USI nursing accreditation: CCNE, the Indiana State Board of Nursing and NC-SARA
The University of Southern Indiana states that its baccalaureate, master's, Doctor of Nursing Practice and post-graduate APRN certificate programs in nursing are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The BSN is also accredited by the Indiana State Board of Nursing, and USI is an NC-SARA member. USI does not publish its CCNE accreditation dates or its next review.
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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.
What USI states about accreditation
USI's accreditation page names the programs in one sentence: the "baccalaureate degree program in nursing, master's degree program in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice program and/or post-graduate APRN certificate program at the University of Southern Indiana are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education." A second line says the BSN is accredited by the Indiana State Board of Nursing.
The 2026-27 Graduate Bulletin repeats the CCNE statement on its program pages. The Post-Master's Certificate pages, for example, state that USI's Post-Master's Certificate program in nursing is CCNE-accredited, so the certificate route carries its own printed confirmation.
Taken together, that covers the programs this site serves: the online MSN tracks (FNP, AGACNP, PMHNP, Nursing Education Leadership and Healthcare Systems Leadership), the three post-master's certificates, the BSN-to-DNP and post-MSN DNP, and the RN-to-BSN, which USI runs as a route to its Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
What USI leaves unpublished: dates and review cycle
No USI page gives the date CCNE accreditation was granted, how long the current term runs, or when the next review is due. The only older USI page found with any accreditor detail, a 2022 copy of the BSN-to-DNP page, gave CCNE's postal address and nothing more.
If you need a date, for an employer's tuition program, a certification application or a board of nursing, go to the source. USI's accreditation page links to CCNE's own website, where you can look up USI's listing, and the Graduate Chair and APRN Director's office can answer program-specific questions. Quote USI's wording rather than a date you have not seen in writing.
The same caution applies to anything you put in writing to a clinical site. The CCNE sentence above is what USI publishes; a term length or review year is not.
The Indiana State Board of Nursing covers the BSN
USI's line about the Indiana State Board of Nursing belongs to the BSN, and the board's own nursing-education page explains why. The board accredits the Indiana programs that prepare people for initial RN or LPN licensure, and it states that it does not review or accredit RN-to-BSN programs or any graduate nursing programs. For MSN, certificate and DNP students, CCNE is the accreditor that applies.
USI's licensure disclosure adds an Indiana note: from July 1, 2024, any student admitted to a licensure program completed by attending on-campus courses meets the educational requirements for licensure in Indiana. That speaks to on-campus programs such as the BSN, not the online graduate tracks.
For graduate students, the Indiana board still matters in its other role, as the licensing body for RNs and APRNs who practice or complete clinical hours in Indiana. The Indiana NP practice page covers how Indiana's rules shape who can precept you there.
NC-SARA is authorization, not accreditation
USI is a member of NC-SARA and participates in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, which concern its authorization to offer distance education to students in other member states. USI's State Authorization Process page adds that its eligibility information is "not in reference to licensure," and that page currently refers to state lists it does not display. The Kinney College offers its distance enrollment only to residents of states where USI has obtained or is seeking authorization, and the nursing enrollment lists have shifted between versions of the disclosure.
For nursing, the state rules that decide who may enroll sit in the Professional Licensure Disclosure, marked Updated Fall 2025, where an Enrollment Not Allowed column bars residents of certain states program by program. The licensure disclosure page walks through that table, and relocating during the program explains why a move can halt your coursework even though USI belongs to SARA.
What accreditation means for your clinicals
Accreditation is a status of the program, and it approves no individual preceptor or site. Those approvals happen one student and one site at a time: the Graduate Clinical Liaison approves the preceptor and site, faculty sign off on the Preceptor Packet, and the site signs the Clinical Education Agreement before any hours count. The Graduate Clinical Liaison page explains who does what.
Accreditation surfaces in conversations with sites. When a hospital's education office or a practice manager asks what program you are in and whether it is accredited, give the CCNE statement as USI prints it and your program's exact name from the bulletin. After graduation, USI reports its NP graduates' certification results on the ANCC, AANP and AACN exams.
The graduate program also names the national standards it follows: the AACN Essentials, NONPF, the National Task Force for Quality Nurse Practitioner Education, and AONL. They shape course content, while clinical approval stays inside USI's own process.
The names on your paperwork
The college's name changed with the 2025-26 bulletin, from the College of Nursing and Health Professions to the Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions, and the nursing department now brands itself the Coudret Nursing Program. Some USI pages and forms still carry the older name, including the preceptor rule that refers to a signed agreement with the University of Southern Indiana College of Nursing and Health Professions. All of these names describe the same nursing programs and the same CCNE statement.
When a site's paperwork asks for the institution, give the University of Southern Indiana. The Request for USI Clinical Education Agreement produces an agreement titled Clinical Education Agreement, which the site signs; students cannot sign it themselves. The Clinical Education Agreement page covers who does.
Why USI students choose us
We present every placement request the way USI would. When we approach a preceptor or a hospital's student office for you, we describe your program in USI's exact terms, include the details Form G and the agreement request ask for, and identify who signs affiliation agreements at the site, so a busy office has a clear, correct request in front of it. Your program name, track and course numbers read the same on every document, from the first email to the Preceptor Packet.
That precision runs through the whole placement: preceptors screened against USI's rules, paperwork typed and early, all three clinical semesters planned together, and a new preceptor sourced if one drops. USI decides every approval, and we make each request easy to approve. See how it works or use the form below.
Questions USI students ask
Is USI's online FNP program CCNE-accredited?
Yes. USI states that its master's degree program in nursing is accredited by CCNE, and the online MSN FNP is a track within that program. The post-master's FNP certificate and the BSN-to-DNP FNP fall under the certificate and DNP parts of the same statement, as do the AGACNP and PMHNP versions of each.
When was USI nursing last reviewed by CCNE?
USI does not say. None of its accreditation, program or bulletin pages publishes the date of the last review, the length of the current accreditation term or the next scheduled visit. For a verified date, use the CCNE link on USI's accreditation page or ask the Graduate Chair and APRN Director's office, and cite what you receive in writing.
Does NC-SARA membership mean I can do clinicals in any state?
No. NC-SARA concerns USI's authorization to offer distance education in member states, and USI notes that this is separate from licensure. You must also live in a state not barred on USI's licensure disclosure for your program, and USI expects an unencumbered RN license to back each clinical hour, in the state where that hour is completed.
Does the Indiana State Board of Nursing approve USI's MSN?
Not directly. USI ties the Indiana board to the BSN, and the board says it accredits pre-licensure RN and LPN programs and does not review graduate nursing programs. Your MSN, certificate or DNP relies on CCNE accreditation, while Indiana's board matters to you as the licensing agency if you practice or complete clinical hours in Indiana.
Are the Nursing Education Leadership and Healthcare Systems Leadership tracks accredited?
Yes, as tracks of the MSN, which USI lists as CCNE-accredited. Those tracks do not lead to APRN licensure, so USI's licensure disclosure marks their licensure columns N/A, but it still lists states whose residents may not enroll in them.
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.
- University of Southern Indiana Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions: Accreditation
- University of Southern Indiana 2026-2027 Graduate Bulletin: Post-Master's Certificate, Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
- University of Southern Indiana Online and Adult Learning: Out-of-State Students (NC-SARA)
- University of Southern Indiana Professional Licensure Disclosure
- Indiana Professional Licensing Agency: Nursing Education
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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