Who they are, and how to reach them
You are introduced by name before the first day, and that person stays with the rotation until the final evaluation is filed. They know your clinic, your weekday, your school and your student, so nothing has to be explained twice. Coordinators are not clinicians; they are the people who run placements for a living and who talk to placement offices every day of the week.
Reach them however suits the day. Text for anything short, including from the parking lot between patients. Email when there is a form or a date to quote. Phone on +1 (888) 640-4687 when it needs a conversation. Every route gets an answer inside one business day, and usually the same day. If your coordinator is away, the person covering has your file open before they call back.
The three points they check
Week four is the log check. Your coordinator opens the school's log, counts the hours the student has recorded, and sets that number beside the weeks gone by. Nine hours short in week four is a small fix. Forty hours short in week eleven is not. They call either way, and ask whether a thin number is attendance, logging or clinic volume.
The midpoint is the second check, and it is a pay date too, so they confirm the form reached you and chase the school if it did not. The final check closes things: last hours verified, evaluation signed, log closed, second deposit released. Then they ask you one question, which is whether you want another student and when.
What they take off your desk
The work a coordinator absorbs is the work that has nothing to do with teaching. A student behind on hours becomes a revised end date agreed with the school. A student who is a poor fit becomes a conversation, then a plan, then sometimes a reassignment. A placement office that stopped answering email becomes a phone call to its director.
You are also allowed to just ask. Preceptors call about a student who arrives late twice, about a form field they have not seen before, about how blunt to be in a midpoint comment. That is the job. A coordinator who hears about a problem in week five has options that one who hears in week fifteen does not.
- A student behind on hours, and the date change that fixes it.
- A fit that is not working, before it becomes a failed rotation.
- A placement office that has gone quiet.
- An evaluation form that has not arrived.
- A pause for illness, leave or a family week.
- A withdrawal, and what is paid.
The three lines they do not cross
A coordinator does not practise medicine. They will not advise on a patient, review a chart, or weigh in on a clinical decision, and if you ask they will say so plainly. Clinical questions belong to you and, for teaching questions with a clinical edge, to the orientation modules and the articles written by the clinical leads on the team.
They also do not grade. The midpoint and final evaluations are yours to write and sign, and no coordinator edits your wording or softens a score. And they do not hand out your details: schools see the profile you built and nothing beyond it, and your phone number, home address and pay rate are not part of what a program receives when it approves you.
In order
- 01
You are introduced
Name, direct line and email, before the student's first day.
- 02
Week four, the log check
Hours recorded against weeks elapsed, with a call either way.
- 03
The midpoint
The form confirmed in your hands, the school chased if it is late.
- 04
Anything, any time
Text, email or phone, with an answer inside one business day.
- 05
The final
Hours verified, evaluation signed, log closed, second deposit released.
Open your hours and you will have a name and a number before your first student arrives.
Apply to preceptQuestions
Is it the same person for the whole rotation?
Yes. One coordinator is assigned before the first day and stays through the final evaluation. Take a second student later and you may get the same person again, particularly at the same school. When your coordinator is on leave, a named colleague covers with your file already read, and you are told who.
How quickly do they actually reply?
Inside one business day, on any of the three routes, and usually faster. Texts are often answered within an hour or two during clinic hours. If something is urgent, say so in the first line and call rather than email. A student safety concern goes to your own practice first, not to a coordinator.
What if the student is not working out?
Call in the week you first think it, not the week you are certain. Your coordinator will ask what specifically is happening, help you put it into the midpoint evaluation in writing, and take it to the school. Outcomes range from a clear plan for the second half to a reassignment. Early beats tactful here.
Will a coordinator answer a clinical question?
No. Coordinators do not give clinical advice or review charts, and they will tell you so. What they can do is point you at the teaching material for the situation, whether that is how to structure a doorway conversation or what to write about a student who is not ready to see patients alone.
What do programs learn about me?
The profile you built: your credential, your practice, your setting, your population, your availability. Nothing else. Your rate, your phone number and your home address are not sent to schools, and NPhours does not add you to any list that programs or students can browse without your having accepted a rotation.
