Who does what around a WilmU practicum
A Wilmington University practicum involves more people than you and your preceptor. WilmU's College of Nursing and Health Sciences directory, catalog and policies name chairs, coordinators, committees and offices, each holding one piece of the process. This guide lists every role by title, what WilmU's own pages say it does, and what to bring to it.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your WilmU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your WilmU course.
The practicum roles at a glance
Titles are the stable way to reach people at WilmU: names change, the roles stay. The sections below take each group in turn.
| Role, as WilmU titles it | What WilmU's pages say | Bring it |
|---|---|---|
| Chair, Nurse Practitioner Programs | Heads the NP programs; advises BSN to DNP and combined students jointly with the DNP Program Director | NP practicum questions that cut across tracks |
| Assistant Chairs, FNP Program and PMHNP Program | One for each NP track | Questions about your own track's practicums |
| Director, Advanced Clinical Programs and Chair, DNP Program | Heads the DNP | DNP hours and preceptor questions |
| DNP Project Advisor | Assigned to each DNP student | Your DNP Project |
| Human Subjects Committee | Approves the DNP Project plan in GRN 9001 | Project approval |
| Academic Coordinator of Clinical Nursing Education | Listed in the College directory without a description | Ask your chair what it covers for your track |
| Course faculty | Under Delaware's Board rules, direct clinical learning and keep responsibility for evaluation | Course expectations and grading |
| Online Learning office | Handles state authorization questions | Clinicals or study outside Delaware |
NP program roles
Three titles sit over the NP programs in the College directory. One Chair covers all the Nurse Practitioner Programs, and each track has its own Assistant Chair, one on the family side (FNP) and one on the psychiatric mental health side (PMHNP). An adjunct coordinator for the NP programs is listed as well. For MSN-FNP and FNP certificate students heading into GRN 7121 to GRN 7124, the FNP Assistant Chair is the natural first contact; PMHNP certificate students taking GRN 7221 to GRN 7224 start with the PMHNP Assistant Chair.
Admission runs through separate bodies, the NP Program Admissions Committee and the PMHNP Program Admissions Committee, which use a two-stage review ending in an interview. BSN to DNP and combined certificate plus DNP students are advised by two people at once, the DNP Program Director alongside the NP Program Chair, which matters whenever a practicum question touches both halves of the plan. The PMHNP practicums have a preceptor guide of their own.
DNP roles
The DNP's lead carries a double title in the directory, Chair of the DNP Program and Director of Advanced Clinical Programs, with an adjunct coordinator for the DNP working alongside. WilmU assigns a DNP Project Advisor to each student, and admission goes through the DNP admission committee.
Two more roles shape your practice hours. Whichever concentration you choose, your experiential engagement preceptor holds a doctorate, and in the Leadership concentration that preceptor carries you through the four experiential engagement courses, GRN 8121 to GRN 8124. Then, during GRN 9001, the Wilmington University Human Subjects Committee reviews and approves your project plan. WilmU describes the workplace as the most common home for a DNP Project, so the plan in front of that committee is often set inside your own organization. The preceptor side is covered in the DNP preceptor guide.
Clinical education and credentialing roles
At the top of the College sit the Dean and an Assistant to the Dean. Two more clinical-side titles appear in the directory: Academic Coordinator of Clinical Nursing Education, and Administrative Coordinators. WilmU's pages give their titles but not their duties, so ask your chair which of them deals with questions about your clinical paperwork before writing to them directly.
The background check and drug screen policy names three more roles, all for the case where a check returns a finding. The review falls to a medical reviewer, the CONHS program coordinator, and the Dean of the College or someone the Dean designates, and a finding that stays unresolved closes clinical courses to the student. The checks themselves run through the College's designated credentialing system, which WilmU describes without naming a vendor. See what happens when a finding comes back.
Course faculty and your preceptor: how the work divides
In its rules for APRN programs, Delaware's Board of Nursing splits the teaching between faculty and preceptor, and WilmU is a Delaware school, so this is the frame your practicum sits in.
- Nursing faculty direct all student clinical learning, time with a preceptor included.
- Faculty approve preceptors and keep responsibility for evaluating the student.
- Faculty need not be physically present at the site while a preceptor is teaching.
- Preceptors supervise, teach and evaluate, after orientation to the curriculum and course objectives.
- A preceptor in an APRN program is licensed as a physician, PA, pharmacist or APRN, with the license active and unencumbered and a practice focus comparable to the student's.
