Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine provides clinical placement for students in a variety of clinical disciplines and specialties. For advanced practice student clinical placement, the following priorities and process have been established:

Priority 1: Penn State advanced practice student

Priority 2: Penn State Health employees enrolled in a non-Penn State Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner program

Priority 3: Advanced practice students who are not Penn State Health employees and are not enrolled in a Penn State program

The faculty and program coordinators in the Penn State Physician Assistant program and the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing Nurse Practitioner program have an independent process to determine clinical placement at Hershey Medical Center. Therefore, Priority 1 students do not follow the process described below. 

Advanced Practice Student Placement Process

Once the clinical needs are filled for Penn State advanced practice students (Priority 1), a limited number of clinical preceptors are available at Hershey Medical Center. 

Priority 2 and 3 students must follow the process described below:

• All requests for advanced practice student placement for Penn State Health employees (Priority 2) and non-Penn State employees or students (Priority 3) will be made using the online clinical request process found on this Advanced Practice provider website. 
  • Priority 2 students will have preference after Priority 1 student placement. Any available clinical rotations will then be offered to Priority 3 students. 
  • Requests for clinical placement are reviewed by each clinical department based on their ability to meet the needs for student clinical education while still providing excellent clinical care. It is up to the clinical department to select the best student applicant for any available preceptors. Clinical departments may request a resume from a student if needed to make a final decision. Placement will not be made on a first-come, first-served basis.   
• Individual students, faculty or program coordinators may not contact a provider to make a clinical request privately. Agreements made through a provider and then submitted by this online request process will be denied.

For External PA student requests: 

Due to the needs of the Penn State College of Medicine PA Program, the following clinical rotations are not available for external PA students: Family Community Medicine, ED, Pediatrics, Women's Health, Surgery, Internal Medicine and Behavioral Health. Only elective rotation are potentially available for placement.

Programs must submit individual online request forms for each rotation and must follow the deadline/notification schedule. All requests must come through the online process.

Clinical Placement and Notification

For each semester request form submitted, a student will receive an email regarding the assignment of a preceptor/clinic site or the lack of availability of a preceptor/clinic site by the notification date.  

If a preceptor is assigned, the student will receive the name, credentials and contact information of the preceptor. If the student is assigned to a clinic site, they will receive the address and contact information of the student coordinator. In this situation, a student will be assigned a specific day or number of days per week for clinical rotation and may have more than one primary preceptor.

The student should immediately contact the student coordinator or assigned preceptor to introduce themselves and discuss a schedule based on the preceptor or clinics’ availability.

Paperwork for assigned clinical rotations

If assigned a preceptor or clinic site, the student will receive instructions regarding the submission of required paperwork and the process to obtain IT access to the electronic medical record system at Hershey Medical Center.

Hershey Medical Center employees assigned to a preceptor or clinic site

You will receive an email in your Penn State Health email account regarding the review of policy 669 NAM Nurse Practitioner Student Clinical Practicum.

You are required to review the policy, sign the attestation statement and return it as directed by the deadline. This should only be done once during your Advanced Practice Providers education. Failure to submit the attestation statement by the deadline in the email will result in forfeiture of your clinical placement.

To submit a request for clinical placement, complete the Advanced Practice Student Clinical Request Form.

To submit a request for MSN / Health Assessment Course placement, complete this form.