About Lewis Preceptor
Lewis Preceptor is a placement desk built around one school: Lewis University's College of Nursing and Health Sciences. We find preceptors and clinical sites for Lewis nursing students in their own communities, fit each one to the exact Lewis course, and hand students every detail Lewis's contract request calls for. Lewis's faculty and Clinical Placement Office make the decisions, and our part is to bring them a request that is complete and on time.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Lewis program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Lewis course.
Who we are
We are placement advisors whose working day turns on one question: which preceptor near this student fits this Lewis practicum and can commit to the full 16-week semester? Our placement desk handles each placement from the first message to a cleared start, and the same desk stays on call through the semester.
The students we serve are working nurses, most of them in the Chicago area and elsewhere in Illinois, others in the jurisdictions where Lewis enrolls online graduate students. Their weeks are already full of shifts, family and coursework, so we take on the part that eats the most time: the calls, the follow-up messages and the wait for a practice manager to answer.
Why one university
A preceptor search works only when it fits the school's own rules, and Lewis's rules are specific. NP practicums run as 16-week courses beside a management course. Every clinical practicum needs a contract request filed through the college's own portal. Compliance runs through CastleBranch, and online graduate nursing enrollment is authorized in 18 jurisdictions. Working with one university means every search starts with all of that already known.
The detail reaches down to single courses. The 2026-27 catalog splits the FNP's women's and pediatric practice into NURS 64100 and NURS 64300, where the 2024-25 catalog had one 270-hour course, NURS 61700. The PMHNP sequence, NURS 63300, NURS 63500 and NURS 63700, covers patients across the lifespan in every course. Matching a practice to a course at that level is what makes a request straightforward to approve.
It also means knowing which Lewis we mean: Lewis University in Romeoville, at Oak Brook and online, as distinct from Lewis-Clark State College or Georgia State's Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing.
How we see our part
Lewis's graduate FAQ gives NP students the identifying role in placement, and that is the work we take on. Lewis keeps its own roles, and they are substantial: the Clinical Placement Office facilitates and runs the contract process, Clinical Coordinators and/or track lead faculty rule on every preceptor and site, Lewis drafts affiliation agreements where none exist, and the University pays for student clinical insurance.
How a placement divides between us, you, Lewis and the site
- We search, check course fit and availability, and prepare the preceptor and site details.
- You file the contract request from your Lewis email account, keep your CastleBranch record up to date and send copies of agency paperwork to the Clinical Placement Office.
- Lewis reviews the request, arranges any agreement and decides on approval.
- The agency signs where needed and clears you to begin.
The full cast of Lewis roles, and who to ask about what, is on who does what.
How we keep Lewis facts accurate
Every Lewis fact on this site comes from Lewis's own sources: the current catalog, the graduate nursing FAQ, the contract portal and its status legend, and Lewis's state licensure tables. Illinois rules come from the Nurse Practice Act, the Illinois Administrative Code and IDFPR. Every page carries a checked-on date and a list of the sources behind it.
The rules we write by
- Conflicts stay visible. Where Lewis's sources disagree, such as the 360 hours in the
NURS 62500description against the 540-hour AGACNP total, or School Nurse credits of 34 in the catalog and 38 in the FAQ, the page shows both. - Gaps are named. Lewis publishes no graduate nursing handbook, filing deadline or hour-logging tool, so we point you to the person who holds the answer, whether that is your course faculty, your track coordinator or the Clinical Placement Office.
- Old documents carry their dates. The contract status legend is a 2020 PDF still linked from the portal, and we say so wherever we rely on it.
- Our arithmetic is labeled as ours. When we divide hours across weeks or add up a track, the page says the figure is our calculation.
- Lewis's claims stay Lewis's. Pass rates and similar figures appear as what Lewis reports.
Spot something that has changed? Tell the placement desk in the chat, and we recheck the source and update the page.
What working with us looks like
We start early, because Lewis's review needs at least two weeks and a new affiliation agreement can take longer. We work thoroughly, so the request that reaches Lewis is whole and matched to the course from the start. We keep every conversation anchored to your course: its number, its semester, the hours Lewis prints and the ones it leaves to your track coordinator. And we stay with you: if a preceptor steps away mid-semester, the placement desk starts the next search right away.
How it works walks through the steps, cost explains how a quote is built, and the contact page is where a search begins.
Questions Lewis students ask
Who handles my placement day to day?
A placement advisor on our placement desk, from your first message through review, onboarding and the semester itself. You can reach the desk by chat, through the form, or by WhatsApp or text from your phone, and it keeps track of your course, your site and the details Lewis still needs.
Do you place students from other nursing schools?
This site and its placement desk serve Lewis University nursing students only. Everything here, from the course numbers to the contract steps, is written for Lewis's College of Nursing and Health Sciences, so the guidance you read and the search we run both follow Lewis's own process.
How do you decide which practices to approach?
We start from your address and the title of your Lewis course, then look for practices whose everyday patients match it: adults in primary care for NURS 61100, children for NURS 64300, lifespan psychiatric care for NURS 63300. Before any introduction we confirm the preceptor's license, specialty and weekly availability.
What if Lewis changes a rule after I read it here?
Lewis's catalog and policies can change from year to year. We recheck pages against Lewis's current sources and date each one, but your course, your track coordinator and the Clinical Placement Office decide what applies to you. Confirm anything that affects your plan with them, and tell us so we can update the page.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Lewis's own catalog, program pages and FAQ, its contract portal and Illinois law. Your course, your track coordinator and the Clinical Placement Office have the final word.
Lewis asks you to identify your preceptor. We do the searching.
Tell us your Lewis program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare every detail the contract portal asks for, so your request goes in complete.
- Preceptors matched to the practicum: primary care for
NURS 61100andNURS 61800, acute care forNURS 62500, psychiatric care forNURS 63300 - Preceptor, license and site details ready for your preceptor contract request
- In your own community, anywhere Lewis enrolls you and your RN license is valid
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.