Lewis practicums across Illinois, region by region
Most Lewis nurse practitioner students live and train in Illinois, and where you live shapes the search: which health systems run their own student request process, where primary care and mental health shortages are, and how far a clinical day takes you. Start with Will County, Lewis's home, or pick your region below.
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.
What every region guide covers
Each guide names the counties and cities it covers, the major health systems there and how their student pages describe NP student requests, community health centers, federal shortage designations, and the drive from Romeoville. None of it replaces Lewis's approval: every site still goes through your contract request.
Illinois law itself says nothing about who finds an APRN student's preceptor, so the Lewis rule applies statewide. Illinois does reward preceptors with continuing education credit, which the preceptor CE guide explains.
Lewis's home region
Chicago and Cook County
Downstate Illinois
Questions Lewis students ask
Do I have to do my practicum near Romeoville?
No. Lewis NP students train near where they live, and online students across Illinois do the same. The site needs Lewis's contract and approval, not a location near campus.
Do Chicago-area health systems take NP students?
Many large systems accept NP students through their own student request process, and Advocate's student page says it does not find preceptors for NP students. Lewis's list of clinical agencies, published for its BSN clinicals, names several of these systems. Each region guide describes what the systems' own pages say.
Is downstate Illinois covered?
Yes. The central, northwest, Metro East and southern Illinois guides cover the health systems and shortage areas outside the Chicago region.
I live outside Illinois. Where do I look?
See the other states guides, which cover the jurisdictions where Lewis authorizes online graduate nursing enrollment.
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.