NSU clinicals in Orlando and the surrounding counties
NSU has a regional campus in Orlando without a nursing program, so Orlando-area APRN students study online and travel to Tampa Bay or Palm Beach for intensives. For clinicals the region splits sharply: AdventHealth Central Florida lets you find a preceptor and bring a signed application, HCA's Lake Monroe and Oviedo hospitals take requests from the school only, and Orlando Health publishes nothing for NP students.
Find an Orlando-area preceptor
Tell us your NSU track and your county.
The Orlando metro and NSU's campuses
Orange County holds Orlando (the seat), Apopka, Winter Garden, Ocoee and Winter Park. Seminole has Sanford, its seat, with Altamonte Springs, Oviedo and Winter Springs, and Osceola has Kissimmee, its seat, and St. Cloud. The official Orlando metro adds Lake County, and all four counties sit in the Florida Center for Nursing's East Central region alongside Brevard, Volusia, Flagler and Sumter.
NSU keeps a regional campus in Orlando, but no nursing program is offered there in any current NSU source. MSN APRN coursework is online, FNP intensives meet at Palm Beach or Tampa Bay, AGACNP intensives at Palm Beach, and NSU lists the PMHNP intensive both ways: Tampa Bay in the page text, Palm Beach in its table. Build the drive into your clinical weeks; the intensives page has the full list.
AdventHealth Central Florida: bring your own preceptor
AdventHealth Central Florida publishes an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Student Application for experiences requiring physician supervision; the version online is dated 2023 to 2024. It is built around a preceptor you have already found:
- You may search for a preceptor by specialty on AdventHealth's websites.
- The preceptor, a licensed member of AdventHealth's current medical staff, signs the preceptor page, with approval from the supervising physician and the unit director or practice manager.
- AdventHealth checks for a fully executed affiliation agreement with the school before granting clinical permissions.
- The complete application is due at least two weeks before the start date.
- AdventHealth Medical Group Central Florida does not schedule rotations for students.
Listed sites include Orlando, East Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Celebration, Kissimmee, Winter Garden, Winter Park, and AdventHealth for Children and for Women, which puts pediatric (NSG 5589) and women's health (NSG 5569) settings inside one system. Whether NSU holds that affiliation is not published; your clinical coordinator can confirm it.
Orlando Health, HCA and the Orlando VA
Orlando Health publishes no route for NP students. Its student-nurse pages describe paid intern and extern jobs for ASN and BSN students, and its APP fellowships are for graduates. HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital in Sanford requires an affiliation agreement, tells students not to contact the hospital for placement, and wants the school's request at least a month ahead with paperwork two weeks before the start; an archived page for HCA Florida Oviedo Medical Center sets the same steps. HCA's Osceola and Poinciana hospitals publish no student process.
The Orlando VA Medical Center at Lake Nona, with clinics at Lake Baldwin and Kissimmee, lists Primary Care and Mental Health NP residencies, but those are for recent graduates, with applications closing February 28. Students train at VA sites only where their school holds a VA affiliation.
Orlando also has UCF's College of Medicine and UCF Lake Nona Hospital, FSU's Orlando regional medical campus, and three children's hospitals, Nemours Children's Hospital, Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and AdventHealth for Children. AGACNP students weigh these hospitals for NSG 5629 through NSG 5669.
Community clinics and behavioral health
Orlando's federally qualified health centers, a primary-care option for NSG 5549 and NSG 5559, include Community Health Centers, Inc., Orange Blossom Family Health (HRSA lists it as Health Care Center for the Homeless), True Health (Central Florida Family Health Center) and Osceola Community Health Services. None of the three core counties has a designated primary-care shortage area; the ones HRSA lists (six in Orange, two in Seminole, one in Osceola) are all proposed for withdrawal.
Aspire Health Partners, a behavioral health nonprofit, made the top ten in the state's first TEACH program report, so it is a community site already set up to host trainees. PMHNP students need settings of that kind for the psychiatric hours in NSG 5719, NSG 5729 and NSG 5739.
The 150-mile rule from an Orlando ZIP code
Leave the preceptor line blank and NSU's clinical coordinator assigns a site up to 150 miles from where you live, a choice the handbook says is not open to negotiation. From central Orlando that circle crosses the peninsula: Tampa Bay, Lakeland and Sarasota to the west, Daytona Beach and the Space Coast to the east, Ocala and Gainesville to the north. It stops well short of Broward and Miami-Dade.
Orlando's systems add a reason to name your own. AdventHealth's application needs the preceptor's signature before it is filed, and Lake Monroe puts the request in your school's hands, so timing matters on both routes. The two-semester deadline is the date to work back from.
Florida's rules at Orlando sites
Florida law decides who can precept you in Orange, Seminole, Osceola or Lake: an APRN, physician or dentist holding a Florida license, with your own RN license issued under chapter 464 (see the Florida preceptor rule). AdventHealth's form asks for a supervising physician's approval beside the preceptor's signature, which fits how most Florida NPs work, under a physician protocol; only primary-care APRNs registered as autonomous practice without one.
Why Orlando-area NSU students choose us
Orlando's published routes favor the student whose preceptor has already said yes, and getting that yes is what we deliver: a preceptor in your part of Orange, Seminole, Osceola or Lake, matched to your NSU course, with AdventHealth's preceptor page or any other site paperwork ready to sign. Your clinical coordinator gets a clean, complete proposal before the two-semester notice, and your placement advisor stays with you through the course. Start at the contact page.
Questions NSU students ask
Does NSU's Orlando campus offer nursing?
No. NSU lists Orlando among its regional campuses, but no nursing program is offered there in any current NSU source. Orlando-area MSN APRN students take their coursework online. NSU sets APRN clinical placements by your home address, not by campus.
Can I contact AdventHealth preceptors myself?
Yes. AdventHealth Central Florida's APRN student application says you may look up a preceptor by specialty on its websites. The preceptor must be on AdventHealth's current medical staff and signs the application, along with the supervising physician and the unit director or practice manager. AdventHealth confirms a signed affiliation agreement with your school before granting clinical permissions.
Can I call HCA Lake Monroe to ask for a placement?
HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital asks students not to contact the hospital directly for placement. The request comes from your school, at least a month ahead, under an affiliation agreement, and the school sends paperwork two weeks before the start. An archived page for HCA Florida Oviedo Medical Center sets the same rule, so raise it with your clinical coordinator.
Does the Orlando VA take NP students?
The Orlando VA's public page lists Primary Care and Mental Health NP residencies, which are for recent graduates rather than students. Student rotations at VA depend on an affiliation signed between VA and the school; whether NSU has one covering Orlando is not public, so check with your clinical coordinator.
Where do Orlando FNP students find pediatric hours?
NSG 5589 needs a pediatric setting, and Orlando has three children's hospitals: Nemours Children's Hospital, Orlando Health Arnold Palmer and AdventHealth for Children. AdventHealth's APRN application lists its children's hospital among its sites, so a preceptor you find there goes on that form. The pediatrics and women's health guide covers the search.
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.