USI's online NP tracks from Hawaii
Hawaii residents can enroll in any online nursing program the University of Southern Indiana runs, and USI lists Hawaii as meeting requirements for every NP track. Your clinical hours happen on your own island under a Hawaii RN license, and the state Board has no application for mainland post-licensure programs to file.
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Tell us your USI program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Hawaii in USI's licensure table
Hawaii's row in USI's Professional Licensure Disclosure, a table stamped "Updated Fall 2025", has no blanks and no bans. The NP programs read "meets", the leadership degrees and the RN-to-BSN are not licensure programs, and no Enrollment Not Allowed cell mentions Hawaii.
| USI nursing program | Licensure answer for Hawaii | Hawaii residents |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP, AGACNP or PMHNP | Meets | Open |
| Post-master's FNP, AGACNP or PMHNP certificate | Meets | Open |
| BSN-to-DNP (FNP, AGACNP, PMHNP) and post-MSN DNP | Meets | Open |
| MSN NEL, MSN HSL, BSN-to-DNP OSL, online RN-to-BSN | Not a licensure program | Open |
Finding NP preceptors on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island
USI's usual model travels to the islands intact: you identify the preceptor and site where you live, the Graduate Clinical Liaison signs off on both, and the site executes USI's Clinical Education Agreement before a single hour counts (USI's preceptor standards). AANP classifies Hawaii as a full practice state.
Urban Honolulu dominates with close to 989,000 residents. The Hilo-Kailua micropolitan area on the Big Island comes next at about 210,000, then Kahului-Wailuku on Maui. Among the large employers: The Queen's Health Systems; Kaiser Permanente's Hawaii region; HHSC, formally the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation; and Hawaii Pacific Health, whose hospitals carry the Kapiolani, Pali Momi, Straub and Wilcox names. Read that list as a picture of where island NPs practice, not as sites holding seats for USI students.
Where the Hawaii Board stands on out-of-state programs
Hawaii's Board of Nursing belongs to the DCCA's Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, and one of its FAQ sheets answers the distance-education question head on. A post-licensure program based elsewhere, with no campus in Hawaii, gets no Board approval at all: no application exists and no notice is expected. A Hawaii license becomes necessary for that program's faculty only when one of them is physically in the state teaching or precepting.
That sheet illustrates the point with RN-to-BSN and LPN-to-RN tracks, and no Hawaii source we reviewed names APRN students. The tougher position, built on HRS 457-13(2) and a 2016 Education Committee decision against a mainland school's pre-license placement, concerns students who are not yet RNs. Confirm USI's reading with the Nursing Clinical Coordinator before your first island rotation.
The preceptor tax credit and USI students
Hawaii rewards volunteer preceptors through the Healthcare Preceptor Income Tax Credit, created by Act 43 in 2018 (HRS 235-110.25). Island-resident physicians, pharmacists and APRNs with a primary care practice in the state can take a nonrefundable credit against state income tax for each volunteer rotation, once the Department of Health certifies it under a statewide yearly cap. The catch for you sits in the program's definition of a qualifying school: it must be accredited in Hawaii or sit there physically, with Hawaii residents making up most of its students. An Indiana university meets neither test.
License, clock and campus trips
Compact membership never reached the islands. Whatever multistate license you carried on the mainland stops at the shoreline, and island clinicals run on a Hawaii-issued RN license, the same thing USI's rule demands. Telehealth hours in FNP and PMHNP courses need a license matching wherever the patient sits (RN license guide).
Evansville keeps Central Time, and USI's registration and withdrawal transactions close at 4:30 p.m. Central on the last day, which lands late morning or around noon in Honolulu depending on the season. The two faculty phone calls you book with your preceptor each semester cross the same gap. The MSN has no set campus immersion, yet faculty may call students to campus to show competency, so ask early how often a flight to Indiana might come up (campus visits).
Where our placement desk fits in Hawaii
Island markets are compact, so a preceptor search there has to be precise from the first call. We look on your island for preceptors who fit your USI course and track, assemble the preceptor's license, certification and site facts for Form G and the agreement request, and send it typed and complete well inside USI's window. Share your island and track.
Questions USI students ask
Can my Hawaii preceptor claim the state's preceptor tax credit for a USI student?
Not by the program's own terms. A qualifying rotation serves a student whose school is accredited in Hawaii or located there, with more than half its students living in Hawaii. USI is based in Evansville, Indiana, so time spent teaching a USI student misses that definition, whichever island hosts it.
Does the Hawaii Board have to approve USI before I start clinicals?
Hawaii's Board says it approves no distance post-licensure program lacking a Hawaii campus and expects no notice from one. Because its illustrations are undergraduate bridge programs, ask the Nursing Clinical Coordinator how USI reads that guidance for an NP track before your first rotation on the islands.
What license covers USI clinical hours in Honolulu?
One issued by Hawaii. The islands never entered the compact, so no mainland multistate license carries over, and USI expects your license to match the state you train in. Telehealth hours with patients elsewhere add a second requirement: a license from their state too.
Will I have to fly to Indiana during the program?
Possibly. USI's MSN has no fixed on-campus immersion, but students may be asked to visit campus to demonstrate clinical competency, and faculty also validate skills through calls with preceptors and video recordings. Ask each course's faculty at the start of the semester so a trip from Hawaii, if one is needed, can be planned early.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against USI's own bulletin, program pages and Graduate Nursing Handbook. Your handbook, course faculty and the Nursing Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
USI makes the search your job. We make it the easy part.
Tell us your USI track, your city and your next clinical semester. We find preceptors who fit the NRSG course and fill the Preceptor Packet and Clinical Education Agreement request with typed, complete details, well before USI's 6-week window.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family primary care for FNP, acute care teams for AGACNP, PMHNPs and psychiatrists for PMHNP
- Preceptor license, certification, years of practice and the site's agreement signer ready for the packet
- Fall, Spring and Summer planned together, close to home in a state USI enrolls
Start your placement plan
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