Who can precept a Lewis NP student
Lewis publishes one standard for nurse practitioner preceptors: its faculty approvers, the Clinical Coordinators and/or track lead faculty, must judge preceptor and site a good match for the specific course. It prints no credential table by track, but its contract rules show it screens preceptors for IDFPR discipline. Everything else comes from the course title, the clinical site's own rules and the state where you train.
Find a preceptor who fits the course
Name your track and practicum course, and we match the preceptor to it.
What Lewis publishes about preceptors
Lewis has no public preceptor handbook, preceptor web page or credential list by track. What it does publish is short and worth reading closely.
- Approval by fit. Faculty approve each preceptor and site to meet a student's needs "in the designated course," so one person can suit one practicum and not the next. The approval page goes deeper.
- License screening. The contract status legend lists IDFPR discipline against a preceptor among the reasons a contract can be denied, and conduct by a preceptor or agency that Lewis finds unsafe or questionable is another.
- Named people. Approval attaches to one site and "the indicated preceptor(s)," which means one request can list two or more preceptors.
- DNP residencies. In
NURS 79600, student, preceptor and faculty member work from an individualized learning contract. - PMHNP courses. Catalog text for the final psychiatric practicum asks students to know their limits when working alongside preceptors and the wider care team.
The complete list of denial grounds is on the denied contracts page.
What Lewis leaves unpublished
Several things students search for appear on no public Lewis page: whether a physician, a physician assistant or only an NP may precept each course, a minimum number of years in practice, a required board certification, a preceptor agreement or orientation, and the forms preceptors use to evaluate students. The graduate handbook that would hold them is not public.
Illinois law does not fill the gap. Illinois's preceptor provisions in 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1300.340 govern programs that prepare nurses for RN licensure, and Illinois sets no preceptor qualifications for APRN education. The answer for your course therefore comes from your track coordinator and your syllabus, and it is worth getting before you approach anyone.
Rules from another school do not carry over to Lewis. Ask your track coordinator which preceptor credentials count for your specific practicum, and get the answer in writing before the search starts.
Matching a preceptor to each Lewis practicum
Because approval turns on fit with the designated course, the practicum title is the best guide to who will be approved. The right-hand column is what our placement desk looks for. It is our practice, not a Lewis rule, and your track coordinator has the final word.
| Course | Care the title names | Preceptor profile we look for |
|---|---|---|
NURS 61100 | Adults in community and primary care | A family or adult-gerontology primary care NP in an adult outpatient practice |
NURS 61800 | Adult/gerontology and adolescents | A primary care NP whose panel includes older adults and teenagers |
NURS 64100 | Primary care of women | An NP in women's health, OB-GYN or a family practice with a large women's health panel |
NURS 64300 | Primary care of infants and children | A pediatric or family NP who sees well-child and sick visits |
NURS 61500 | Adult-gerontology special populations | An adult-gerontology NP in a setting your coordinator confirms as special populations |
NURS 62500, NURS 62700 | Acute care for adult/gerontology; the second adds subspecialty care and acute care devices and technology | An acute care NP on a hospital service, ICU or inpatient specialty team |
NURS 63300, NURS 63500, NURS 63700 | Psychiatric assessment, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy across the lifespan | A psychiatric-mental health NP whose patients span age groups |
The license check, in Illinois and beyond
IDFPR appears in Lewis's legend because that department licenses Illinois nurses and records any discipline against them. Before a preceptor goes on your request, confirm the license is active and unencumbered and that no discipline is on file. A request naming a disciplined preceptor can be denied at any stage, even after approval.
Outside Illinois the state board does the same job, and some boards add preceptor rules of their own. Wisconsin requires preceptors for clinicals in the state to hold a Wisconsin license or a privilege to practice there. Kentucky's Board of Nursing says faculty and preceptors overseeing online APRN students in Kentucky need active Kentucky RN and APRN licenses, and it lets faculty who live in a compact state hold the Kentucky APRN license alone. Michigan certifies NPs only when they also hold a Michigan RN license. More on each state is on clinicals outside Illinois.
What hospitals and health systems add
Large systems often decide who may precept inside their walls, and their rules sit on top of Lewis's approval. According to their own student pages, Advocate accepts either a physician or an APRN as an NP student's preceptor, though it leaves finding one to the student, and Riverside Healthcare in Kankakee usually pairs NP students with a certified nurse practitioner (CNP) or a certified clinical nurse specialist (CCNS).
Where a system's rules and Lewis's differ, both have to be met. A preceptor the hospital allows still needs faculty approval for the course, and a preceptor faculty would welcome still needs the hospital's consent and an affiliation agreement with Lewis. We check the system's rules when we present a hospital-based preceptor, so the request does not stall on a site policy nobody read.
Questions to confirm before you file
- Does my track accept a physician or physician assistant for this course, or only an NP?
- Should the preceptor hold national certification in the same population as the course?
- If two preceptors share the practicum, does each need to be named on the request?
- Will Lewis send the preceptor an agreement, orientation or evaluation form, and when?
- Does the site require its own student onboarding on top of Lewis's affiliation agreement?
- Can the preceptor's schedule reach the course's hours inside the 16 weeks without piling them into the final month?
We collect the answers for every preceptor we present, so the request reaches faculty with nothing missing. Send us your track and course to start. Preceptors gain something too: Illinois lets APRNs count precepting toward license renewal, explained on the Illinois CE credit page.
Questions Lewis students ask
Can a physician precept a Lewis NP student?
Lewis does not publish an answer by track. Advocate's NP student page opens its sites to physician or APRN preceptors, but that is a hospital rule, not a Lewis one. Faculty approve each preceptor for the course, so ask your track coordinator whether a physician fits your practicum before you approach one.
How many years of experience does a preceptor need?
No minimum appears on any public Lewis page, and Illinois sets none for APRN education. Experience still shapes approval, because faculty judge whether the preceptor can meet your needs in the course. A preceptor with steady time in the course's setting and some history of teaching students is the easier case to present.
Can my preceptor be an NP who still practices under a collaborative agreement?
Nothing Lewis publishes rules that out. Illinois NPs work under a written collaborative agreement until they qualify for full practice authority, which requires, after certification, 250 continuing education hours and 4,000 hours of clinical experience. See Illinois practice authority for how that shapes the practices you approach.
Can I have two preceptors for one practicum?
Lewis's legend describes approval for a site with the indicated preceptor or preceptors, so a request can name more than one. Sharing a course between two preceptors helps when one works part time or splits days between offices. Ask your course faculty how hours and evaluations are handled when two preceptors share a practicum.
What does a preceptor get for taking a Lewis student?
In Illinois, precepting one APRN student for an academic semester can count for 10 continuing education hours, up to 30 per renewal period, with documentation from the student's school. Our page for preceptors explains what hosting a Lewis NP student involves week to week.
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 MSN FAQ: How Do Clinical Placements Work? MSN and CAS NP Tracks
- Lewis contract status legend (2020 PDF, still linked from the portal)
- Lewis graduate catalog: NURS course descriptions
- 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1300.130 (APRN continuing education, including precepting)
- Riverside Healthcare: nurse practitioner students
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.