One agreement, several preceptors
A school's affiliation agreement runs between the school and your practice as an entity, not between the school and one clinician. So a single signed agreement can cover every qualifying clinician you have. Program relations lists the named preceptors in a schedule attached to it, and adding a fourth nurse practitioner in March is usually a short amendment rather than a fresh contract.
Two things still multiply. Each new school needs its own agreement, because each has its own template and its own counsel. And a multi-site group has to decide whether the agreement names the practice or specific locations, which matters when a student rotates between two of your offices. Say which you want at the start and program relations drafts to it.
Written once, reused every term
Your practice writes one onboarding list and it goes to every student who ever comes. Parking and which door. Badge, dress code, arrival time. Which policies they read before day one. The EMR training you require. And who lets them in on the first morning. Coordinators keep the current version and send it, so the same email is not rewritten four times a year.
Chart access is built once as well. Your administrator creates a student role, read-only or drafting with mandatory cosignature, and reuses it, with each account expiring on the rotation's last day. Then nominate one person as the contact for student logistics, usually the office manager. Everything scheduling-related routes to them rather than to whichever clinician is nearest.
The cost in patients, and the cap you set
Precepting costs throughput before it returns any. For the first two weeks, plan on about one visit an hour fewer on the days a student is present. On a nine-hour clinic day that is real money for a practice that budgets by visit count. From week three most students are close to neutral, and by the second half a competent one is useful in a room.
That is why the practice, not only the individual, gets a ceiling. You can cap how many students are in the building at once across all your preceptors, so three clinicians do not each take one in the same fortnight. You can also block practice-wide weeks: an EMR conversion, a survey, an accreditation visit.
- A cap on concurrent students across every preceptor at the practice.
- Blackout weeks that apply to the whole building, not one clinician.
- A named contact who owns arrival, badging and chart access.
- One onboarding list, kept current by your coordinator.
- A student role in the EMR, built once and reused.
Signatures, and who receives the money
The practice signs the affiliation agreement and any site addendum, and nothing else. Each preceptor separately signs their own onboarding form with NPhours and, during the rotation, the midpoint and final evaluations. The student signs the school's supervision, privacy and conduct forms. The school signs its side and issues the certificate showing the student carries liability coverage.
Payment goes to the preceptor. The rotation total is paid to the named clinician as an independent contractor, and the 1099-NEC is issued in that person's name rather than the practice's. If a practice and a salaried clinician would rather handle it another way, that is an arrangement the two of them make between themselves.
In order
- 01
Name your signer
The owner, administrator or contracting office who signs agreements for the practice.
- 02
Sign once per school
One agreement, with your qualifying clinicians listed in a schedule attached to it.
- 03
Write the practice list
Parking, badge, dress, policies, EMR training and who meets the student.
- 04
Build the chart role
A student login your administrator can reissue, expiring on each rotation's last day.
- 05
Set the cap and the contact
How many students at once across the practice, and one person who owns logistics.
Have one clinician open their hours, or call a coordinator and set the practice up in a single agreement.
Apply to preceptQuestions
Does every preceptor here need a separate agreement?
No. The agreement is between the school and the practice, so one signature covers the clinicians named on its schedule. Adding a clinician later is an amendment your coordinator handles. What does repeat is the credential check: each preceptor's license, certification and practice history is confirmed individually before that school approves them.
What does hosting a student actually cost us?
Mostly throughput in the first fortnight, at roughly a visit an hour on the days a student is in. After that the drag falls off quickly. There is no fee to the practice for placement, no charge for the agreement work, and no cost for the orientation your clinician takes beforehand.
Who does the student's chart access come from?
Your own IT or EMR administrator, because it is your system and your patient records. NPhours specifies what the student needs, which is read-only access or drafting that cannot be filed without a cosignature, limited to the preceptor's schedule and expiring on the last day. Build the role once and reissue it.
Can we limit how many students are here at once?
Yes, and most practices do. Set a ceiling that applies across all your preceptors, and coordinators schedule inside it, so two students never arrive in the same week unless you want them to. You can also close whole weeks for the practice, which is what an EMR go-live or a survey week calls for.
Can the practice receive the payment instead of the preceptor?
NPhours pays the individual preceptor named on the rotation and reports that income in their name. Whether a salaried clinician passes any of it to the practice, or waives it, is for the two of you to settle in writing. We are not a party to that arrangement and do not split payments.
