Clinical Placement & Affiliations Manager (Nursing)
A Clinical Placement and Affiliations Manager coordinates clinical experiences for nursing students, strengthens partnerships with healthcare providers, and keeps placements compliant with accreditation and regulatory standards. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a Clinical Placement and Affiliations Manager do?
This role serves as a vital bridge between academia and the healthcare sector, aligning student clinical rotations with curriculum outcomes, faculty oversight, and state board requirements. The Manager coordinates clinical experiences, strengthens partnerships with healthcare providers, and ensures compliance with accreditation and regulatory standards.
The ideal candidate brings both administrative precision and a deep understanding of clinical operations, making sure every placement supports quality instruction and prepares students for licensure success. As nursing workforce shortages accelerate nationwide, the role directly shapes student access to hands-on learning that meets the highest standards of safety, supervision, and competency development.
A clinical affiliation agreement is a formal contract that lets a nursing program place students at a hospital, long-term care facility, or community health organization. A preceptor is an experienced clinician who supervises students during placements. Nursing programs are accredited by CCNE or ACEN and regulated by state boards of nursing.
Who and what does this role connect?
What are the key responsibilities?
- Develop and manage all clinical affiliation agreements in accordance with institutional, legal, and accreditor requirements.
- Coordinate clinical schedules, placements, and site availability across multiple nursing cohorts and programs.
- Build and maintain relationships with hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community health organizations to expand clinical capacity.
- Collaborate with faculty, program directors, and compliance officers so placements align with curriculum objectives and state licensure standards.
- Serve as a liaison between students, preceptors, and clinical partners to resolve scheduling conflicts and ensure clear communication.
- Oversee documentation, onboarding, immunization records, and background check compliance for all participating students and faculty.
- Monitor site performance, preceptor feedback, and student evaluations to continuously improve clinical learning environments.
- Contribute to accreditation self-studies and site visits by providing detailed clinical placement data and outcomes reporting.
What qualifications are required?
- Bachelor’s degree in Nursing (BSN) required; Master’s in Nursing or Healthcare Administration preferred.
- Current RN licensure in good standing.
- 3 to 5 years of experience in clinical coordination, nursing education, or healthcare operations.
- Strong knowledge of regulatory standards, clinical affiliation contracts, and accreditation criteria (CCNE, ACEN, or state boards).
- Exceptional organizational, interpersonal, and relationship management skills.
Why is this role important?
Nursing programs across the country face a critical challenge: clinical site shortages are limiting the number of students who can progress toward licensure. The Clinical Placement and Affiliations Manager plays a key strategic role in solving this bottleneck, building sustainable partnerships that let nursing schools grow enrollment, improve licensure pass rates, and meet regional workforce needs.
By expanding access to hands-on training, the role directly supports the pipeline of future nurses who will staff hospitals, clinics, and community health centers. It is a chance to influence both institutional success and public health outcomes.
A hiring note from Excelon
Clinical capacity is the hidden constraint on nursing enrollment, which makes this role more strategic than its title suggests. The strongest candidates have personally opened new clinical sites and kept them, and they treat compliance documentation as carefully as the relationships. We look for a record of expanding placement capacity, because that is what lets a program actually grow.
A nursing program can only enroll as many students as it can place in clinical sites. This role is the one that lifts that ceiling.
Frequently asked questions
What does a Clinical Placement and Affiliations Manager do?
The Manager coordinates clinical experiences for nursing students, develops and manages clinical affiliation agreements, schedules placements across cohorts, builds relationships with healthcare partners, and ensures compliance with accreditation and state licensure standards.
What qualifications are required?
This sample role requires a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), with a master’s in nursing or healthcare administration preferred, current RN licensure in good standing, and three to five years of experience in clinical coordination, nursing education, or healthcare operations.
What is a clinical affiliation agreement?
A clinical affiliation agreement is a formal contract between a nursing program and a hospital, long-term care facility, or community health organization that lets students complete supervised clinical rotations there. The Manager develops and maintains these agreements.
Which accreditors and standards apply?
Nursing programs align with CCNE or ACEN accreditation and with state board of nursing requirements. The Manager keeps placements compliant with the relevant accreditor and licensure standards and contributes to accreditation self-studies.
Why is this role important?
Clinical site shortages limit how many nursing students can progress toward licensure. This role solves that bottleneck by building sustainable partnerships that let nursing schools grow enrollment, improve licensure pass rates, and meet regional workforce needs.
Need to hire a Clinical Placement & Affiliations Manager?
Excelon Associates recruits nursing and clinical education leaders for colleges and universities nationwide, connecting programs with professionals who strengthen clinical operations, expand site partnerships, and uphold accreditation standards. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.