Put simply, your preceptor teaches and evaluates you at the site, and WilmU faculty keep final responsibility for your evaluation. How the license rule and Delaware's practice law fit together is on the Delaware APRN practice page.
University offices outside the College
- Online Learning office: state authorization questions, plus a Canvas orientation for online students
- Wilmington University Help Desk: Canvas and technology problems
- Office of Admissions and the Financial Aid office: applications and aid
- University Library: research help for online students, including meetings with a librarian
- Student Success Center: online tutoring
- Disability Services: accommodations, once you self-identify and provide documentation
Academic appeals follow a path of their own. A grade appeal starts with the instructor, goes in writing to the Program Chair, then to the Academic Dean, then to the Office of Academic Affairs, and that office rules on whether a hearing before the Academic Review Committee takes place. That committee also meets after every block as part of WilmU's probation process for graduate students below a 3.0 GPA.
Leadership, RN to BSN and anesthesiology roles
MSN Leadership and the RN to BSN share a Chair and an Assistant Chair, whose directory titles cover both programs, with Adjunct Program Coordinators for each. Educator-track students taking MSN 7752 complete 32 clinical hours with an approved mentor, a role WilmU names without listing qualifications. For RN to BSN students, the practice-focused work sits in NUR 363 and the community learning experience in NUR 430, both under that same leadership pair.
The DNP in Nurse Anesthesiology, run with ChristianaCare, has its own Director, Assistant Director and Administrative Coordinator. It is the one WilmU program with a published site list, and each listed site has CRNA Clinical Coordinators or Co-Clinical Coordinators. See the Nurse Anesthesiology page.
Where your placement advisor fits
Add one role if you work with us: your placement advisor. We locate a clinician and site matched to your WilmU course, collect the preceptor's license, credential and contact records, and chart the facility's intake steps, so what you take to your chair and course faculty is complete. Every candidate is measured against your actual course: a lifespan family practice clinician for the FNP practicums, a psychiatric mental health clinician for the PMHNP ones, a doctorally prepared preceptor for DNP hours, and in every case someone licensed in line with Delaware's APRN preceptor rule. Should a preceptor pull out, we line up the replacement.
Every decision stays with the roles above. Approval of each preceptor and site rests with WilmU faculty, and we make sure nothing in the packet they review is missing. Start on the contact page.
Questions WilmU students ask
Who approves a preceptor at Wilmington University?
Delaware's Board of Nursing rules say faculty approve preceptors in APRN programs, and WilmU faculty have the last word. WilmU's public pages leave unnamed the faculty role that signs off for your course, so look in the program handbook first, then ask your track's Assistant Chair or, for DNP hours, the DNP chair.
What does the Academic Coordinator of Clinical Nursing Education do at WilmU?
The title is listed in the CONHS directory, but WilmU's pages do not describe its duties. Ask your chair what the role covers for students in your track before you write to it, so your question lands with the right person the first time.
Do BSN to DNP students have one advisor or two?
Two. WilmU pairs two advisors for BSN to DNP and combined certificate plus DNP students, one from each side: the chair over the NP programs and the director of the DNP. Copy both on questions that affect your NP practicums and your later DNP practice hours, so neither half of your plan is decided without the other.
Does my preceptor grade my WilmU practicum?
Preceptors do teach and evaluate under Delaware's APRN program rules, but those rules leave responsibility for the evaluation with faculty. WilmU's public pages do not describe its NP evaluation forms, so ask your course faculty how your preceptor's input feeds into your grade for the course.
Whom do I contact about doing clinicals in another state?
WilmU's Online Learning office handles state authorization questions, and WilmU's NP pages require an RN license that is valid where the clinical happens. For practicum questions, such as whether a facility in that state can host you, also write to the NP Program Chair or your Assistant Chair.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Wilmington University's own program and curriculum pages, the 2026-27 graduate catalog, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences policies and the State Licensures by Program page. Your NP Program Chair, your course faculty and the College have the final word.
A WilmU practicum coming up? Your preceptor search starts here.
Tell us your WilmU program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. Whether WilmU's faculty help with your placement or you are starting the search yourself, we find preceptors who fit the course, check the health system's own intake steps, and organize the preceptor's license and credentials well before the first day.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice across the lifespan for
GRN 7121toGRN 7124, psychiatric mental health forGRN 7221toGRN 7224, doctorally prepared for the DNP - Clinicians who meet Delaware's rule for APRN program preceptors: an active APRN, PA, pharmacist or physician license in a comparable focus
- Close to home, in a state where you hold an RN license, with each system's onboarding mapped out early
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