Finding an NSU preceptor in Gainesville, Ocala and North Central Florida
Gainesville and Ocala sit between Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, and NSU's 150-mile placement radius from here reaches all three. To keep clinicals in Alachua, Marion, Citrus or Levy County, you name your own preceptor to NSU two semesters out. UF Health Shands coordinates student experiences up to the MSN and DNP level without publishing the details, so clinics, practices and the VA carry much of the search.
Find a preceptor near Gainesville or Ocala
Tell us your NSU course and your home ZIP code.
North Central Florida in brief
Two metro areas anchor the region. Federal definitions draw Gainesville's around Alachua, Gilchrist and Levy counties, and Ocala's is Marion County. Alachua's cities include Gainesville, the county seat, plus Alachua, Newberry and High Springs; Marion's include Ocala, Belleview and Dunnellon. Citrus County lies to the west of Marion.
The Florida Center for Nursing (FCN) groups all of them into North Central, an 18-county stretch from Alachua and Marion west to Leon and Wakulla. NSU's Jacksonville and Orlando campuses are the closest, and neither teaches nursing; your MSN APRN courses come online.
UF Health Shands and the region's other hospitals
UF Health Shands in Gainesville, which includes UF Health Shands Children's Hospital, works alongside the UF College of Medicine. Its Nursing Education/Staff Development department says it coordinates clinical experiences for LPN, AD, BSN, MSN and DNP students. That is the whole public account: no platform, affiliation rule, deadline or preceptor rule is published.
So the practical first step is a Shands clinician willing to precept who can find out how the department handles an outside school, followed by a conversation with your NSU clinical coordinator about whether an agreement is in place or needed.
HCA Florida North Florida, HCA Florida Ocala and AdventHealth Ocala publish nothing for NP students. For AGACNP courses (NSG 5629, NSG 5639, NSG 5659), these hospitals and Shands are the local acute-care options, and each starts with a person inside. The Florida health systems guide shows how systems elsewhere handle students.
The VA in Gainesville, Ocala and Lake City
The Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville anchors a VA network with clinics in Ocala, Ocala West and The Villages, and the Lake City VA Medical Center is nearby. Getting in depends on paperwork between institutions: VA hosts NP trainees under an academic affiliation agreement with the school, negotiated by the school through the medical center's Designated Education Officer, and VA's agreement template reserves to VA the final say over trainee numbers and assignments.
The North Florida/South Georgia system also runs a one-year NP residency, but that is for graduates, not a clinical route while you are enrolled. If a VA preceptor appeals to you, raise it with your clinical coordinator early, since NSU does not publish its VA agreements.
Community clinics and rural Marion County
Primary care for FNP courses NSG 5549 and NSG 5559 and the NSG 5599 capstone often means a community health center. HRSA's list for the area includes these, given as examples of settings rather than sites with NSU agreements:
- Heart of Florida Health Center
- Palms Medical Group, including its Trenton Medical Center
- Aza Health
- Estella Byrd Whitman Wellness and Community Resource Center
- Project Health, Inc.
HRSA counts one designated population shortage area in each of Alachua and Marion, and Marion also has six rural health clinics designated as shortage facilities. Rural health clinics are one of the facility types Florida's TEACH program can reimburse for hosting primary-care APRN students, although none took part in TEACH's first reporting period. PMHNP students (NSG 5719 onward) look for psychiatric practices and behavioral health programs, and the county health departments in Alachua and Marion offer further primary-care settings.
Where 150 miles reaches from Gainesville and Ocala
Two routes lead into every NSU clinical. You can find a preceptor and site and put them in front of your clinical coordinator two semesters ahead of the course, for a check against NSU's requirements. Or you leave the slot open, and the coordinator picks a site for you somewhere inside a 150-mile circle drawn around your home ZIP code; NSU does not reopen a placement once it is set.
Measured from Gainesville, that radius covers Jacksonville, Orlando and the Tampa Bay area; from Ocala, Orlando and Tampa are closer still. For a student working in Gainesville, a placement in any of those metros means a long weekly drive, because NSU spreads clinical hours across every week of the term, beginning when the course does. The own preceptor vs NSU placement comparison weighs the two routes, and the two-semester deadline guide turns your start term into a notice date.
Florida's rules for your preceptor
Florida decides who may precept you at an Alachua or Marion site: the preceptor needs a Florida license as an APRN, MD, DO or dentist, and so do you, as an RN under chapter 464; the Florida preceptor rule page explains the details. An NP working under a physician protocol and one registered for autonomous primary-care practice both qualify; the difference matters for course fit, not eligibility.
Why NSU students around Gainesville and Ocala choose us
We know how this region works: a university health system with an unpublished student process, hospitals that post nothing, a VA that works school to school, and community clinics spread across rural counties. We find a preceptor whose practice matches your NSU course, close to your ZIP code, and prepare the license, specialty and site details your clinical coordinator reviews, well before your notice date. The yes or no belongs to NSU's clinical coordinator; we see to it that what they review is complete and matches NSU's rules. Use the form below to start.
Questions NSU students ask
Does UF Health Shands take nurse practitioner students from other schools?
Shands says its Nursing Education/Staff Development department coordinates clinical experiences for MSN and DNP students among others, but it publishes nothing on affiliation rules, platforms, deadlines or preceptors. Start with a Shands clinician who will precept you, then ask your NSU clinical coordinator whether an agreement covers the site before you commit to it.
Could NSU place me in Jacksonville or Tampa if I live in Gainesville?
Yes. Jacksonville, Orlando and the Tampa Bay area all fall within 150 miles of Gainesville, and NSU's clinical coordinator can place a student who names no preceptor anywhere inside that radius. The handbook makes the placement final once made, so naming a local preceptor on time is the way to keep your clinicals in Alachua or Marion.
Can I train at the Malcom Randall VA as an NSU student?
Only under an affiliation agreement between VA and NSU, arranged school to school through the Gainesville medical center's Designated Education Officer. NSU does not publish whether it holds one with the North Florida/South Georgia system, so ask your clinical coordinator. The system's one-year NP residency is a post-graduate program, not a student rotation.
Where do NSU FNP students in Ocala look for primary-care preceptors?
Community health centers in the Gainesville-Ocala area, such as Heart of Florida Health Center, Aza Health and Project Health, are natural places to start, along with family practices and the Marion County health department. Marion's rural health clinics are another primary-care setting. Confirm any site with your clinical coordinator two semesters before the course.
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.