Contact Information
The Clinical Coordinator for the College of Health Sciences is Erynn Lowery. Erynn has been with SUNY Poly since November 2019. She is also a member of the President’s Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the club advisor for POLY Pride.
- lowerye@sunypoly.edu, clinicalcoordinator@sunypoly.edu
- 315-792-7177
- Office Hours: Monday & Thursday 10am-11:30am via zoom
Finding a Clinical Site
Who can be a Preceptor - FNP/Nursing
- Board-certified Nurse Practitioner
- Midwife
- Physician
- 3rd year Medical Resident with a New York State License
- **You can do a clinical rotation with a Physician’s Assistant, but only if the Attending physician signs off on the Student and Preceptor Agreement and approves hours in Typhon.
Who can be a Preceptor - PMHNP
- Board certified Psychiatric NPs
- Psychiatrists
- LCSW-R (NUR 516 only)
- Psychologist (NUR 516 only)
- Licensed master's prepared therapists/counselors (must have prior approval) (NUR 516 only)
Types of Sites
- Outpatient family practice, internal medicine, long-term care facilities, occupational health sites, specialty office settings
- Must be in New York State
- You can perform your clinical in the same facility in which you work, but not in the department in which you work. You can be dismissed from the program if you perform your clinical in your work area.
Every clinical site must have a contract in place with liability insurance to accompany it. Once you have found your clinical site and preceptor, complete the PACI form for your program: Bachelor of Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.
The Process
- Complete the PACI form (linked above).
- Clinical Coordinator reviews form results and either verifies a contract is in place, or begins the process to obtaining one (step 3). If a contract is not yet in place, it can take up to 6 weeks to complete.
- Clinical Coordinator sends contract paperwork to the contact person listed in the PACI form.
- If received signed by the appropriate person at the site, it is forwarded to the SUNY POLY business office for signature. They will also request the certificate of liability insurance. Once signed, it is returned to the Clinical Coordinator.
- If the site requests any changes to the contract language, it is sent to SUNY Legal for review. If legal has changes, or does not agree to the site’s proposed changes, the contract is returned to the site for their review. Once both sides are satisfied, step 4 is followed.
- Clinical Coordinator returns fully executed documents to the contact person at the site, emails the student to let them know it is complete.
- The student is asked to submit a site and preceptor request into Typhon.
- You cannot begin any clinical hours until you receive the ok from the Clinical Coordinator.
**This process is mandatory. Every student must submit a PACI form for each semester. If multiple preceptors will be used in the same semester, you must complete separate PACI forms.
Deadlines - Site Approvals
Ideally, students should have a clinical site approved with a clinical contract in place by October 15 for Spring placements and May 15 for Fall placements. Some sites, such as St. Peter’s Health Partners or Bassett Health, require that you secure placement there a full semester prior to the semester in which you will do clinical hours.
Health Requirements
- The College of Health Sciences has specific health requirements in addition to those required by SUNY Poly and New York State. Full requirements can be found here.
- Students will be required to purchase access to CastleBranch for submission of all health requirement documentation via the ‘compliance tracker’ package.
- The cost for students is $49.
- All health requirement documents MUST be submitted AND accepted in CastleBranch before you are able to begin clincal hours.
- Your clinical instructor may ask that you send a screenshot of your green check mark from CastleBranch to show your compliance.
*** Effective Fall 2025, per SUNY requirements, students engaging in clinical/practicum activities will be required to complete a background check through the approved system prescribed by SUNY Polytechnic Institute, at the students’ expense. For more information, reach out to the clinical coordinator or your advisor.
Typhon
Typhon is a cloud-based tracking system where students will enter clinical hours and patient encounter details. This is also where preceptors will approve hours and submit evaluations.
When you first sign into Typhon, you will enter our school’s account – 3223, then your full SUNY Poly email address, and then click on ‘forgot password’. You’ll then follow the steps of setting up your account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Preceptor/Site Questions
Consult the Current Contract list, use Typhon as a search engine to search providers by zip code, consult with other students. If all else fails, make an appointment with the Clinical Coordinator.
All students must submit a PACI for each semester, each preceptor. It could be the case that a contract has expired, or that a site isn’t taking students. It is the job of the Clinical Coordinator to ensure all legal agreements are valid and intact, so all steps in the process must be followed.
For FNP, no – you should be working with different preceptors each semester. For PMHNP, you may be allowed to use the same preceptor with prior approval. If granted, you will still be required to submit a PACI form for each semester.
Health Requirement Questions
CastleBranch has a support team via email and phone, as well as an extensive video tutorial library. Once logged in, you will see contact information at the top of their page.
If CastleBranch rejects a document you’ve uploaded as proof for one of your health requirements, they will leave a detailed explanation indicating why, and what would be needed for them to approve it.
No, please only use CastleBranch to submit health documents. Do not send them by email to the Clinical Coordinator.
No, the Wellness Center uses a different system to accept and approve health requirement documents. In addition, they don’t require the same documents the College of Health Sciences does.
Yes. When we enter into a contract with a site, there is language in the agreement stating we will ensure every student completing clinical hours will adhere to the health requirements.
CastleBranch support can help you combine an existing account with one for SUNY Poly. It can take approximately 2 weeks to complete. If you need to request that your account is merged to a SUNY Poly account, please be sure you are requesting with enough time so as not to delay your clinical hours.
You can hover over “Document Center” in the left menu, then click “Share Documents”. Follow the step-by-step process to choose your recipients, select the information you want to share, and set how long they have access to the information. Each recipient will receive an email invitation to view the shared information. You can monitor the process and see when someone has accessed your information.
Forms are found on the Wellness Center page.
In certain circumstances, and only if your clinical site has approved so, as the College of Health Sciences requires an annual flu vaccine. A declination form will come from the site, not from SUNY Poly. You will have that signed by your provider and upload it in CastleBranch under the flu vaccine requirement. Please email the clinical coordinator letting them know you’ve done so. Do not attach the declination form in your email, only upload it into CastleBranch.
No.
Typhon Questions
You will click the little plus sign and request site and/or request preceptor. Each preceptor must have an individual email address to be added - no sharing email addresses within a site. All site/preceptor info must be filled in for the request to be reviewed.
Please allow up to 72 hours for the request to be approved. Please do not submit multiple requests. If a request is denied for any reason, you will receive an email from Typhon explaining why.
In the case that a preceptor cannot use Typhon, you can track your hours on a spreadsheet, or on paper. You will have them sign off on that record and upload it into your miscellaneous documents. An evaluation can be done on paper as well and uploaded. Please refer to the Typhon Tutorial under the Typhon heading on this page.
