Rivier University NP students living in Mississippi
Mississippi is green on Rivier University's State Guide in every graduate column, NP tracks included. The step to know about sits with the state's university board, not its nursing board: IHL expects out-of-state graduate nursing programs to go through its own review before their students train in Mississippi, and that review takes time.
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.
Mississippi's colors, program by program
Rivier's January 2025 guide gives Mississippi the following entries.
| Rivier track | Mississippi | Rivier's key |
|---|---|---|
| FNP (MSN and post-master's certificate) | Green | OK to accept |
| PMHNP (MSN and post-master's certificate) | Green | OK to accept |
| Nursing Education (MSN and certificate) | Green | OK to accept |
| Leadership in Health Systems Management | Green | OK to accept |
| DNP | Green | OK to accept |
| RN-BSN | Green | OK to accept |
| ASN/BSN pre-licensure | Yellow | Limiting criteria |
Look at the neighbors before searching near a border. Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee are all red on Rivier's guide for the FNP and PMHNP, so keep your search inside Mississippi and ask the Program Director before weighing any site across those lines. Arkansas, to the west, is green; see the Arkansas page.
IHL review: the out-of-state step
Oversight is divided in Mississippi. LPN programs sit with the nursing board; RN and graduate degrees sit with IHL, the trustees who govern the state's public universities. By IHL's account, an out-of-state nursing program at either level that brings clinical experiences into Mississippi must meet Mississippi's standards, and a practicum inside the state counts as a physical presence. The consequence is a program-level review by IHL's nursing education office, and IHL cautions that it can last up to three months.
Appendix S of the IHL procedures manual (August 2024) sets the lead time: a program based elsewhere should request review four months or more before students begin. The school must also be in SARA or hold MCCA's distance-education authorization; Rivier's catalog lists NC-SARA membership. The review is Rivier's filing, not yours.
- Ask firstBefore you approach anyone, ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator whether IHL review for Mississippi sites is in place for your practicum term.
- Check your licenseConfirm your RN license is valid in Mississippi, as both IHL and Rivier expect.
- Secure the preceptorFind a clinician who meets your track's rules and gather their license, credentials and CV.
- Submit on timeFile the Preceptor Request Form ahead of the fall (August 1) or spring (December 1) cutoff, leaving the site contract its 30 days.
The license IHL and Rivier both expect
IHL's standards reach graduate students directly: in APRN clinical courses and other graduate clinical courses alike, each student must be a registered nurse whose license is unencumbered and good for practice in the clinical's state. Programs from outside Mississippi are held to the same standard, which matches Rivier's own Handbook rule.
Mississippi entered the Nurse Licensure Compact in 2018. The Board's summary: keep your license in good standing, name a compact state as your primary residence, and you may practice throughout the member states; an employer cannot make you hold a remote-state license on top. APRN licensing is still state by state, since Mississippi has not enacted the APRN Compact.
Reduced practice and who precepts
Mississippi falls in AANP's reduced practice group. Mississippi NPs need a collaborating partner, a physician or dentist licensed in-state, in an arrangement the board has signed off on. For a Rivier FNP student, the NP in that relationship or the collaborating physician can serve as preceptor if the practice is outpatient family care and the clinician has practiced two years (FNP preceptor rules).
Big employers of clinicians include North Mississippi Health Services, Forrest Health, UMMC, Singing River Health System, and Baptist Memorial Health Care, whose Mississippi hospitals include Mississippi Baptist Medical Center. Population clusters around Jackson, the Gulf Coast at Gulfport-Biloxi, Hattiesburg and the Mississippi suburbs of Memphis; each system keeps its own student rules.
Getting to Nashua
NP students leave Mississippi for campus a few times. The family track's nine days come in three blocks, psychiatric students travel on three weekends, and acute care students need ten days. New Hampshire honors multistate licenses from compact states, so a Mississippi multistate license travels with you (campus intensives).
Why Mississippi students choose us
Mississippi rewards early planning, and early planning is our habit. We begin your search in time for Rivier's contract and any IHL timing, look for preceptors who meet your track's rules in your region, and deliver a complete Preceptor Request Form package before the deadline. If a site stalls, we keep the next option moving. Get started.
Questions Rivier students ask
Does Rivier need Mississippi approval before I train there?
IHL, the university trustees, holds the review for out-of-state degree programs running clinicals in Mississippi, and it takes months. The filing belongs to Rivier, not to you. Your part is asking the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, early, whether that review covers your practicum term.
Could a Memphis preceptor work for a Mississippi resident?
Memphis clinics sit in Tennessee, a red state on Rivier's guide for both NP tracks, and Rivier judges your license by the site's location too. Search within Mississippi, and consult the Program Director before giving any Tennessee office a second thought.
Is my Mississippi multistate license enough for Rivier?
At a Mississippi site it is, because IHL and Rivier each look for a license good where the clinical happens. The same multistate license carries into New Hampshire for campus days, both states being compact members.
Can a Mississippi NP in a collaborative agreement precept me?
Yes, if the NP meets Rivier's standard for your track: an FNP needs two years in outpatient family care to teach a family student, and a PMH-certified nurse needs two years to teach a psychiatric one.
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.