Rivier nursing in New Hampshire, the home state
Rivier University runs all of its nursing programs from Nashua, so New Hampshire is the home state and the one place its State Guide gives no row. A practicum here needs a New Hampshire or multistate RN license, NP preceptors work under full practice authority, and the campus intensives happen inside the state. Below: the APRN law, the Board's rules, where NP students look, and the license that follows graduation.
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Rivier's home state, program by program
Rivier's State Guide, updated in January 2025, sorts out-of-state applicants program by program in green, yellow and red. New Hampshire has no row because it is where Rivier is: the campus sits at 420 South Main Street in Nashua, and for residents the guide's out-of-state question never comes up. What differs by program is who arranges the clinical site and how often you come to campus.
| Program | Format | Clinical placement |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP and FNP certificate | Online, nine campus days in three intensives | You secure an MD, DO or FNP in outpatient family practice |
| MSN PMHNP and PMHNP certificate | Online cohort, three campus weekends | You secure a psychiatrist or PMH-certified nurse |
| MSN AG-ACNP and AG-ACNP certificate | Online, ten campus days (eight for the certificate) | You secure a hospitalist, then critical care preceptors |
| MSN Nursing Education and Leadership | Fully online | You secure an RN with a master's degree in an educator or leader role |
| DNP | Online; the 2025-26 catalog adds a campus seminar each NURS 895 semester | You and a faculty guide identify a committee-approved external expert |
| BSN, ABSN and ASN | On campus in Nashua | Rivier assigns agencies, which may be up to about 60 miles away |
| RN-BSN | Fully online | No practicum course listed |
Living near campus changes the commute, not the rule: under Rivier's placement policy, a graduate student in Nashua finds the preceptor just as one in Nevada does.
Full practice authority, SB 556 and SB 172
On AANP's map New Hampshire is full practice, and the legal footing is RSA 326-B:11. It gives APRNs plenary authority to possess, compound, prescribe, administer, dispense and distribute controlled and non-controlled drugs within their scope, and the section sets no physician supervision or collaboration requirement. APRNs answer to their clients and to the Board, consulting or referring when appropriate, and the Board may deny, suspend or revoke prescriptive authority after notice and a hearing. For schedule II to IV drugs prescribed by telemedicine, the section calls for a follow-up evaluation at least once a year.
Two recent laws build on it. SB 556, signed July 26, 2024 as Chapter 306 and effective January 1, 2025, added RSA 326-B:11-a: insurers and Medicaid must pay APRNs for covered primary care, behavioral health included, at the physician rate. SB 172, signed June 24, 2025 as Chapter 119 and effective August 23, 2025, added RSA 326-B:45-b, which makes certain contract restrictions on APRNs unenforceable.
For your search, that independence matters. A New Hampshire FNP in outpatient family practice can be your primary NURS 511 preceptor with no physician attached, provided they have the two years in practice Rivier asks for; the FNP preceptor rules list the rest, and New Hampshire APRN practice and preceptors looks at how these laws shape who precepts.
The Board of Nursing and out-of-state programs
New Hampshire's Board of Nursing approves RN and LPN programs under Chapter Nur 600, not graduate programs, and OPLC puts RN-BSN and RN-MSN (post-licensure) programs outside the Board's oversight. No New Hampshire law or rule says whether a school or its student must secure a preceptor, so for Rivier graduate students the Handbook's Practicum Placement Policy is the rule in force.
Schools based outside the state carry more paperwork for pre-licensure clinicals. Nur 602.15(j), titled 'Distance Education-Pre-Licensure', has them register intent with the Board before the experience and notify it six weeks ahead of every planned placement. Filings run to three documents: Form A, renewed yearly; Part B, one per student rotation; and a Clinical Preceptor Agreement signed for each preceptor. Any of their faculty supervising students hands-on in the state must hold a New Hampshire license with no encumbrance and file a Nursing Program Faculty Appointment form. The rule text posted by Cornell's LII carries an expiry of January 23, 2026, though OPLC's January 2026 guidance still relied on it.
A 2026 proposal, Nur 601-607, heard February 26, 2026, titles its forms 'Petition for Non-New Hampshire Based Pre-Licensure or Graduate Programs Offering Clinical Experience in New Hampshire', and its preceptor affirmation asks for an unencumbered New Hampshire license for the whole period, while the rule paragraph itself still says pre-licensure. Check OPLC's rules page for its status. Rivier is based in Nashua, so the petitions aim at other schools, yet they touch your search, because Rivier's Handbook calls NP sites scarce and notes that out-of-state students come here looking for preceptors.
Dartmouth Health and the other systems
Dartmouth Health is explicit about which students it takes. For placements, preceptorships and practicums, its APP student page limits entry to schools and programs it is currently affiliated with, puts Dartmouth Health employees first, and routes rotation requests to an email inbox. A companion Dartmouth Hitchcock page names its affiliated nursing schools and bars a student-employee from clinical hours at DHMC or its clinics unless the school holds an affiliation agreement. Rivier's documents record no graduate agreement with Dartmouth Health, so read that list before you approach a Dartmouth clinician.
