Clinical Information

Contact Information

The Clinical Coordinator for the College of Health Sciences is MeeNah Coughlin.

clinicalcoordinator@sunypoly.edu
315-792-7177

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.

*Any student considering Slocum Dickson Medical Group as a site must first contact the Clinical Coordinator to submit the request on their behalf. Students are not to contact SDMG or any preceptors there per their student placement policy. Please complete the PACI and enter TBD as the preceptor name and email address*

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.

Clinical Placement Process Guide

The following steps outline the clinical placement process. Completing each step in a timely manner will help facilitate clinical approval before the start of the semester.

Step 1: Secure a Clinical Site and Preceptor
Before beginning the approval process, students are asked to:

Secure a confirmed clinical site and preceptor that meet SUNY Poly's minimum requirements.
Identify a separate clinical site and preceptor for each clinical course, if applicable.

Step 2: Submit the Preceptor & Clinical Information (PACI) Form

A PACI Form must be submitted at least three (3) to six (6) months prior to the anticipated start of each clinical experience to allow adequate time for review and processing.

Many healthcare organizations - particularly larger health systems - have internal application deadlines and review processes for student clinical placements. Early planning is essential to meet both university and site-specific deadlines. Delays in submitting required documentation may result in delayed approval or the inability to begin clinical hours as scheduled

Once a clinical site and preceptor have been confirmed:

Complete and submit the Preceptor & Clinical Information (PACI) Form using the link below.
A separate PACI Form is required for each clinical course and semester.
If your clinical site, preceptor, or anticipated semester changes, please submit an updated PACI Form.

Preceptor & Clinical Information Forms (PACI Form)

Step 3: Affiliation Agreement (Contract) Review

After the PACI Form is received, the Clinical Coordinator will verify whether the clinical site has an active affiliation agreement (contract) with SUNY Poly.

If an active agreement already exists:

Students will receive an email confirming the agreement.
No additional contract action is required.

If a new agreement is needed:

The Clinical Coordinator will initiate the contract process with the clinical site.
Completion of a new affiliation agreement before the semester begins cannot be guaranteed.
Students are strongly encouraged to identify an alternate clinical site with an existing SUNY Poly affiliation agreement in the event of contract delays.
If contract revisions are requested by the clinical site, review by SUNY Legal may be required, which can significantly extend processing time.

Students will be notified by email once the agreement has been fully executed.

Step 4: Submit Required Documents to the Clinical Instructor

Once notification is received that the clinical site has been approved, students should forward the following to their clinical instructor:

Clinical Coordinator approval email
DISA (formally CastleBranch) "To Do List Summary" Report **Nursing Students, only**

The "To Do List Summary" Report should include:

Student's Name
Student's current health compliance status
Report generation date

The clinical instructor will review these materials and provide final clinical clearance.

Step 5: Complete Clinical Site Onboarding
After placement approval:

Contact the clinical site and preceptor to determine the best mutual schedule.
Complete all required onboarding, orientation, training, and/or other site-specific requirements before your first clinical day.

Step 6: Verify the Clinical Site and Preceptor in Typhon **Graduate Nursing Students, only**

Before beginning clinical hours:

Verify that the clinical site and preceptor are listed in Typhon.
If either is missing, submit requests to Add a Site and/or Add a Preceptor within Typhon.
Ensure the preceptor uploads an updated curriculum vitae (CV) directly through Typhon.
Ensure the preceptor understands the requirements of the Clinical Experience.

Step 7: Receive Final Clearance and Begin Clinical

Students may begin their clinical rotation only after all of the following requirements have been met:

The start of the semester has officially begun. The clinical hours must be completed by the last day of classes over the 15-week semester.
All health requirements have been submitted and approved in DISA (formally CastleBranch). **Nursing Students, only**
All required documentation has been submitted and approved.
Final clinical clearance has been granted by the clinical instructor.
NUR 580 Students: Students enrolled in NUR 580 must wait until after the first-class meeting before beginning any 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 Health Requirements can be found here, which outline all required health compliance items for both:
- NYS Public Health Requirements - Wildcat Wellness Student Portal
- College of Health Sciences' Requirements - DISA (formally CastleBranch)
Nursing students will be required to purchase access and submit health documentation to the DISA (formally CastleBranch) student portal: SUNY - Polytechnic Institute - Nursing
- Please note: The minimum required Package Code to purchase: Y12im: Compliance Tracker
All health requirements have been submitted and approved in DISA (formally CastleBranch), before students can begin their clinical hours.

Typhon

Typhon is a cloud-based tracking system for Graduate Nursing students 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.