Rivier FNP and PMHNP practicums in Idaho
Rivier University takes Idaho residents into its online FNP and PMHNP: the State Guide marks Idaho green there and in every other graduate column. Idaho is a full practice state and a compact state, and its nursing rules speak directly to students of nationally accredited APRN programs, which helps a Rivier NP student in Boise or Coeur d'Alene plan the practicum.
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.
How Rivier's guide reads for Idaho
Idaho's colors on Rivier's current guide (January 2025; the 2022 edition matches) are as follows.
| Program | Idaho | Rivier's key |
|---|---|---|
| FNP, master's and certificate | Green | OK to accept |
| PMHNP, master's and certificate | Green | OK to accept |
| Nursing Education, master's and certificate | Green | OK to accept |
| Leadership in Health Systems Management | Green | OK to accept |
| DNP (both tracks) | Green | OK to accept |
| Pre-licensure ASN or BSN | Yellow | Limiting criteria: phone the program director |
| RN to BSN | Green | OK to accept |
A green cell is about admission, not about Idaho licensure. No AG-ACNP column appears at all, so anyone headed for acute care should raise Idaho with the Program Director. More on the key sits on the State Guide page.
Idaho's rule for APRN students
Idaho spells out when a student may act at the advanced level. The relevant rule, IDAPA 24.34.01.100.12.a, has three parts: you hold a current RN license or compact privilege that works in Idaho, you are enrolled in an APRN program with national accreditation, and the advanced practice you perform is built into that curriculum. Meet all three and Idaho lets you function as an APRN within it. ACEN accredits Rivier's MSN and post-master's certificate programs, as the accreditation page explains.
What Idaho leaves open is a clinical-placement rule for schools based elsewhere. Its program rules and Idaho Code 54-1406 deal with programs offered in Idaho, and the Board's site directs schools located beyond Idaho to email its licensing staff for requirements. The Program Director can tell you whether Rivier has been through that contact.
Preceptors licensed at your level or above
Idaho's Board adopted an education policy in April 2024 that ties preceptor licensure to the student's goal: whoever precepts must hold a license at the level you are training for, or higher. An NP student's preceptor is therefore an APRN or a physician. Rivier's criteria sit comfortably inside it, since every preceptor Rivier accepts as primary for the NP tracks is a physician or an advanced practice nurse with two years in practice; the PMHNP preceptor rules give the details.
The same policy has faculty licensing lines written with Idaho programs in mind. If a question about them comes up for your placement, the Program Director is the one to answer it. AANP places Idaho in full practice, so NPs practicing on their own authority belong on your list next to physicians.
Boise, Coeur d'Alene and eastern Idaho
The Boise City metro is the state's dominant market; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls and Twin Falls are much smaller. Around Boise, students tend to look at St. Luke's and Saint Alphonsus, the two large systems there; in the north, Kootenai Health is the name that comes up. Each posts its own student terms.
In those smaller metros, call independent family and psychiatric practices as well as the systems. Any site new to Rivier needs a signed agreement first, and the affiliation agreements page covers that step.
Licensing and your campus trips
Idaho put the Nurse Licensure Compact into practice in January 2018. Rivier's practicum-state rule is met by an Idaho RN license or by a multistate license whose home state is another compact member, and a multistate license also stretches to New Hampshire. No APRN Compact law exists in Idaho, so your post-graduation APRN license will be an Idaho Board matter.
Plan the Nashua trips early. The FNP runs three intensives totaling nine days, PMHNP students come in as a cohort for three weekends, and the AG-ACNP MSN requires ten days in Nashua. Tell your preceptor those dates before your schedule is written; the campus intensives page holds the 2026-27 calendar.
Why Idaho students choose us
We search Idaho the way the state is laid out, metro by metro, with independent practices in view next to the big systems. Every preceptor we bring you meets Rivier's track rules and Idaho's licensed-at-or-above standard. We compile the preceptor's paperwork for the Preceptor Request Form so the packet is whole when Rivier's faculty review it, and we plan to Rivier's four-month lead time. Start with the short form on this page.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can I complete my Rivier PMHNP practicum in Boise?
Yes. Rivier's State Guide marks Idaho green for the PMHNP, and Rivier lets practicums happen in your own area. You need an RN license valid in Idaho and a psychiatrist or psychiatric-certified nurse who has practiced two years or more; patients of any age, inpatient or outpatient, are acceptable to Rivier.
Does Idaho let NP students practice at the APRN level during clinicals?
Yes, within limits Idaho sets: a current RN license or compact privilege valid in Idaho, enrollment in an APRN program with national accreditation, and advanced practice that is part of the curriculum. Rivier's MSN and certificate programs carry ACEN accreditation. Ask your course faculty how the practicum itself is built.
Can a physician assistant precept me in Idaho?
Not as your primary FNP preceptor. Rivier's Handbook lets a PA fill in but requires an MD, DO or FNP as the primary preceptor, and Idaho's 2024 policy wants preceptors licensed no lower than the level you are training toward. Keep a PA in a supporting role only.
Does the Idaho Board approve Rivier's program?
Idaho's program-approval rules cover nursing programs offered inside Idaho. For schools outside the state, the Board's page asks them to contact its licensing staff about requirements. Ask Rivier's Program Director whether that contact has happened, and settle it before you ask an Idaho preceptor to sign on.
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.