeLand or Ormond Beach is a very different commitment from a weekly drive into another metro, and NSU wants clinical time spread across every week of the semester rather than packed into its opening or closing weeks. The 150-mile placement rule page sets out the rule, while counting back two semesters gives you the date to act by.
Florida's preceptor rules in brief
Every Volusia or Flagler site falls under Florida's rule: the person precepting you must hold a Florida APRN, physician (MD or DO) or dentist license, and your own RN license must be one Florida issues under chapter 464. The Florida preceptor rule page covers the fine print. Protocol-based NPs, the Florida norm, and autonomous primary-care NPs are equally eligible to precept you.
Why Volusia and Flagler students choose us
We search the practices, clinics and hospital departments between Palm Coast and New Smyrna Beach for a preceptor whose specialty fits your NSU course and whose schedule fits your week. We check Halifax's partner list and lead times before anyone is approached, line up your CastleBranch items against each site's list, and have the preceptor's details ready well ahead of your two-semester notice. Your clinical coordinator has the last word on every preceptor and site; our job is handing them a file with nothing missing. Start with the form below.
Questions NSU students ask
Does Halifax Health accept NSU nurse practitioner students?
Halifax takes students only from partner-school programs covered by a fully executed Educational Affiliation Agreement, and it publishes that partner list by school and program. Check the list for NSU and your track, then settle it with your clinical coordinator before any Halifax clinician is asked, since a new agreement can take months.
Is there an NSU campus near Daytona Beach?
The nearest is NSU's Orlando regional campus, which offers no nursing program. NSU's nursing programs are based at Fort Lauderdale/Davie, Miami, Miramar, Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Tampa Bay, and the MSN APRN coursework is online. For clinicals, what counts is your home ZIP code, which sets the 150-mile placement radius.
Could NSU place me in Orlando if I live in Volusia County?
Yes. Orlando sits well inside 150 miles of any Volusia or Flagler ZIP code, as do Jacksonville and Gainesville. With no preceptor named, the clinical coordinator can place you anywhere in that radius, and the handbook gives no way to renegotiate afterward. Naming a local preceptor two semesters ahead keeps your clinical close to home.
Can I do NSU clinical hours at the VA clinic in Daytona Beach?
A VA rotation depends on an academic affiliation agreement between VA and NSU, which the school, rather than the student, arranges with the medical center's Designated Education Officer. The Daytona Beach clinics belong to the Orlando VA system, and NSU keeps its VA agreements off its public pages, so raise the idea with your clinical coordinator early.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against NSU's own handbook, catalog and program pages. The graduate clinical guide, your course in Canvas, your clinical coordinator and your program director have the final word.
NSU lets you name your own preceptor. We make sure you have one, close to home and in time.
Tell us your NSU program, your home ZIP area and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors who fit the course and have everything ready for your clinical coordinator well before the two-semester notice.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP, acute care for AGACNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP, a practice site for DNP project hours
- Named early enough for NSU's two-semester notice, with license, credentials and site details ready for the coordinator
- Close to your home ZIP code, with clinic days we plan around your work schedule
Start your placement plan
Program, ZIP area and start term is all we need to begin.