Rivier University from Indiana: practicums and licenses
Indiana residents can enroll in Rivier University's online nurse practitioner tracks; the State Guide gives Indiana a green mark in all of Rivier's graduate columns. Indiana's board leaves graduate nursing education to the schools and the state has been in the nurse compact since 2020, so most of your planning energy goes into the search itself.
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.
Rivier's guide for Indiana residents
The January 2025 guide, with colors unchanged from February 2022, marks Indiana as follows.
| Program | Color | What Rivier means |
|---|---|---|
| Family Nurse Practitioner (MSN, PMC) | Green | OK to accept |
| Psychiatric-Mental Health NP (MSN, PMC) | Green | OK to accept |
| Nursing Education (MSN, PMC) | Green | OK to accept |
| Leadership in Health Systems Management | Green | OK to accept |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice | Green | OK to accept |
| Pre-licensure ASN/BSN | Yellow | Limiting criteria: call the program director |
| RN to BSN | Green | OK to accept |
These colors answer whether Rivier accepts Indiana students, program by program; Indiana licensure is its own question. With no AG-ACNP column on the chart, acute care applicants should check Indiana with the Program Director. The State Guide page explains the key.
Indiana's board leaves graduate programs to the schools
Indiana's Board of Nursing keeps its education role narrow. Its accreditation work is limited to Indiana-based programs preparing new RNs and LPNs for a first license, and the Board says plainly that it gives no review or accreditation to graduate nursing programs, nor to RN-BSN programs. The eligibility rule, 848 IAC 1-2-4, deals with pre-licensure RN and PN education alone. Nothing in that published position asks for Board approval before a Rivier NP student trains in Indiana.
Rivier's own sequence still runs in full, from your preceptor search through the Preceptor Request Form to a site contract, which the Handbook gives 30 days. The placement process shows the order.
Reduced practice and choosing a preceptor
Indiana sits in AANP's reduced practice tier, which means every Indiana NP has a physician collaborator under a regulated agreement covering at least part of practice. So each NP you contact has a collaborating physician in the picture, and Rivier's rules decide which of the two fits.
Rivier narrows the field. An FNP student's primary preceptor practices outpatient family care as a physician or FNP and has done so for two years; a PA can only stand in. A PMHNP student's preceptor is a psychiatrist or a nurse holding psychiatric-mental health certification, again with two years, and any age group or setting counts. The PMHNP preceptor requirements go into the telehealth limit and the rest.
Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and the border metros
Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood is the state's largest metro, and Fort Wayne is the next market wholly inside Indiana. The Chicago metro spills into northwest Indiana, and a slice of southern Indiana belongs to the Louisville metro. Among systems, students look at Indiana University Health and Community Health Network first, and also at Ascension St. Vincent, Parkview Health and Franciscan Health; each sets student terms of its own.
The border metros come with a catch. A preceptor over the line in Illinois needs you to carry an Illinois license, since Illinois is outside the compact, and any neighboring state must also be open to your program on Rivier's guide. Read the Illinois page before you search west.
Your license and campus days in Nashua
Indiana's compact participation dates to July 1, 2020. If you live in Indiana and your license carries multistate status, it meets Rivier's rule for Indiana sites and carries into New Hampshire and the other compact states. Indiana has no APRN Compact law, so you will apply to Indiana for APRN licensure once you finish.
The NP tracks all involve travel to Nashua: FNP students come for three intensives, nine days combined; the PMHNP runs as a cohort with weekends on campus; the AG-ACNP MSN brings ten days. Give your preceptor those dates before the first semester's schedule is set.
Why Indiana students choose us
Indiana keeps the state paperwork light, which puts the weight of the work on the preceptor search, and that is our specialty. We search your metro for clinicians who meet Rivier's track rules, confirm each site is willing to contract with Rivier, and have the request-form documents ready well before Rivier's four-month mark. Graduate faculty at Rivier approve every site, and our files reach them complete. How it works shows each step.
Questions Rivier students ask
Does Indiana require Rivier to get approval for my NP clinicals?
By the Board's own account, graduate-level nursing programs and RN-BSN programs are outside its review and accreditation, which is reserved for programs leading to initial RN or LPN licensure. That leaves no Board approval step for your NP placement. Rivier's own approvals, by graduate faculty and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, still apply.
Can I do my Rivier practicum in Louisville or Chicago while living in Indiana?
Only if the practicum state passes two tests: Rivier's State Guide must be open to your program there, and your RN license must reach it. Chicago sits in a non-compact state, so a site there means an Illinois license. For a Louisville site, check Kentucky's row on the guide and your license's reach first.
Is my Indiana RN license multistate?
Indiana residents have been able to hold multistate licenses since the compact took effect there in July 2020, but your license record shows which type you have. A multistate Indiana license covers Indiana and New Hampshire sites; a single-state one covers Indiana only. Check before you plan campus travel or a site across a state line.
Is Indiana green for Rivier's Nursing Education and Leadership tracks?
Yes. Rivier's January 2025 State Guide marks Indiana green for Nursing Education, MSN and certificate, and for Leadership in Health Systems Management. Those practicums use an RN with a master's degree working as a nurse educator or nurse leader, and both programs are fully online; see Education and Leadership preceptors.
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.