Colorado and Rivier University: a yellow state, so the Program Director comes first
Rivier University's State Guide puts Colorado in yellow for the FNP, the PMHNP, Nursing Education, Leadership, the DNP and pre-licensure study, and in green only for the RN-BSN. Yellow is Rivier's code for limiting criteria, and the guide's direction is a call to the Program Director before you submit anything. After that call, here is what Colorado itself asks of an NP student from a New Hampshire program.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Rivier program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Rivier course.
Colorado's colors, program by program
Rivier's guide never says what the limiting criteria behind a yellow cell are, and nobody outside the Division of Nursing & Health Professions should guess. This is Colorado's row from the January 2025 edition; the February 2022 copy linked from Rivier's licensure page carries matching colors.
| Rivier program | Color | Rivier's key |
|---|---|---|
| FNP, MSN or post-master's certificate | Yellow | Limiting criteria |
| PMHNP, MSN or post-master's certificate | Yellow | Limiting criteria |
| Nursing Education, MSN or certificate | Yellow | Limiting criteria |
| Leadership in Health Systems Management | Yellow | Limiting criteria |
| DNP (Professional Practice and Systems Leadership) | Yellow | Limiting criteria |
| ASN/BSN pre-licensure | Yellow | Limiting criteria (undergraduate program director) |
| RN-BSN | Green | OK to accept |
No column exists for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP, so a Colorado AG-ACNP applicant has nothing to read and should bring that track up by name on the same call. Every color is explained on our State Guide page.
Clinical training in Colorado as an out-of-state student
Nursing in Colorado answers to a State Board housed in DORA, the regulatory agencies department, under its professions and occupations division. When that Board's rules define a nursing education program (3 CCR 716-1, Rule 1.2), they mean a basic course leading to initial RN or LPN licensure. Read on its own, that text asks nothing of a graduate NP program from another state before one of its students trains in Colorado; current Board guidance is where you confirm it.
Rivier's requirements go wherever you do. Your site needs an affiliation agreement, your preceptor must satisfy your track's Handbook rules, and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator clears documents and contracts before a single hour counts. Denver students work to the same clock as Nashua students: a four-month lead, with August 1 for fall and December 1 for spring as the hard stops; see placement deadlines.
Front Range systems and who can precept you
Population bunches along the Front Range: roughly 3.1 million people live in greater Denver, which the Census names Denver-Aurora-Centennial. Colorado Springs is the second metro, and Greeley and Fort Collins-Loveland each hold close to 380,000. Large systems you will hear named include Denver Health; UCHealth; Intermountain Health, which runs Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver; HCA HealthONE; and the Colorado hospitals of CommonSpirit Health. All five are named from their own websites, not as Rivier hosts.
AANP's map shows Colorado as full practice. The catch sits in prescribing: a new NP attests to 750 hours worked under a physician's or APRN mentor's agreement before gaining prescriptive authority. Because Rivier lets a family NP with two-plus years of outpatient experience serve as the main FNP preceptor, seasoned Colorado NPs belong on your list next to physicians.
Colorado gives rural and frontier preceptors a state income tax credit, but HB22-1005 narrowed eligible students to those at accredited Colorado schools, so a Rivier student's preceptor should not plan on it.
Your license, and the trip east to Nashua
Rivier's graduate rule is simple: your RN license must be good in the state where you train. Colorado has been a Nurse Licensure Compact state since January 19, 2018, so a Colorado-issued multistate license covers a Colorado site, and New Hampshire honors it in place of its own license too. The APRN Compact is not Colorado law, which means NP licensure after you finish runs one state at a time. More sits on our RN license page.
Campus time remains part of each NP track: the FNP's nine days spread over three intensives, the PMHNP's three cohort weekends, the AG-ACNP's ten days. On the 2026-27 calendar the FNP intensives fall on August 24 to September 4 and January 4 to 15, so arrange leave from work early.
Why Colorado students choose us
Once the Program Director has cleared your path, we take on the search itself. We line up in-person preceptors on the Front Range or wherever you live in Colorado who fit your track's rules, build the full Preceptor Request Form file, and pace every step to Rivier's calendar. Each site still goes to Rivier's graduate faculty and Clinical Practicum Coordinator for approval, and the packet they open from us leaves nothing missing. Send us your track and county.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can I apply to Rivier's online FNP while living in Colorado?
For Colorado, Rivier's State Guide shows the FNP in yellow, whether you take the master's or the certificate version. Yellow stands for limiting criteria, and Rivier wants you to phone the Program Director ahead of any application. That conversation decides whether you can go forward, because the guide does not spell the criteria out.
Can my Colorado preceptor claim the rural tax credit for hosting me?
Probably not. HB22-1005 tied the credit to preceptors whose students attend an accredited college or university inside Colorado, and Rivier University sits in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Colorado Department of Revenue can give a preceptor a definite answer.
Is Rivier's RN-BSN open to Colorado nurses?
Yes. Colorado's row has one green cell, the RN-BSN, meaning Rivier can accept you. Its online courses run seven weeks each, and no practicum course appears on its sheet. The RN-BSN page has the program details.
What if I move to Colorado after Rivier accepts me?
The Handbook's rule is a written notice to the Dean no later than 90 days before you relocate. Bring up Colorado's yellow status with the Program Director alongside it. Under the Handbook, spotting practicum and licensure barriers is your job. Our moving guide covers timing.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against Rivier's own Nursing Student Handbook, program sheets, catalog, academic calendar and State Guide. Your program of study, your course faculty, your Program Director and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
Rivier asks you to identify a qualified preceptor. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Rivier track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who meet your track's rules, check early whether the site can contract with Rivier, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for, well ahead of August 1 and December 1.
- Preceptors matched to the track: an MD, DO or FNP in outpatient family practice for
NURS 511, a psychiatrist or PMH-certified NP forNURS 521, a hospitalist or intensivist forNURS 638P - Preceptor license, credentials and CV ready for the Preceptor Request Form, with the site's contact details for the contract
- In your own area, in New Hampshire or any state Rivier's State Guide accepts
Start your placement plan
Track, city and semester is all we need to begin.