What is on the card
A card carries the program name and the course, the rotation's start and end dates, the hours required, the population and setting the course demands, the mode the program permits for its students, and a short note from the student about their background and what they hope to see. It does not carry the student's name or contact details until you accept, and it never carries their grades. You are deciding whether the rotation fits your clinic, not interviewing the person.
Cards only reach you when five things already line up: your state, your certification, your setting, your available hours, and a program that has approved you. A card that fails any of the five is never generated. This is why a preceptor in a rural family practice in Kansas sees FNP rotations from programs approved in Kansas and nothing else, and why a psychiatric prescriber who only works by video never sees an inpatient card.
- Program and course, so you know whether it is an early or a final rotation.
- Dates and total hours, so you can lay them against your own calendar.
- Population, setting and permitted mode, straight from the program's rules.
- The student's note, in their own words.
The clock, and what each answer does
You have 72 hours from the moment a card lands to accept or decline it. Two preceptors can be shown the same card in that window; the first acceptance takes it and the other is told within the hour. If you do neither in 72 hours the card leaves your queue and your standing is unchanged. A decline is silent: the program is not told who declined, and your queue continues.
An acceptance does three things in the next business day. Your coordinator confirms the dates with the program's placement office and asks for the student's onboarding packet. The student receives your practice's own onboarding list, which you wrote once when you joined. And the rotation appears on your NPhours schedule with its midpoint and final evaluation dates already calculated, because those dates are also your pay dates.
Preferences you can set, and what they do to your queue
Your preferences page has four controls. A cap on concurrent students, which nearly every preceptor sets to one. A blackout calendar for weeks you are away, which suppresses cards whose dates cross it. A list of programs you prefer, which moves their cards to the top without hiding others. And a mode setting: in clinic, video, or both. Change any of them at any time and the next card obeys.
One thing you cannot set is a guarantee. NPhours does not promise a card in a given month, because cards come from programs' rotation calendars, and those cluster around January, May and August starts. A preceptor with common hours in a common specialty in a populous state will see more cards than one with none of those. Your coordinator can tell you what the last term looked like for preceptors with your profile.
In order
- 01
You are approved by a program
Your documents clear the program's placement office and an affiliation agreement covers your practice.
- 02
A card lands
Six fields describing one rotation, generated only when state, certification, setting, hours and program all match.
- 03
You answer inside 72 hours
Accept and the coordinator confirms dates; decline or let it lapse and nothing changes.
- 04
The student is onboarded
They receive your clinic's list, you receive their packet, and the evaluation and pay dates go on your schedule.
Open your hours and the first card that fits your state, credential and calendar will find you.
Apply to preceptQuestions
Can I see the student's name before I accept?
No. The card shows the program, course, dates, hours, population, setting, permitted mode and the student's own note. Names and contact details are released when you accept, at which point the coordinator introduces you both. This protects students from being screened by name and protects your details from programs you have not agreed to work with.
What if two students would fit at once?
Your concurrent-student cap decides. Most preceptors set it to one, so a second card is held until the first rotation ends. If you set it to two, both cards can be accepted, but coordinators will ask you to confirm that your patient volume supports two learners, since programs count hours seeing patients, not hours in the building.
Why have I not received a card yet?
Usually because no program that has approved you has a rotation starting in the next eight weeks in your state and specialty. Rotations cluster at term starts, so a quiet October is normal. Check that your availability and blackout calendar are current, and ask your coordinator what the previous term looked like for a profile like yours.
Can I decline a student after accepting?
Before the start date, yes, by telling your coordinator, who reassigns the rotation and tells the program. It is not held against you once; a pattern of it is. After the start date a withdrawal strands a student's hours, so coordinators will first try to resolve whatever caused it, whether schedule, fit or clinic volume.
Do programs choose me, or do I choose them?
Both, in sequence. A program approves your documents first, which puts its rotations in reach of your queue. Then you choose the individual rotation by accepting a card. A program can also ask for you by name for a returning student, and that request arrives as a card marked as such.
