Precept an Aspen University Nursing Student
Precepting an Aspen University MSN student means guiding a 120-hour, project-based practicum in your area of expertise, and if you are a master’s-prepared Registered Nurse, students in our clinical placement service’s network need exactly you. Here is what the commitment involves, the paperwork Aspen requires, and straight answers to the questions preceptors ask us most, including the one about payment.
Who qualifies to precept an Aspen student?
A Registered Nurse who is affiliated with the practicum site and holds a master’s degree with expertise relevant to the student’s MSN specialization, that is Aspen’s published standard. You do not need to be faculty, and you do not need prior precepting experience; you need the credential, the site affiliation, and working knowledge of the student’s field.
Aspen’s MSN runs five specializations, Nursing Education, Informatics, Public Health, Administration & Management, and Forensic Nursing, so the preceptors we look for are nurse educators, informaticists, public-health nurses, nurse leaders and administrators, and forensic or emergency nurses with graduate degrees. Doctorally prepared nurses are welcome for the same roles, and the DNP program separately needs preceptors and sites to support 1,000 clinical-practice immersion hours and a DNP Project.
We are aspenpreceptor.com, an independent clinical placement service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Aspen University; we connect its students with clinicians like you and help both sides through the university’s own approval process.
What does the commitment actually involve?
Supervising 120 hours of project-based field experience, reviewing the student’s work as it progresses, and completing Aspen’s evaluation paperwork, that is the core of it. Aspen has no nurse-practitioner tracks, so this is not NP-style direct patient-care rotation supervision. Your student is building competence in education, informatics, public health, leadership, or forensic practice through a specialty-matched project at your site, with practicum courses graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
Three tracks, Nursing Education, Forensic Nursing, and Public Health, require at least 20 of the 120 hours to be direct-care experience, so some students will need patient-facing time arranged within your setting. Most of the remaining hours are mentored project work: your role is direction, access, and honest verification rather than minute-by-minute shadowing, and the load varies with the student’s project.
For DNP students the arc is longer, immersion hours accumulated across courses in support of a DNP Project, with Aspen University IRB approval required at the DNP880 stage. If you lead a department where a practice-improvement project could live, you are the kind of preceptor DNP candidates struggle hardest to find.
Do Aspen preceptors receive an honorarium?
Sometimes, and we will tell you plainly what applies to a given match before you commit to it. Honest context: much of nurse precepting in the United States remains a voluntary professional contribution, the way most of today’s preceptors were themselves trained, and Aspen University publishes no promise of preceptor payment that we can point you to. Where a placement arranged through us carries an honorarium, we state the amount and terms in writing during intake, and where it does not, we say that just as plainly.
What we can promise every preceptor regardless of payment: we never charge you anything, we do the administrative lifting on agreements so your time goes to mentorship rather than paperwork, and we only bring you students whose specialization actually fits your expertise and setting.
What paperwork will I sign?
Two documents carry your name, and two more travel alongside them. You sign the Preceptor Agreement, accepting the role and its evaluation duties, and your facility signs the Practicum Site Agreement. The student contributes a Student Profile, and the Student Performance Evaluation is the instrument you complete on their work. Together those produce the Practicum Approval Letter the student must hold before the practicum course begins.
During the practicum itself, the student logs hours in ProjectConcert, Aspen’s tracking system, and your signatures close the loop: a signed preceptor audit report plus Week-7 site and preceptor evaluations. It is a bounded, well-defined set of obligations, and we help assemble all of it so nothing lands on your desk twice.
How joining our network works
Tell us your credential, specialty, facility type, and how many students you could take in a year, that is the whole first step. From there:
From first contact to first student
- We match on specialty. When an Aspen student in your field needs a site like yours, we bring you their program, track, and project focus before anything is signed.
- You say yes or no per student. Joining the network commits you to nothing; each placement is a fresh decision.
- We handle the paperwork. Preceptor Agreement, Practicum Site Agreement, and the path to the Practicum Approval Letter, organized for you.
- You mentor, verify, and evaluate. The 120 hours, the ProjectConcert sign-offs, and the evaluations, with us a phone call away throughout.
Ready to precept, or still deciding?
Either way, the door is the same: contact us with your credential and specialty, and we will tell you honestly whether Aspen students in our pipeline need your setting. You can read how the student side works on how we find preceptors, see who we are, or browse the five MSN specializations to find where your expertise fits. Students pay for our service only when matched; preceptors never pay anything at all.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a nurse practitioner to precept Aspen students?
No. Aspen University has no nurse-practitioner tracks. Its MSN practicum needs master’s-prepared Registered Nurses in education, informatics, public health, administration and leadership, and forensic nursing, supervising project-based field experience rather than NP-style clinical rotations.
Is there an honorarium for precepting an Aspen student?
Sometimes. Aspen publishes no preceptor-payment promise we can cite, and much precepting nationally is voluntary. Where a placement arranged through us carries an honorarium, we put the amount and terms in writing at intake; where it does not, we say so before you commit. You are never charged anything.
How much time will a student need from me?
An MSN practicum is 120 hours of project-based work, with at least 20 direct-care hours for the Nursing Education, Forensic Nursing, and Public Health tracks. Your role is mentorship and verification rather than constant supervision, and the exact rhythm depends on the student’s project. DNP immersion support runs longer, across courses.
What do I have to sign off on?
The Preceptor Agreement up front, then the practicum record: the student logs hours in ProjectConcert and you provide a signed preceptor audit report, the Week-7 site and preceptor evaluations, and the Student Performance Evaluation. We help organize every document.
Does it cost me anything to join or to take a student?
No. We never charge preceptors or sites. Our fee is paid by the student, and only when a placement is secured. Joining our network also commits you to nothing; you decide student by student.
Get your Aspen practicum handled.
Tell us your program and specialty. We’ll map your field-experience requirement and start the search, in person or virtual. No payment until you’re matched.