Virginia and the University of Southern Indiana's online NP tracks
Virginia residents can enroll in every University of Southern Indiana online nursing program, and USI's disclosure, dated "Updated Fall 2025," marks each APRN track as meeting Virginia's educational requirements. Because Virginia's board leaves programs from other states alone, your clinicals are shaped by USI's own rulebook, Virginia's patient care team model and, for Northern Virginia students, a District of Columbia line that USI's table treats very differently.
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.
Virginia's row in USI's licensure table
USI's nursing table gives Virginia a clean result: no program shuts out Virginia residents, and every program that leads to an APRN license meets the state's education standards.
| USI program | Meets Virginia's requirements? | Virginia residents |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP | Yes | Not on the ban list |
| Post-master's certificates in the same three specialties | Yes | Not on the ban list |
| BSN-to-DNP APRN tracks and the post-MSN DNP | Yes | Not on the ban list |
| Leadership MSNs, BSN-to-DNP OSL, RN-to-BSN | No licensure attached | Not on the ban list |
The District of Columbia is another story. USI places DC under Enrollment Not Allowed for every one of its online nursing programs, so this page's answers apply to Virginia addresses only. The licensure disclosure guide has the full lists.
A board that steps back from out-of-state programs
The Virginia Board of Nursing states that nursing programs from other states, like post-licensure programs of any origin, are not something it regulates or approves. Its site-approval chapter, 18VAC90-27, and its 80 percent in-state clinical rule govern only pre-licensure schools holding Virginia approval, so USI's graduate students never enter that system.
There is also a statutory carve-out. Virginia's licensing exemptions (Va. Code § 54.1-3001) cover an RN from another state, DC or a territory whose license is unrestricted, for as long as an advanced program's curriculum has them in clinical practice. USI sets a higher bar: a clean RN license in every state that hosts your clinical time. Follow USI's rule, and raise the exemption with the Nursing Clinical Coordinator if you had counted on it.
Patient care teams and who can precept
AANP rates Virginia restricted. The state ties NPs to a patient care team physician by written agreement; the exception is an NP who has attested to clinical experience matching three years of full-time work. USI treats both kinds of NP alike, measuring each against its preceptor standards.
Your track narrows the field. AGACNP students may train with NPs, PAs, MDs or DOs in acute care, a good fit for Virginia's hospital systems. FNP students start with FNPs, PAs or primary care physicians, and PMHNP students are limited to a PMHNP or a licensed psychiatrist.
From Northern Virginia to Roanoke
More than three million people live on Virginia's side of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro in 2025 Census estimates. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk and Richmond each pass a million, and Roanoke holds about 317,000. Students there contact Sentara Health or Carilion Clinic, UVA Health, Inova or VCU Health, and some try the Virginia Department of Health, each with its own door for student requests.
Virginia's Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program covers only preceptors whose students attend a public or private nonprofit nursing school in Virginia, so a USI student's preceptor is ineligible. SB 405, signed March 31, 2026, handed the program to the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, which accepts applications for hours from July 1, 2026 onward.
Your license, the compact and the District
Multistate licenses have worked in Virginia since the compact took hold there on January 19, 2018, and one covers Virginia sites plus patients in compact neighbors: West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Maryland. For a site or a telehealth patient in the District of Columbia, check the license rule with the Nursing Clinical Coordinator before you count an hour.
USI credits FNP and PMHNP telehealth only when your license reaches the patient's location. The RN license guide and the telehealth hours page explain both rules in full.
Why Virginia USI students work with us
We search your region for preceptors who fit your track and USI's rules, and we note whether each works on a patient care team or on attestation. Your placement advisor confirms the site sits on the Virginia side of any line that matters, identifies the agreement signer and completes the Form G details with you, so the packet reaches USI typed and early. All three specialty semesters are planned up front, and a replacement search starts quickly if a preceptor withdraws. Tell us your program.
Questions USI students ask
Can a Northern Virginia resident apply to USI's online FNP?
Yes, provided your home is in Virginia. USI's table keeps Virginia off every enrollment ban and says the MSN FNP meets Virginia's requirements. People who live in the District of Columbia are in a different position, since USI lists DC under Enrollment Not Allowed; your home address decides, not your commute.
Does Virginia's student exemption mean I can skip a Virginia-valid license?
Not at USI. The Code of Virginia exempts some nurses licensed elsewhere while they complete an advanced program's clinicals, yet USI insists on a clean RN license wherever your hours take place and checks it when your Preceptor Packet arrives. A Virginia or multistate license keeps you inside USI's rule.
Can an NP who practices without a patient care team physician precept me?
Yes, if USI approves them. Virginia frees NPs with an attestation of three years' worth of full-time clinical experience from that physician agreement, and USI's approval turns on the preceptor's license, certification and advanced practice experience rather than that arrangement.
What if I move from Virginia into DC during the program?
USI lists the District of Columbia under Enrollment Not Allowed, and relocating somewhere the program does not recognize ends your ability to continue coursework unless you are on active military status. Talk with the Program Chair and APRN Director before you sign a lease; the relocation guide covers the rule.
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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