People always ask me, What do you actually do all day? They know I help nurse practitioner students find a preceptor, but they don’t realize it’s a full-blown operation with its own rhythm, flow… and chaos.
So here’s the real deal. A normal day in my life (and a peek into what changes during Hell Week).
☕ Morning: Tea & Task List
I don’t meditate. I should. But I don’t. Instead, I make a strong cup of tea, open up Slack, check our CRM, and figure out what my priorities are for the day. Usually, it’s a mix of:
- Offices I need to follow up with
- New students reaching out for placements
- Contracts that need confirming
- Rotations starting soon that still need paperwork
Then, it’s time for my first leg of calls.
📞 Late Morning: East Coast Outreach
I always start with my East Coast preceptors. If I wait too long, I hit lunch hours and get bounced straight to voicemail. Mid-morning is that sweet spot when clinic managers are still settling in, and providers are in a better mood. It’s all about timing.
Some mornings, I get five callbacks. Other days, it’s like shouting into the void.
🍴 Lunch: Meetings or a Mental Break
If I’m lucky, I’ve got lunch scheduled with a local preceptor, office manager, or someone in healthcare. These face-to-face check-ins are gold. Relationships are everything in this business.
If I don’t have a meeting, I take a break. I’ll eat, go for a short walk, and usually read for 15-20 minutes. That pause resets my brain before the afternoon sprint.
📲 Afternoon: Student Calls & Placement Juggling
From 1 to 3 PM, I’m usually on Zoom or phone calls with students. We’re troubleshooting placements, reviewing paperwork, and sometimes just venting. I also slot in check-ins with preceptors to make sure upcoming rotations are still a go.
This is where the puzzle comes in—matching personalities, schedules, payment terms, and locations. And making sure no one flakes. It’s harder than it sounds.
🧾 Late Afternoon: Follow-Up Frenzy
The last chunk of my day is pure follow-up. I write emails, confirm details, nudge offices that said “maybe,” and send reminders to students to upload their paperwork. This is where deals get done.
And then…
🔥 Hell Week (a.k.a. Deadline Week)
Everything flips during deadline week. Forget balance. It’s back-to-back everything:
- Calling the same clinic three times a day
- Students texting me screenshots of confusing emails from their schools
- Getting ghosted by clinics we thought were solid
- Rewriting schedules, updating contracts, overnighting forms
- Running on caffeine and adrenaline
It’s chaos—but also kind of amazing. Because when we do get that placement locked down for a student who’s been stressing for weeks? Worth it.
Helping students find a preceptor takes persistence, patience, and a really good calendar system. But there’s nothing like the moment we hit “confirmed.” That’s what keeps me going.
If you’re a student in the middle of this storm—hang in there. We’re out here every day, making the calls, writing the emails, knocking on doors—so you don’t have to. If you’re an IMG, Clerkship America is there for you, too.
—
Chloe is a Recruitment Coordinator for Preceptor Tree and has made more cold calls to clinics than she’d like to count. She also drinks a lot of tea and swears by afternoon walks.
