Maine and the University of Southern Indiana's online NP tracks
Living in Maine keeps every University of Southern Indiana online nursing program open to you, and USI lists Maine as a state where its nurse practitioner curricula meet the education rules. The real work is local: Maine's three metro areas together hold under 900,000 people, and your preceptor search runs from wherever you live.
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.
Maine on USI's Fall 2025 disclosure
Maine is absent from every "Enrollment Not Allowed for Residents of These States" cell in USI's nursing table, which carries an "Updated Fall 2025" date. Each APRN row, from the MSN tracks through the BSN-to-DNP, places Maine in the Meets Requirements column.
| Program group | Maine in USI's licensure columns | Can Maine residents enroll? |
|---|---|---|
| FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP (MSN) | Meets | Yes |
| Post-master's FNP, AGACNP, PMHNP certificates | Meets | Yes |
| BSN-to-DNP, FNP/AGACNP/PMHNP | Meets | Yes |
| Post-MSN DNP (Advanced Nursing Practice) | Meets | Yes |
| NEL, HSL, OSL and RN-to-BSN | N/A, no license | Yes |
USI notes that meeting academic rules does not settle residency or other board conditions; the full table is on the licensure disclosure page.
How Maine's practice law shapes your preceptor pool
The AANP counts Maine among full practice states. A new NP there first practices for at least 24 months, either under a supervising physician or NP or while working for a hospital or clinic that has a physician as medical director. An NP partway through those two years can precept you once past USI's one-year mark. The complete USI standard is on who can precept a USI student.
Maine's Board of Nursing has published nothing on visiting students from out-of-state schools. Its education rule, Chapter 7, governs approval of Maine's own prelicensure schools. Maine's Nurse Practice Act carves out students whose board-approved program leads to a first license (32 MRSA section 2103(2)); a USI graduate student is already a nurse and trains on the RN license already in hand.
Portland, Bangor, Lewiston-Auburn and the rest of the map
Portland-South Portland is the biggest metro, near 578,000 people as of the Census Bureau's 2025 figures; Bangor's is close to 158,000, and Lewiston-Auburn's a little over 116,000. Students there commonly reach out to MaineGeneral Health or Central Maine Healthcare, and to the MaineHealth and Northern Light Health networks. None is a USI partner by default: each site signs its own Clinical Education Agreement, with the office manager or education coordinator naming the signer.
Much of Maine sits outside those three metros, where an independent family practice or community mental health clinic can make an excellent site if the preceptor meets USI's standard. Build your calendar with one more item in mind: USI's MSN has no fixed campus immersion, yet students may be asked to come to Evansville to demonstrate competency, a long trip from Maine (campus competency visits).
Licensing: a compact member since 2018
Maine's multistate licensing dates to January 19, 2018, when the compact took effect there. USI expects an unencumbered RN license in the state of every clinical site; at a Maine site, a Maine license qualifies, as does a multistate license whose home state is elsewhere in the compact. USI's handbook is silent on compact privileges, so check with the Nursing Clinical Coordinator before leaning on one. The RN license guide goes further.
If your FNP or PMHNP preceptor sees patients by video, USI credits only live visits with the two of you together at the approved site, and you need a license wherever the patient is. A patient logging in from New Hampshire, which entered the compact alongside Maine, is simpler than one in Massachusetts, where the compact was enacted in 2024 but is not yet in effect. The hour caps are on telehealth clinical hours.
Why Maine students in USI programs choose us
A Maine search rewards planning, and planning is our specialty: we map family, acute care or psychiatric preceptors within your realistic driving range for all three specialty semesters before the first begins. We confirm each preceptor's certification and practice history against USI's standard, gather the site's agreement signer, and hand you a typed, complete Preceptor Packet with time to spare before USI's deadlines. Should a preceptor withdraw during a semester, a replacement search begins right away. Send us your track and how far you can drive, and the mapping starts.
Questions USI students ask
Is the online PMHNP open to me in Maine?
Yes. Maine residents are eligible for the MSN PMHNP, and USI's Fall 2025 table lists Maine under Meets Requirements for it. Your hours run in outpatient mental health, and USI's PMHNP courses allow only two kinds of preceptor, a PMHNP or a licensed psychiatrist, so begin that search early. The PMHNP program page covers the three specialty courses.
Does the Maine State Board of Nursing need to approve USI before my clinicals?
Maine's published rules contain no such step. Chapter 7 deals with Maine's own prelicensure programs, and nothing on the Board's education pages addresses placements by programs from other states. If a Maine site asks for board paperwork, email usi1nursing@usi.edu, the Nursing Clinical Coordinator's mailbox, before your packet goes in.
Can a Maine NP in the 24-month supervised period precept me?
Possibly. What USI weighs is the NP's license, specialty certification and whether a full year of advanced practice is behind them. A Maine NP partway through the 24-month supervised period can qualify once that first year is done. Report the NP's years in practice accurately on the Preceptor Packet; the Graduate Clinical Liaison makes the call.
Could part of my clinical hours happen in New Hampshire?
New Hampshire is also open to USI's online NP programs and entered the compact the same day Maine did, so a multistate license may cover you there. USI still wants you licensed in every clinical state, and New Hampshire keeps its own filing rule for out-of-state prelicensure programs. Read the New Hampshire page before you commit.
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.