NSU nurse practitioner clinicals on the Space Coast
Brevard runs along the Atlantic from Titusville to Palm Bay, and its main health system, Health First, treats APRN students differently from other students: its general student policy excludes them, while its medical group's single-student form has an APRN box and a line for the preceptor's name. With no NSU campus in the county, your home ZIP code and the preceptor you name decide where your clinical happens.
Find a Brevard preceptor
Tell us your NSU course and your Brevard city.
Brevard at a glance
Brevard is a long coastal county: Palm Bay and Melbourne in the south, with West Melbourne inland, Rockledge and Cocoa in the middle, and Titusville, the county seat, in the north. Together they form the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville metro, which the Florida Center for Nursing places in its East Central region with the Orlando counties, Volusia, Flagler and Sumter.
NSU has no campus in Brevard. The closest NSU location of any kind is its Orlando regional campus, where NSU runs no nursing program; NSU's APRN campuses are Palm Beach to the south and Tampa Bay to the west. Because MSN APRN coursework is online, what shapes a Brevard student's clinical is the county itself.
Health First and the APRN student
Health First says it is affiliated with several schools but publishes no list. Its Student Guidelines policy, revised June 12, 2024, sends student documents to the Health First Center for Learning two months before the semester, and it states plainly that it is not for advanced practice or medical students.
The route that names APRN students is Health First Medical Group's single-student information form. It has an APRN box and a preceptor field, and the school's instructor certifies CPR, immunizations, TB testing, background screening and forms. Because the form carries the preceptor's name, the practical order is to have a Health First Medical Group clinician agree first and fill in the form second. For NSU students, most of what the instructor certifies lives in CastleBranch, so keep it current before you ask.
Whether NSU is among Health First's affiliated schools is not public. Your clinical coordinator can tell you, and it is worth asking before you approach a Health First practice.
Community clinics, the VA and each course
Brevard Health Alliance is the county's federally qualified health center on HRSA's list, a starting point for NSG 5549 and NSG 5559 primary care, and Space Coast Health Centers in Titusville is an FQHC look-alike. Palm Bay is Brevard's one designated primary-care shortage area, and HRSA also flags two health centers as facility shortage areas. Brevard's county health department (Florida Department of Health in Brevard County) rounds out the public options.
Veterans here use the Viera and Palm Bay VA clinics, part of the Orlando VA system; NP student rotations there depend on a school-level affiliation with VA.
No children's hospital turns up in Brevard, so pediatric hours for NSG 5589 point to local pediatric practices or to Orlando's children's hospitals, about 55 miles from Melbourne in a straight line. AGACNP students look to Health First's acute-care services and the Orlando systems for NSG 5629 onward, and PMHNP students to psychiatric practices for NSG 5719 onward. Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine opened a Melbourne campus, with its first class in 2024, so physician learners share the county too.
Where 150 miles reaches from Brevard
Without a named preceptor, your site is NSU's clinical coordinator's pick from anywhere in a 150-mile radius of your Brevard home, and it stays fixed once chosen. About half of that circle is ocean, so the land it covers runs along the coast and inland: from Melbourne it stretches south past West Palm Beach, west to Lakeland and Tampa, and north past Daytona Beach. From Titusville it takes in all of metro Orlando and Daytona.
Putting a Brevard preceptor's name in front of NSU two semesters early keeps your clinical inside the county. The 150-mile rule page explains the alternative, and the Orlando guide covers the systems across the county line.
Florida's rules on the Space Coast
In Brevard, as at every Florida site, the qualified preceptor for an NP student is a Florida-licensed APRN, physician or dentist, and the student's RN license must be issued under chapter 464; see the Florida preceptor rule. Florida allows both kinds of APRN to precept: those under a physician protocol and primary-care APRNs registered for autonomous practice.
Why Space Coast students choose us
We find preceptors from Titusville to Palm Bay who fit your NSU course and can take you on the weekly schedule NSU requires, and we fill in every detail a Health First Medical Group form or any other site asks for. Your clinical coordinator receives a complete proposal with time to spare before the two-semester notice, and you get a clinical close to home. Start with the contact form.
Questions NSU students ask
Does Health First take NSU nurse practitioner students?
Health First says it is affiliated with several schools but publishes no list, and NSU does not publish its affiliated sites either, so put the question to your clinical coordinator. Health First's general student policy excludes advanced practice students; APRN students appear on Health First Medical Group's single-student form, which has a preceptor field and a section the school's instructor certifies.
Is there an NSU campus near Melbourne?
NSU has no campus in Brevard. The Orlando regional campus is closer than any other NSU site, yet it has no nursing program. MSN APRN coursework is online, and your clinical placement follows your home ZIP code rather than any campus, so the right Brevard preceptor can host your hours close to home.
If I live in Palm Bay, how far could NSU send me?
As far as 150 miles. Orlando is about 60 miles from Palm Bay in a straight line, well inside the 150-mile radius NSU's clinical coordinator places within when you name no preceptor, and so are Port St. Lucie and West Palm Beach. The placement is final once made, and naming a Brevard preceptor before NSU's two-semester deadline keeps your clinical local.
Where can FNP students find primary care in Brevard?
HRSA lists Brevard Health Alliance as the county's federally qualified health center and Space Coast Health Centers in Titusville as an FQHC look-alike, and Palm Bay is a designated primary-care shortage area. Private family and internal medicine practices are the other option for NSG 5549 and NSG 5559, and any site you name goes to NSU's clinical coordinator for approval.
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.