USI's online NP programs for Kentucky nurses
Kentucky sits across the Ohio River from USI's campus, and USI's disclosure, marked Updated Fall 2025, lists every APRN program as meeting Kentucky's educational requirements with no enrollment bar for residents. Kentucky's Board of Nursing layers no approval process onto schools headquartered outside Kentucky, so your plan comes down to a license, a preceptor who meets USI's rules and a site willing to sign.
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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.
USI's Kentucky row
Kentucky residents can apply to any of USI's online programs. No Enrollment Not Allowed cell names Kentucky, and the licensure answer is identical across the MSN, certificate and DNP routes to NP practice.
| Program | USI's answer for Kentucky | Enrollment for Kentucky residents |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP | Meets requirements | Open |
| Post-master's certificates (FNP, AGACNP, PMHNP) | Meets requirements | Open |
| BSN-to-DNP APRN tracks and post-MSN DNP | Meets requirements | Open |
| MSN Nursing Education Leadership and Healthcare Systems Leadership | Does not lead to licensure | Open |
| BSN-to-DNP Organizational and Systems Leadership; RN-to-BSN | Does not lead to licensure | Open |
Kentucky's board and schools from other states
The Kentucky Board of Nursing leaves programs based in other states outside its approval, even when their only Kentucky activity is a clinical component, and it sets no notice for them to file. Its regulation making APRN programs secure preceptors for their students, 201 KAR 20:062, is aimed at Kentucky-based MSN and DNP programs, so it leaves USI's rules in place.
That puts USI's own process in charge of a Kentucky clinical: you identify the preceptor and site, the Graduate Clinical Liaison approves, and the Kentucky practice or hospital signs USI's Clinical Education Agreement. KBN does expect nursing faculty and preceptors who oversee online APRN students in Kentucky to hold Kentucky licenses, a point Kentucky clinicals for USI students unpacks along with the prescribing law.
How Kentucky NPs practice
AANP classes Kentucky as reduced practice. A Kentucky NP who prescribes keeps two written agreements with a physician, the CAPA-NS for non-controlled drugs and the CAPA-CS for controlled substances, unless the board has exempted them, and newly licensed NPs face limits on practice setting in their first year.
USI's minimum of one year as an advanced provider means any preceptor who qualifies is past that first year. One with fewer than four years of prescribing will usually still hold both agreements, which bears on the controlled-substance prescribing you see.
Your license for Kentucky hours
Kentucky's Nurse Licensure Compact start date, January 19, 2018, came well ahead of Indiana's 2020 start, so a multistate license from either state reaches the other. A Kentucky nurse with a multistate license can train at an Evansville or Newburgh site without a second license, once USI confirms how it treats the privilege; an Illinois site still needs a separate Illinois license.
Kentucky law also exempts nurses from other states rotating through Kentucky when their school is a SARA institution, and USI belongs to NC-SARA. USI's rule sits on top of that exemption: an unencumbered RN license in every clinical state, confirmed on the RN license guide. For FNP and PMHNP telehealth hours, the patient's location decides which license has to cover the visit.
Where Kentucky NP students search
Louisville is the largest Kentucky metro, and its systems publish different terms. UofL Health's advanced practice onboarding form serves only students who have already secured a UofL Health preceptor, asks for a month's notice, and says the system is not obligated to find preceptors. Norton Healthcare routes advanced practice students through a placement mailbox, reserves that rotation type for students near the end of their program, and posts no deadlines. Baptist Health mentions post-graduate rotations at its Paducah hospital without naming NPs.
Nearer Evansville, Owensboro Health names NPs only in its job-shadowing program, which cannot replace precepted hours, and Deaconess Henderson Hospital falls under the Deaconess process on the Evansville tri-state guide. Lexington, home to UK HealthCare, plus Bowling Green and the northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati, where St. Elizabeth Healthcare operates, fill out the map. Each sets its own student terms.
Why Kentucky students choose us
We work both banks of the Ohio River, pairing Kentucky nurses with preceptors in their own town or across the bridge in Evansville when that suits the course better. Each preceptor's Kentucky licenses and prescribing agreements are confirmed up front, and USI receives a typed, complete packet early, with the site's agreement signer named. Tell us your track and county with the form below.
Questions USI students ask
Does USI need Kentucky Board of Nursing approval before my Kentucky clinicals?
No. KBN's published position is that a school based elsewhere needs no Kentucky approval, even when its students do clinical work in Kentucky. Approval of your preceptor and site comes from USI, through the Graduate Clinical Liaison, the Preceptor Packet and a Clinical Education Agreement that the site signs before your first hour.
Kentucky APRN programs must find preceptors for students. Does that apply to USI?
That requirement, in 201 KAR 20:062, binds APRN programs based in Kentucky. USI is an Indiana program, and its Graduate Nursing Handbook makes the student responsible for identifying preceptors and sites where they live, with the Graduate Clinical Liaison approving each one. USI faculty and staff work with students who run into trouble finding a placement.
Can I use my Kentucky license for clinicals in Evansville?
A Kentucky multistate license carries a practice privilege into Indiana, since both states are compact members. USI's wording asks that you be licensed wherever a clinical hour takes place, so have the Nursing Clinical Coordinator confirm that the privilege satisfies the program before your Preceptor Packet lists an Indiana site.
Will UofL Health or Norton find me a preceptor?
Neither describes finding preceptors for outside students. UofL Health's form is for students who already have a UofL Health preceptor and asks for a month's notice, and Norton lists only a placement mailbox for advanced practice students near the end of their program. Secure the preceptor first, then follow the system's own steps.
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
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