The unit orientation preceptor
This is the nurse who takes the new graduate for twelve weeks. The unit educator or manager picks you, usually because you are reliable and your documentation is clean. The work is competency checklists, gradual handover of a patient load, weekly progress notes and a difficult conversation if the orientee is not keeping up. It is a genuine skill and hospitals depend on it entirely.
Pay comes from your employer, if it comes at all. Most systems attach a small hourly differential to precepting shifts, some pay a flat stipend per orientee, and some pay nothing and call it part of a senior nurse's role. The figure is set in your contract or your policy manual, not by any outside network, so the person to ask is your unit educator. NPhours has no part in that arrangement and cannot pay you for it.
The academic preceptor for nursing students
The other role belongs to a school. A nursing student needs supervised practicum hours signed off by a qualified nurse, and the hours are logged against a course requirement rather than a hiring plan. RN-to-BSN students bring community health, leadership and capstone hours. MSN students bring education, administration, informatics or public health practicums. What they all bring is a syllabus, a log and two evaluations.
This is the work this network arranges. A coordinator matches the request to your degree and role, handles the agreement with the school, and pays you for the hours the log records. You see the course, the dates, the hour count and the format before you say yes to anything, and a decline has no consequence beyond the next request arriving later.
Which degree fits which student
The rule is that a preceptor holds at least the degree the student is working toward. A BSN-prepared RN can usually supervise RN-to-BSN practicum hours, including community health and capstone work. An MSN-prepared nurse is needed for MSN practicum students, and the school will also want you to hold the relevant role: teaching for an education course, management for a leadership course.
Nurse practitioner students are a separate matter. Those hours require a certified NP or a physician in the same population, because prescribing and diagnosis are being supervised. An experienced RN, however good, cannot sign for them. If that is the request in your inbox, it was sent to the wrong person and a coordinator will re-route it.
The practical side of hosting an RN student
Expect the same three checks as any preceptor: an active unencumbered license, the degree the course requires, and a couple of years working in the role you would be teaching. Then expect the school's paperwork. A community health student needs a site that lets them do outreach, home visits, screening events or education sessions, and someone has to authorise their presence there.
The teaching itself is less about clinical skill than about how a system works. Let them plan a session, run a screening table, sit in on a case conference, or write the referral and then follow it to see whether anything happened. RN students arrive expecting tasks and leave understanding process, which is the point of the practicum.
Where you belong, honestly
Read the four lines below and take the one that fits. Most people who search for this page want the first, and the answer to it lives inside their own organisation. It is worth asking anyway, because unit differentials often go unclaimed by nurses who did not know the policy existed.
If it is the academic side you want, the money is simple. Pick your rate somewhere from $12 to $20 for each hour a student logs with you, which puts a full 120-hour practicum at $1,440 to $2,400. Half is released at the midpoint evaluation, half at the final, and anything reaching $600 across the year arrives with a 1099-NEC in January.
- Precepting a new hire on your unit: ask your educator about the differential; this network cannot pay for it.
- BSN-prepared with a community, public health or leadership role: you can take RN-to-BSN practicum students.
- MSN-prepared and currently teaching: the nurse educator practicum page describes that work.
- MSN-prepared and managing a unit: the leadership practicum page is the one to read next.
In order
- 01
Name the role you mean
Unit orientation or academic practicum. They pay differently and are arranged by different people.
- 02
Check your degree against the course
At least the credential the student is studying for, plus the role the syllabus assumes.
- 03
Confirm your site will host
Community and public health placements need someone to authorise a student's presence.
- 04
Open your hours
Degree, license, role, state and availability. A coordinator routes you to the courses that fit.
Academic practicum hours are what this network arranges, so open your hours and the courses matching your degree will reach you.
Apply to preceptQuestions
Do RN preceptors get paid for orientating new nurses?
Usually through their employer, not through a network. Many hospitals add an hourly differential to shifts worked with an orientee, some pay a stipend for each new hire precepted, and some treat it as an expectation of the role with no extra pay. The amount and the rules sit in your own contract or nursing policy manual.
Can NPhours place me as a hospital orientation preceptor?
No. Those assignments are made inside the unit by a manager or educator, tied to your own employment, and paid by the hospital. This network works with nursing schools, so the placements it arranges are academic ones with students who need supervised practicum hours. The two systems do not overlap at any point.
What qualifications does an academic RN preceptor need?
An active unencumbered license, a degree at or above the level the student is pursuing, and current practice in the relevant role, commonly two years of it. A BSN covers RN-to-BSN practicum students. An MSN is required for master's students, along with a teaching or management post depending on the course.
Can I precept nurse practitioner students as an experienced RN?
No. NP practicum hours involve supervised diagnosis and prescribing, so programs require a board-certified nurse practitioner or a physician in the same population to sign for them. Years at the bedside do not substitute. If you are studying toward an NP or completing certification, revisit this once you have both the credential and two years in it.
What do academic RN precepting hours pay?
You choose an hourly figure within the band this network uses, and it applies to every hour the school's log shows. A 120-hour practicum therefore returns between $1,440 and $2,400, paid in two direct deposits after the midpoint and final evaluations. It is contract income, so set some aside for tax and speak to your own preparer.
