Doing your Lewis NP clinicals where you work

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Lewis Preceptor placement team

On the question of doing clinicals for your own employer, Lewis's public pages are silent: no ban, no permission and no rules for your own unit. Your workplace is treated like any other clinical agency, so the preceptor and site still need faculty approval, a contract request and an agreement with Lewis. It can work well if you settle a few questions with your track coordinator first.

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Weigh your workplace against other options

Tell us your employer, your track and your next practicum course.

Numbered steps. Making a workplace practicum happen: 1 Find the right service; 2 Line up the preceptor; 3 Use the student route; 4 Give Lewis the details; 5 Clear as a student. — Making a workplace practicum happen: 1 Find the right service; 2 Line up the preceptor; 3 Use the student route; 4 Give Lewis the details; 5 Clear as a student.

What Lewis has said, and not said

No public Lewis page, catalog entry or PDF addresses precepting at a student's workplace. The nearest mention, in the Nurse Faculty Loan description on the MSN page, concerns service after graduation and has nothing to do with student practicums. The employer partners in Lewis's 2023 graduate viewbook, such as Advocate Aurora, Northwestern Medicine, RUSH and Silver Cross, are listed as tuition partners, not as practicum sites.

What does apply is the process every Lewis NP practicum follows. Faculty still approve the preceptor and site for the course, the contract request is required for every clinical practicum, and the agency needs an affiliation agreement with Lewis and must clear you as a student. Being on staff removes none of those steps. The placement process page lists them in order.

Why your employer can be a strong choice

Working inside a system gives you an advantage an outside student lacks. You know which clinics and services exist, who leads them and how their student requests move, and you may already know an NP whose practice matches your course.

Some systems favor their own people openly. Northwestern Medicine's request page for APRN students in the north and northwest suburbs says its staff receive priority over non-Northwestern Medicine staff. The same page accepts only students whose school holds a current affiliation agreement with Northwestern Medicine and asks for four to eight weeks at minimum.

Your employee file and your student clearance are separate, though. Lewis's legend has the agency confirm you are cleared as a student before you begin, and the agency may want documents beyond what its HR department already holds.

Questions to settle with your track coordinator

Because Lewis has published no workplace rules, ask before you file. Keep the answers in writing, such as an email, so the plan survives a change of coordinator.

Can the practicum be on my own unit, or should it be in a different department or clinic?
Can my preceptor be a colleague, or someone who supervises or evaluates me at work?
How do I keep practicum hours separate from paid shifts, and may they ever overlap?
Does the setting match the course title, for example primary care of infants and children for NURS 64300?
Does my employer already hold a current affiliation agreement with Lewis that covers graduate NP students?

Working at a hospital does not make it an approved clinical site. Lewis still reviews your request, faculty still approve the fit, and the agency still needs an agreement with Lewis and a student clearance for you.

What large systems say about student placements

Each system handles students its own way, employees included. According to their own student pages:

Student placement rules published by health systems near Lewis
System	What its student page says
Northwestern Medicine	Staff get priority; the school must hold a current agreement with Northwestern Medicine; allow four to eight weeks or more; applying is no promise of a spot; the west suburbs form (Central DuPage, Delnor) is not for APRN students who need patient care hours
Endeavor Health	Requests go through My Clinical Exchange, with an Endeavor Health Practicum Experience application for individual students; deadlines of March 1 and August 1 by season
Advocate Health Care	It does not locate preceptors for NP students in Illinois; a physician or APRN may precept; requests and onboarding run through myClinicalExchange
Morris Hospital	Human Resources handles rotations; a background check and drug screening come first; an agreement may take several weeks
Riverside Healthcare	NP students usually rotate with a CNP or CCNS; an affiliation agreement with Riverside is required

Several of these systems appear on Lewis's clinical sites page, which describes where Lewis's BSN clinical groups train. That listing alone does not tell you whether an agreement covers graduate NP students, and the Clinical Placement Office can check what is on file.

Making a workplace practicum happen

Find the right serviceLook for a department or clinic whose patients match the practicum title, ideally away from the unit where you work shifts.
Line up the preceptorAsk a provider your track accepts to host you for the full 16 weeks, and confirm that the practice leader agrees.
Use the student routeFind your employer's student placement office or myClinicalExchange process and meet its deadline, as any outside student would.
Give Lewis the detailsFile the contract request with the site, the preceptor and the agency contact who handles school agreements.
Clear as a studentFinish the agency's student onboarding and keep every CastleBranch item current.
Keep the roles apartTreat practicum days as student days, documented the way your course requires, separate from your paid schedule.

When your workplace is not the answer

Sometimes the job gets in the way. Your system may not host students in the setting your course needs, a new agreement may not be signed in time, the student office may give priority to someone else, or your schedule may leave no room for practicum days at the place you already work.

That is where our placement desk comes in. We look beyond your employer, close to home, for a preceptor matched to the Lewis course, and prepare every detail the contract request needs. You can also mix the two, with one practicum at your employer and the next at a practice nearby. Tell us your employer and track and we will weigh both options with you, or see how we work first.

Questions Lewis students ask

Can my nurse manager be my preceptor?

Lewis has not published a rule either way. Faculty approve every preceptor for the course, and a manager who also rates your job performance can create an awkward overlap when evaluating you as a student. Ask your track coordinator before you approach your manager, and consider an NP in another department.

Do hours from my paid shifts count toward my practicum?

Lewis publishes no rule on this, and your course sets how hours are logged and verified. A practicum is supervised NP-level work with the preceptor named on your approved contract, which is a different role from your RN job. Confirm with your course faculty how to keep the two apart before your first practicum day.

Does my employer need an agreement with Lewis if I already work there?

Yes. The affiliation agreement is between Lewis and the agency, not between you and your employer. Without a current one, Lewis prepares the agreement for your employer's signature, and your request waits in review until it returns. See affiliation agreements for why that step takes time.

My hospital is on Lewis's clinical sites list. Is it cleared for my NP practicum?

Not automatically. That page names agencies used for Lewis nursing clinicals, points readers to an advisor for the latest version and reflects the BSN clinical-group model. An NP practicum still needs its own contract request, faculty approval and agency clearance, and the Clinical Placement Office can tell you whether an existing agreement covers graduate students.

Is it faster to do clinicals at my own employer?

It can be, when your employer already holds a current agreement with Lewis and runs a clear student route. Northwestern Medicine, for one, gives its staff priority for APRN placements according to its student page. It can also be slower if a new agreement is needed or requests follow fixed seasonal deadlines, so plan as you would for any site.

Start hereClinical placement processEach step of a Lewis NP practicum placement: naming a preceptor, the contract request, review, agreements, faculty approval, agency clearance and day one.Lewis systemAffiliation agreementsWhen Lewis drafts a new affiliation agreement with your clinical agency, why your request waits in review until the agency signs, and how to keep it short.Lewis systemPreceptor and site approvalWho approves a Lewis NP preceptor and clinical site, what a good fit looks like for each practicum, and the separate clearance your agency gives afterward.Lewis systemPreceptor requirementsWho can precept a Lewis NP student: what Lewis publishes, the IDFPR license check, matching a preceptor to each practicum course, and what to confirm first.Placement helpOwn search vs placement helpFinding a Lewis NP preceptor yourself or with a placement service: a fair side-by-side of time, course fit, portal details, timing and replacements.Placement helpHow it worksHow our placement desk finds a Lewis NP preceptor near you, prepares the details for your contract request and stays on call through onboarding and the term.

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 61100 and NURS 61800, acute care for NURS 62500, psychiatric care for NURS 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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