Precepting a Lewis nurse practitioner student
A Lewis nurse practitioner student asks for one 16-week semester: a practicum with a defined patient focus, a weekly schedule you agree together, and your supervision at a site Lewis has approved. Lewis reviews you and your practice first, and an Illinois APRN can count the semester toward continuing education for license renewal. Here is the whole commitment, before you say yes.
Open to hosting a Lewis student?
Choose the preceptor option under Program and add your specialty and city. The placement desk replies with the course and semester we are placing for.
What one Lewis practicum asks of you
Lewis runs its nurse practitioner practicums as 16-week semester courses, and the student takes each one beside a management course on the same population, so classroom content and your clinic days move in step. Where the 2026-27 catalog prints hours, a practicum carries 180 clock hours, spent in your practice under your supervision at the site Lewis approved.
The same practicums serve the MSN, the post-master's Certificate of Advanced Study and the BSN to DNP across four specialties: FNP, AGACNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP. Ask for the course number first, because it tells you which patients the student needs to see.
| Course | Patient focus | Tracks | Clock hours in the catalog |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 61100 | Adults in community and primary care | FNP, AGPCNP | 180 |
NURS 61800 | Adult-gerontology and adolescents | FNP, AGPCNP, AGACNP | 180 |
NURS 64100 | Primary care of women | FNP | Not printed |
NURS 64300 | Primary care of infants and children | FNP | Not printed |
NURS 61500 | Special populations in adult-gerontology primary care | AGPCNP | 180 |
NURS 62500 | Acute care for adult-gerontology | AGACNP | Description says 360, which conflicts with the 540-hour track total |
NURS 62700 | Acute care for adult-gerontology 2 | AGACNP | Not printed |
NURS 63300, NURS 63500, NURS 63700 | Psychiatric assessment, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy across the lifespan | PMHNP | 180 each |
Where no hours are printed, the course and the student's track coordinator set the target, so ask the student to confirm it in writing before the semester opens. Every track's totals are in the clinical hours guide.
A semester with a Lewis student
Lewis sets no public weekly minimum. Spread evenly over 16 weeks, 180 hours comes to roughly 11 or 12 hours a week, by our arithmetic rather than Lewis's. One full clinic day a week, with extra days when your schedule allows, is the easiest pattern to plan; the student proposes it and you decide.
This academic year's semesters run from August 24 to December 12, 2026 for fall and from January 19 to May 15, 2027 for spring. The student begins only after Lewis approves the placement and your organization clears them, so a first-week start needs an early request. DNP residents in NURS 79600 work differently, from an individualized learning contract shared by student, preceptor and faculty member.
Lewis's contract and approval, seen from your side
Before the first clinic day, the student files a preceptor contract request naming you, your site and the semester. From there, the work moves between Lewis and your organization.
- Your details go on the request.The student enters your name, credentials and license information with the site's legal name and address. Lewis's portal holds back a request while any required field is empty.
- Lewis reviews it.The contract legend asks students to allow at least two weeks for processing. Discipline from IDFPR is among the listed grounds for denial, so your license record is part of the review.
- Your organization signs an agreement, if one is needed.When no current affiliation agreement links Lewis and your organization, Lewis drafts one and sends it over, and the request waits for the signed copy. Whoever signs school agreements for your practice handles it.
- Faculty approve the match.Clinical Coordinators and/or track lead faculty decide whether you and your site suit the specific course.
- Your organization clears the student.Onboarding forms your organization requires go to you and to Lewis's Clinical Placement Office. Then the student starts at your site with you named as preceptor.
Each portal stage is explained on the contract portal page, and the affiliation agreement guide covers the agreement itself.
Who can precept, and what Lewis checks
Lewis's public pages hold no preceptor handbook, no orientation and no credential table by track. Its test is fit: faculty approve a preceptor and site to meet the student's needs in the designated course. An adult urgent care clinician may suit NURS 61100 and still be the wrong fit for NURS 64300, which centers on infants and children.
Physicians and PAs go through the same course-fit review. Lewis names no list of professions allowed for each track, so the student's track coordinator confirms a physician or PA before the request goes in. Health systems can add their own rules: according to its page for NP students, Advocate accepts a physician or an APRN as preceptor at its Illinois sites.
A practice outside Illinois brings one more step, since Lewis's academic policy warns that out-of-state placements can call for added permission from Lewis, from the host state or from Illinois licensing boards. The preceptor requirements page gathers everything Lewis publishes about preceptors.
Continuing education credit for Illinois APRNs
Illinois recognizes precepting at license renewal. Under the state's APRN continuing education rule, an APRN who gives clinical supervision and teaching to an APRN student through one academic semester may count ten CE hours, and precepting can supply up to thirty of the CE hours in a single renewal period. The student's school provides the documentation, which for a Lewis student means Lewis.
Every Lewis NP practicum lasts one semester, so one student through one course fits the rule's unit. The rule covers APRNs only, and physicians and PAs renew under their own boards' rules. Ask early in the semester how Lewis documents a completed preceptorship, and see the CE credit guide for the rule line by line.
Insurance, compliance and the student's license
According to Lewis's graduate FAQ, the University covers student clinical insurance, and the insurance page sets out what that line tells a site. The rest of clearance belongs to the student: background checks and health records sit in the student's CastleBranch file, and a lapse there is one of Lewis's listed grounds for denying a contract.
Lewis admits MSN students who hold an unencumbered RN license in Illinois or their state of practice. If your organization runs its own student intake, such as an HR packet or a myClinicalExchange request, tell the student early so the forms reach you and the Clinical Placement Office in good time.
How our placement desk works with you
We approach practices on behalf of Lewis students, so our first message to you names the track, the course number, the semester dates and the hours involved. If you are interested, we collect the details Lewis's contract request needs in one conversation, check license and specialty fit, and pass everything to the student, who files with Lewis.
What preceptors get from us
- A short written summary of the course, the semester and the student before you commit
- One contact on the placement desk while the request is in review and the student onboards
- Clear notice of anything Lewis or your organization still needs, so no form sits waiting
Already open to hosting? Use the form on this page and pick the preceptor option under Program, or ask in the chat. Students can read how our service works from their side.
Questions Lewis students ask
Can I precept two Lewis students in the same semester?
Lewis publishes no cap on students per preceptor and reviews each student's request separately, so your own capacity, your organization's policy and faculty judgment of fit decide. For Illinois CE purposes, each APRN student counts on its own for the semester, and precepting can supply at most thirty CE hours in one renewal period.
Do I sign a contract with Lewis myself?
The contract that matters is the affiliation agreement between Lewis and your organization, signed by whoever holds authority to sign school agreements there. Your name appears on the student's contract request as preceptor, and Lewis's approval attaches to your site with you named. Ask your practice manager who signs before the student files.
What if I have to stop precepting partway through the semester?
Tell the student and Lewis's Clinical Placement Office as early as you can. Lewis marks a contract inactive when the agency, the preceptor, the student or Lewis cancels it, and the student then needs a newly approved placement to finish the course. Our placement desk starts the search for the next preceptor as soon as we hear.
Will Lewis send me an evaluation form or course objectives?
Lewis has not posted preceptor forms or objectives publicly, so they reach you through the student's course if the course uses them. Ask the student on the first day which evaluations you will complete and when they fall due, and ask for the syllabus objectives, the best guide to what each week should cover.
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
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