The credential match is strict for this population
Programs will not bend on this one. An adult-gerontology acute care student needs an acute care preceptor, and a primary care certification does not substitute even when the practice is genuinely inpatient. Some courses also accept an intensivist or a hospitalist physician, and a few accept a PA in the same service, but the population and the acuity have to line up with the certificate on your wall.
The same logic runs the other way. If your certification is acute care, you are usually not the right preceptor for a family or adult primary care student, whatever your clinic experience was five years ago. Check the course name in the request before you get attached to the dates. A mismatch found in week one is a lost term for the student and an afternoon wasted for you.
Hours accrue in shifts, not in clinic days
Do the arithmetic in shifts and the block gets easier to picture. Ten twelve-hour shifts, or fifteen eight-hour ones, comes to 120 student hours. Most acute care preceptors run it as two shifts a week for five weeks, or one a week across a term, and the student follows your rota rather than a fixed weekday. That is a real advantage of the setting: nobody has to invent extra time.
Nights and weekends are worth asking about rather than assuming. Some courses count them fully, some want a share of daylight hours because rounds, family meetings and consultants only happen then, and some limit consecutive shifts. Get the answer in writing before you offer a rota. It is the single most common source of a log dispute at the end of an inpatient rotation.
Procedures and the supervision rule
Students want procedures and hospitals control them. Your unit's student policy decides whether a learner may hold a probe, thread a line, place an arterial catheter or manage an airway, and it usually requires you at the bedside with your hands free. Nothing changes about who is responsible: you are, and a student never performs unsupervised, however capable they look on the third attempt.
Build the ladder deliberately. Watch you twice, set up the kit, do the ultrasound survey, then perform the step you have agreed while you talk them through it. Have them log the procedure the same shift, with the supervision level recorded honestly, because faculty read that field. Debriefing while the tray is still open teaches more than a conversation the next morning.
Why video almost never counts here
The examination is hands-on, the patient is in a bed, and the reasoning happens on rounds with the chart, the monitor and the nurse in the same corridor. There is no version of that on a laptop. Programs know it, and inpatient courses generally require the hours in person, which is why acute care sits outside the telehealth part of this network.
The exceptions are small and rarely enough on their own. A student can join a family meeting remotely, review imaging with you on a shared screen, or sit in on a tele-critical care service if that is genuinely how the unit works. Treat those as additions to a bedside block rather than a way to build one, and let the program rule before you count anything.
What this network can and cannot arrange for you
NPhours can match you with a student whose course fits your credential, handle the agreement between the program and your employer, run the onboarding paperwork, pay you and keep one coordinator on the rotation. What it cannot do is open a hospital that has closed its doors to students, shorten a credentialing queue, or place you where your manager has not agreed. Ask your service line first. That one conversation decides everything else.
Pay does not vary with acuity. The block is 120 student hours, the half-block is 60, and your hourly figure sits anywhere from $12 to $20, so ten shifts return $1,440 at the lower end and $2,400 at the upper. It is released in two parts, at the midpoint and at the close, and it is self-employment income you will see on a January 1099-NEC.
In order
- 01
Ask your service line
Whether the unit takes NP students at all, and who signs off. Everything else waits on that answer.
- 02
Confirm the certification fit
Acute care student, acute care preceptor. Read the course title on the request, not the student's degree.
- 03
Offer a rota, not a weekday
Ten twelve-hour shifts across five to twelve weeks, with the nights question settled in advance.
- 04
Agree the procedure ladder
What the student may attempt under direct supervision, per your hospital's own student policy.
- 05
Open your hours
Certification, unit, state and shift pattern. A coordinator will tell you honestly what is placeable.
If your unit already takes learners, open your hours with your shift pattern and a coordinator will say what fits.
Apply to preceptQuestions
Can an acute care NP student do any hours by telehealth?
Very few. Inpatient courses expect bedside hours because the examination, the monitor and rounds cannot be reproduced on a screen. A family meeting joined remotely or a genuine tele-critical care service may be accepted as part of a block, never as the whole of one. Assume in person unless the program tells you otherwise in writing.
Does a primary care certification let me precept AGACNP students?
No, in almost every case. Acute care courses require supervision by someone certified for that population and acuity, and placement offices verify the certificate rather than the job description. If you work inpatient with a primary care certification, ask a coordinator which courses will accept you. Some hospitalist and subspecialty rotations have wider rules.
How is a block scheduled around twelve-hour shifts?
Count hours, not days. Ten twelve-hour shifts add up to the full 120 student hours, and five of them make a half-block. Preceptors typically take a student for one or two shifts a week and let them follow the rota, including the weekend shifts if the course permits them. The schedule is agreed before the rotation opens.
What does an inpatient rotation pay a preceptor?
The same hourly range applies as everywhere else on the network: you name a figure of $12 through $20 for each student hour and the total follows the hours logged. Ten twelve-hour shifts therefore earn $1,440 to $2,400. The first deposit follows your midpoint evaluation, the second follows the final one, and the whole of it is 1099 income.
Do I need hospital credentialing paperwork for a student?
Usually the student does, not you. Most hospitals require a learner to complete onboarding, health records, background screening and system access before a first shift, and that can take several weeks. Start the request early and tell the coordinator what your institution needs. Nothing about it is charged to you or to the student.
