Your preceptor dropped out partway through a Bradley practicum
Tell your course faculty and academic advisor the same day, make sure every hour you have already worked is logged in Typhon, and begin the replacement search at once, because a new preceptor needs Bradley's approval before another hour can count. Bradley publishes no fixed replacement procedure, so faculty steer what happens next; your part is to arrive at that conversation with a workable option.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Bradley program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
The first two days
- Tell course faculty and your advisor in writingB-Mail is Bradley's official channel for university communication, so use it. Say when the preceptor stopped, how many hours you have logged and how many the course requires.
- Bring Typhon up to dateThe handbook wants each practicum day logged within seven days. Finish any open entries while the details are fresh and the preceptor still answers messages.
- Ask the departing preceptor to close outBradley's 2017 packet included an evaluation the preceptor completes on the student. Ask whether they will complete what they can for the hours supervised, and let course faculty decide how a partial rotation is evaluated.
- Stop clinical hoursNobody else at the site should start supervising you until Bradley has approved them.
- Start the replacement searchLook for the same setting your course names, and begin collecting documents the moment someone agrees.
What Bradley says, and what it leaves open
Bradley's public documents do not describe a replacement process, and they neither promise nor rule out Bradley stepping in. What they do settle is the frame: a practicum must be approved before it begins, hours cannot start before the semester, and each practicum day is logged in Typhon within seven days. One testimonial on a Bradley landing page describes an AGACNP graduate whose placements were adapted mid-semester to fit a new job. That is one student's experience, not a policy, but it shows that course faculty can work with a change.
The Office of Online and Distance Education handles preceptor packets, site coordination and agency agreements, so it will process the new preceptor's paperwork. Course faculty and your academic advisor decide how the course proceeds in the meantime. The Bradley placement process shows each approval step the replacement will pass through.
Why preceptors leave, and what each reason changes
The reason matters, because it decides how much paperwork the fix needs. If your preceptor has changed jobs but would still precept you at the new practice, that is a new site: a new address on the preceptor form and, very likely, a new clinical agency agreement, since Bradley's process ties an agreement to each site. That can take longer than finding someone new at your current site.
If a colleague at the same practice offers to take over, the site side may already be in place, but the colleague is a new preceptor to Bradley and needs a full packet: license, CV, malpractice coverage and the signed form. If the site itself has ended student rotations, both the preceptor and the site change, and you are effectively starting a new placement. In every case, confirm the replacement fits the course setting and Bradley's preceptor rules before you ask them to fill out anything.
Hours left against weeks left
Work out the gap early. Divide the hours still owed by the weeks remaining after a realistic approval date, and you know how many hours a week the replacement must supply. Bradley's online fall and spring semesters run 15 weeks and summer 13, so a preceptor lost in week five and replaced by week eight leaves a much tighter pace than the original plan. The behind on clinical hours page has the pace table for each practicum course.
If the numbers will not close, ask course faculty about an Incomplete. Bradley's nursing policy requires at least 80 percent of the coursework finished with an overall grade of B or better, the remaining work done by the contract date or week 11 of the following semester, and faculty approval for any hours over a break. Your advisor can tell you whether you qualify.
How we replace a preceptor for you
Replacement is one of the moments our placement desk is built for. When you tell us a preceptor has withdrawn, your placement advisor restarts the search that day, beginning with candidates in the same setting who were close to a yes during your original search. We gather the new preceptor's license, CV, malpractice coverage and site address together, so the packet reaches Bradley complete, and we flag early if a new site means a new agency agreement.
We also look past the current course. If your next practicum was planned with the same preceptor or site, we check whether that plan still stands and start the next search now if it does not. Bradley approves the replacement, as it approves every preceptor; we make sure it has everything it needs to do so quickly. Use the form below and mark your start date as already under way.
Questions Bradley students ask
Do my hours still count if my preceptor quits before the course ends?
Hours you worked with an approved preceptor and logged in Typhon within seven days are documented in your record. How a partial rotation counts toward the course total, and how it is evaluated, is a decision for course faculty, so tell them promptly and ask the departing preceptor to complete whatever evaluation they can for the time they supervised.
Can another provider at the same practice just take over?
Often that is the quickest fix, but the new person is a new preceptor to Bradley. They need their own approval through the packet (signed form, license, CV and malpractice copy) before any hours with them count, and they must fit Bradley's preceptor rules and your course's setting. The site's existing agency agreement may carry over, which saves time.
Will a preceptor dropping out delay my Bradley graduation?
Not necessarily. The outcome depends on how many hours remain, how many weeks are left and how quickly a replacement is approved. A heavier weekly schedule may close the gap; if it cannot, an Incomplete may let you finish the remaining work in the following semester. If the course has to move to a later term, delayed graduation explains the rules that apply.
What if my preceptor is still there but the rotation is not working?
Talk to course faculty and your academic advisor, whom Bradley's welcome sites name for practicum questions, supervised clinical experiences and grievances. Describe the problem factually, for example too few patients for the course or canceled clinic days, and ask what options exist. Line up a possible second preceptor early, since any addition needs approval before it helps.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Bradley's own catalog, online program pages and Graduate Student Handbook. Your clinical packet, course faculty and academic advisor have the final word.
Bradley lets you choose your preceptors. We find the ones worth choosing.
Tell us your Bradley track, your city and your next practicum course. We line up preceptors who fit the NUR course and gather the license, CV and malpractice details the DocuSign packet asks for, well before the midterm of the semester before you start.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP and AGPCNP, acute care teams for AGACNP, mental health settings for PMHNP
- Preceptor license, CV, malpractice coverage and the site address ready for the packet
- Every practicum in your sequence planned together, close to home in your approved state
Start your placement plan
Track, city and next practicum is all we need to begin.