Preceptor jobs that pay per student hour, on hours you already work
Here is the honest version before you scroll. These openings are student placements, not payroll positions: an NP program needs a clinician to take one student for 120 hours, in clinic or by video, and pays for it. You name your rate, you choose the placement, you stay in your own practice, and the school's paperwork is handled for you.
Your credential, your state, the hours you have, and whether you would teach in clinic or by video. A coordinator writes back within one business day. Free.
Four kinds of opening. All of them are one student.
Openings differ by the population a student is training for and by how much of the rotation the program lets you run on camera. Everything else, the rate band, the block length and the two deposits, is the same across all four.
Family and adult
The largest share of openings, because family and adult-gerontology students outnumber every other track. Well visits, episodic complaints and chronic follow-up.
FNP openingsMental health
The shortest supply of preceptors and the widest video allowance. Intakes, medication management and safety planning, much of it billable from your own desk.
PMHNP openingsEducation and leadership
For RNs with an MSN who teach or manage. A student logs teaching, simulation, quality or management hours against a project you help shape.
RN openingsDNP project mentoring
A practice mentor for a doctoral project rather than a clinical rotation. Fewer of these, and they suit directors and faculty more than bedside clinicians.
DNP mentoringName a figure. The block does the rest.
Anything from $12 to $20 for each hour a student spends with you. The standard opening runs 120 hours and a half-opening runs 60. Half the fee is released against the midpoint evaluation and half against the final.
| Your rate | Half-block, 60 h | Block, 120 h | Three blocks a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $12 an hour | $720 | $1,440 | $4,320 |
| $15 an hour | $900 | $1,800 | $5,400 |
| $18 an hour | $1,080 | $2,160 | $6,480 |
| $20 an hour | $1,200 | $2,400 | $7,200 |
Three things a program checks.
They are checked in this order, and a coordinator tells you which one is short rather than leaving you to guess. Two of the three are fixed by paperwork and the third only by time.
A license with nothing on it
Active in the state your patients are in, with no restriction, probation or action pending. Verified against the board, not taken on trust.
Certification in the right population
National board certification matching what the student is training for. Family for family students, psychiatric for psychiatric students. An MSN plus a teaching or management post opens the education and leadership placements instead.
Two years since you certified
Counted in that population from your certification date. Most handbooks name two years and a minority name three.
Six things a listing would bury.
This is not W-2 work
No salary, no benefits, no withholding, no employer. A 1099-NEC arrives in January once the year reaches $600, and many preceptors set aside about a third.
Your first fortnight is slower
Expect roughly one fewer patient an hour while a student learns your rooms and your notes. Volume returns by week three if you let them take the history.
The video share is not yours to set
You may run an entirely remote practice and still be sent a placement that requires in-person hours. The permitted mode is printed on the card before you answer.
The log decides the fee
Ninety-six hours logged is ninety-six hours paid. Coordinators chase students who fall behind, but nobody is paid for hours a log does not show.
Openings follow the term calendar
They cluster in January, May and August. An application approved in October may wait for the new year, and no date is ever promised.
Declining costs you nothing
Any card, any reason, no record kept. The one thing coordinators will argue with is walking away after a term has started.
Six steps, about three weeks.
Your own effort adds up to well under an hour plus one orientation. The rest of the clock belongs to the program.
Tell us your profile
Ten minutes: credential, population, state, hours, mode.
Verify once
CV, license, certification and a paragraph on your practice. Reused for every program.
Agreement
The affiliation agreement, drawn in the school's template, signed by your practice.
Orientation
Ninety minutes on the log, the two evaluations and two teaching methods.
A card arrives
Program, course, dates, hours, population and mode. Answer inside 72 hours.
Teach and get paid
Two direct deposits, at the midpoint evaluation and the final.
I typed preceptor jobs into a search bar expecting a staffing listing and got placements instead. The card named the program, the term dates and the hour count before I agreed to anything, which is more than a job ad usually tells you.
Psychiatric follow-ups by video already filled my afternoons. A student joined the call, presented each patient afterwards, and her program let the whole block count. My income for those afternoons roughly doubled.
Four stars because acute care openings are thin and I waited a full term for one. When it came it was five shifts a month on my own unit and the hours were logged against my real schedule with no argument.
Are preceptor jobs really jobs?
Not in the employment sense, and it is fairer to say so on the first page than the fifth. Each opening is one student placement you accept as an independent contractor. You keep your own practice, you pick which placement to take, you set your rate inside a band, and you are paid per block. There is no employer and no roster you did not choose.
What does one opening pay?
You name a figure between $12 and $20 for every hour a student spends with you. The standard opening is a 120-hour block, so it pays $1,440 to $2,400; a half-block of 60 hours pays half that. The money arrives in two direct deposits, one when you sign the midpoint evaluation and one when you sign the final.
Who is eligible to take one?
For clinical nurse practitioner placements: an active, unencumbered license, national board certification in the population the student is training for, and two years of practice since you certified. Registered nurses holding an MSN or higher with a current teaching or management role take education and leadership practica, which are not clinical hours.
Are any of these openings remote?
Some are, partly. The student's program decides what share of a rotation may be completed by telehealth and writes that into the affiliation agreement, so the answer is set before you ever see the card. Psychiatric care and primary care follow-up visits carry the largest video share; acute care and anything procedural carry almost none.
How long does it take to get one?
About three weeks from application to approval in the usual case, and most of that is the program confirming your documents and signing an agreement with your practice. After approval, cards arrive on the academic calendar, which clusters around January, May and August. A quiet stretch in autumn is normal and nobody will promise you a student by a date.
What does it cost me to apply?
Nothing, at any stage. Programs and their students carry the cost of placement, so there is no application fee, no listing fee, no charge for the orientation and no cut taken from a block. The only money moving is the two halves of your fee coming toward you, reported on a 1099-NEC once the year reaches $600.
Ten minutes to apply. One business day to a reply.
A coordinator tells you which openings match your credential, state and hours, or names the one thing to sort out first. Nothing reaches a program until you accept a student.
Your credential, your state, the hours you have, and whether you would teach in clinic or by video. A coordinator writes back within one business day. Free.