USI clinicals in Kentucky: board rules, the student exemption and your preceptor
No Kentucky approval stands between USI and a Kentucky clinical site. The Kentucky Board of Nursing leaves schools based elsewhere to their home states, and Kentucky law exempts nurses from other states who rotate through with a SARA school such as USI, so the Kentucky rules that matter most are the ones governing your preceptor's licenses and prescribing.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your USI program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
What the Kentucky Board of Nursing asks of USI
Nothing in advance. KBN's page for programs based outside Kentucky says the board does not approve them, and it describes no notice or approval step, even for a program whose only tie to Kentucky is a clinical rotation. The board oversees Kentucky's own prelicensure programs and its in-state graduate programs that lead to licensure; RN-BSN programs sit outside its jurisdiction, which also answers the question for USI's online RN-to-BSN students.
Every approval for a USI student in Kentucky therefore comes from USI. The Graduate Clinical Liaison approves the preceptor and site, faculty sign off on the Preceptor Packet, and the Kentucky practice or hospital signs USI's Clinical Education Agreement, with its office manager or education coordinator naming who signs. The Clinical Education Agreement page covers that step.
The KRS 314.101 student exemption
Kentucky's licensure statute sets aside nursing that is incidental to a program of study for students in board-approved programs or in graduate nursing programs, under KRS 314.101(1)(b), in the version effective June 29, 2023. KBN reads it as covering a nurse from another state on a Kentucky clinical rotation, provided the school either participates in SARA or is licensed by the Council on Postsecondary Education.
USI belongs to NC-SARA, so its students fit KBN's description. A nurse whose home state is Indiana and who holds a multistate license may never need the exemption, because the compact, in effect in Kentucky since January 2018, already carries that license across the river. USI's rule sits above both, asking for a clean RN license for every state where you train. A nurse holding only a single-state license, such as an Illinois one, should expect to add a Kentucky license and confirm with the Nursing Clinical Coordinator before relying on the exemption alone.
201 KAR 20:062 is written for Kentucky schools
Kentucky's APRN program regulation, certified effective January 8, 2026, says in Section 5(2) that the program must secure every preceptor its students need and that students cannot be made to find their own. KBN says the regulation is meant for MSN and DNP APRN programs based in Kentucky, which leaves USI outside it.
USI students training in Kentucky follow the Graduate Nursing Handbook instead, which puts the search on the student and brings in university help when a student is stuck: you contact the Nursing Clinical Coordinator, confirm your employer offers no preceptor, and share the organizations you have already approached. Classmates from Kentucky schools may describe a different arrangement, and the difference comes from where each program is based. The finding your own preceptor page explains USI's rule.
Licenses your preceptor and faculty need in Kentucky
For online graduate APRN programs, KBN's guidance expects nursing faculty supervising students at Kentucky clinical sites, and nursing faculty serving as preceptors there, to hold active, unencumbered Kentucky licenses as both an RN and an APRN. A faculty member residing in another compact state can skip the separate Kentucky RN license but still needs the Kentucky APRN license.
An NP practicing in Kentucky already needs a Kentucky APRN license to work there, so for most preceptors the rule adds nothing new; it matters most for USI clinical faculty who oversee you at a Kentucky site. On Form G, list the preceptor license that covers the state where the site sits. USI's own test then applies: an unencumbered license where the preceptor practices, specialty certification, a year as an advanced practice provider and a signed agreement, as USI's preceptor requirements set out.
CAPA-NS and CAPA-CS: the agreements behind a Kentucky prescriber
Under KRS 314.042, a Kentucky APRN must have the CAPA-NS, a written collaborative agreement signed with a physician in Kentucky, in place before prescribing nonscheduled legend drugs, and that agreement can end after four years of prescribing. Controlled substances in Schedules II through V need a second agreement, the CAPA-CS, on a standardized form, with a physician qualified in the same or a similar specialty.
The CAPA-CS can also fall away after four years of controlled-substance prescribing under it, once the APRN holds a DEA registration and a KASPER account. KBN's prescriptive authority page describes quarterly KASPER review meetings in the first year and twice-yearly meetings for the following three. A 2026 amendment to the statute (2026 Ky. Acts ch. 75, effective April 10, 2026) could not be verified for this guide, so check KBN's page for the current terms.
What those agreements mean for your rotation
Every prescription from a visit you share is written on your preceptor's authority, so the agreements shape what you see. A preceptor still inside the four-year windows prescribes under agreements with a named Kentucky physician; one past them, with the exemptions in place, prescribes on their own Kentucky authority.
Raise controlled substances at your first meeting, especially as a PMHNP or FNP student. Ask whether the preceptor holds a CAPA-CS or its exemption, a DEA registration and a KASPER account, so you know whether scheduled prescribing will be part of your hours. The DEA number also belongs in the preceptor section of Form G.
AANP notes that newly licensed Kentucky APRNs face practice-setting limits in their first year. USI requires at least one year as an advanced practice provider, so a preceptor who meets USI's standard is already past that stage.
Why students choose us for Kentucky clinicals
We check Kentucky's rules before a preceptor agrees, not afterward: the preceptor's Kentucky licenses, their CAPA status and DEA details, and your own license path into the state. Then we build a packet USI can approve on first read, typed and complete with the site's agreement signer named, and plan your Fall, Spring and Summer rotations as one sequence on either side of the river, including the Evansville tri-state. Use the form below to give your placement advisor your track and home county.
Questions USI students ask
Can an Indiana NP precept me at a Kentucky clinic?
Yes, if they hold the license Kentucky expects and meet USI's standard. Kentucky's board looks for a Kentucky APRN license on nursing faculty and preceptors who supervise distance APRN students at Kentucky sites, and any NP already practicing at a Kentucky site holds one. Put the license that covers the site's state on Form G.
How long do Kentucky NPs work under physician prescribing agreements?
Four years is the marker in KRS 314.042. The CAPA-NS can end after four years of prescribing, and the CAPA-CS after four years of controlled-substance prescribing, once the APRN holds a DEA registration and a KASPER account. A 2026 amendment could not be verified, so KBN's prescriptive authority page is the current word.
Can a physician or PA precept my PMHNP clinicals in Kentucky?
A psychiatrist can; a PA cannot. Kentucky's APRN program rule counts APRNs, physicians and PAs as preceptors, but that rule governs Kentucky-based programs. USI allows PMHNP students to train only with a PMHNP or a licensed psychiatrist, while its FNP and AGACNP students may work with PAs and physicians.
Does the KRS 314.101 exemption replace a Kentucky license?
It covers nurses from other states doing a clinical rotation in Kentucky through a SARA institution, and USI is one. USI separately asks for your RN license to be unencumbered wherever you train, so rely on a compact multistate license or a Kentucky license, and ask the Nursing Clinical Coordinator before treating the exemption as your authorization.
Will my USI clinical faculty need a Kentucky license to visit my site?
KBN wants nursing faculty supervising students at Kentucky sites to be licensed as APRNs in Kentucky, and to hold a Kentucky RN license too, except for faculty residing in another compact state. Faculty site visits are arranged on USI's side of the process, so if a Kentucky site asks, refer the question to your course faculty.
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
Track, city and clinical start is all we need to begin.