Catholic Medical Center (HCA Healthcare) and Concord Hospital Health System are major systems too. Elliot and Southern New Hampshire Health founded SolutionHealth; a July 2025 proposal from the boards would dissolve it. The public pages of Elliot, Southern New Hampshire Health, St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua and Wentworth-Douglass, a Mass General Brigham hospital, describe no NP student route. Rivier's pre-licensure pages count Southern NH Health System, Saint Joseph Healthcare, Catholic Medical Center and Elliot among BSN clinical partners; for a graduate track, a placement at any of them starts with a clinician you recruit. NP preceptors in New Hampshire goes system by system.
Hillsborough County shortage areas and health centers
Rivier is in Hillsborough County, and HRSA's designations there mark where primary care and mental health need runs deepest. A partially rural primary care geographic HPSA named Hillsborough, designated October 8, 2025, takes in Antrim, Bennington, Deering, Greenfield, Hancock, Hillsborough and Windsor, plus six towns in neighboring counties. Closer to campus, three federally qualified health centers hold facility designations.
| Health center | City | Primary care | Mental health | Dental |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amoskeag Health | Manchester | 20 | 22 | 26 |
| City of Manchester | Manchester | 20 | 21 | 26 |
| Harbor Homes, Inc. | Nashua | 18 | 20 | 26 |
HRSA lists no geographic mental health HPSA in the county, so for PMHNP students the mental health designations sit with these three centers. The scores show need, not openings for Rivier students; the Nashua and Manchester guide covers searching locally.
Licenses: RN for the practicum, APRN after graduation
Since January 19, 2018, when New Hampshire implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact, multistate RN licenses have been valid here, and OPLC confirms that one issued by another compact state means no separate New Hampshire RN license is needed, which covers a practicum at a New Hampshire site. The APRN level works differently: New Hampshire has not enacted the APRN Compact, and OPLC's FAQ rules out APRN reciprocity. The practicum license guide handles the RN side; the APRN path runs like this.
- Finish and certifyComplete an accredited program NCSBN recognizes in your specialty and pass that specialty's national exam; the certificate you upload must show issue and expiration dates.
- File with OPLCHolding an active RN license from New Hampshire or a compact state, apply online, pay the non-refundable fee and have Rivier send official transcripts straight to OPLC.
- Clear the checksA criminal background check, Nursys license verification, and Nur 302.04's recent-practice rule of 400 advanced practice hours in the prior four years; ask OPLC whether program hours count.
- Wait for first contactOPLC allows 10 to 14 business days, by email. New Hampshire issues no temporary APRN license.
- Register for the PDMPBefore prescribing opioids, enroll in the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program; Nur 502.06 has you query it before a first schedule II to IV opioid for pain and at least twice a year after.
- RenewTrack continuing education in CE Broker and complete the Health Professions Survey.
Waiting two or more years after graduation to apply adds contact hours, at least five in pharmacology, and current certification counts for 30 of the 60.
The Nashua campus and the intensives
Campus days happen in Sylvia Trottier Hall, home of the nursing dean's office. Its second level holds the Nursing Simulation and Clinical Education Center, 17,825 square feet by Rivier's 2022 announcement, with labs designated for advanced NP training, and the IT Support Center sits on the lower level.
The 2026-27 calendar sets the FNP intensives for August 24 to September 4, 2026 and January 4 to 15, 2027. The PMHNP cohort comes for three weekends and the AG-ACNP for ten days (eight in the certificate), on dates faculty provide. Living in New Hampshire makes the travel simple; the real work is a preceptor whose schedule leaves room around those weeks. The campus intensives guide has the details.
Why New Hampshire Rivier students choose us
Being close to Rivier means competing with everyone else who wants a New Hampshire preceptor, and the Handbook itself says students from other states come here for them. We work that market for you across the Nashua, Manchester and Concord areas and the shortage towns beyond: MD, DO and FNP preceptors in outpatient family practice, psychiatrists and PMH-certified nurses, hospitalists and intensivists for the AG-ACNP. We check each system's student rules, Dartmouth Health's affiliated-schools limit included, before a request goes out.
What reaches Rivier's Clinical Practicum Coordinator is complete: a Preceptor Request Form packet with the preceptor's CV, license and credentials, plus the site information Rivier's contract calls for, ready before the December 1 or August 1 cutoff. Graduate faculty at Rivier approve the site, and we make sure the file fits Rivier's rules the first time. A New Hampshire search begins with the form below.
Questions Rivier students ask
Which RN license covers a Rivier practicum at a New Hampshire site?
Any RN license valid in New Hampshire: one issued by New Hampshire, or a multistate one from any other compact state, which OPLC treats as sufficient on its own. A Massachusetts license alone falls short for now: Massachusetts has enacted the compact, yet it has set May 2027 as the target for putting it into effect.
Can a New Hampshire nurse practitioner precept me without a supervising physician?
Under state law, yes. New Hampshire is a full practice state, and RSA 326-B:11 grants APRNs plenary prescriptive authority with no physician supervision or collaboration requirement in the section. Rivier's rules still set the bar: an FNP preceptor needs at least two years in outpatient family practice, and a PMHNP preceptor must be a psychiatrist, or a nurse with PMH certification, in practice for two years or more.
Does Dartmouth Health take Rivier NP students?
Dartmouth Health's page for advanced practice provider students limits placements to currently affiliated schools and programs and gives its employees priority. Dartmouth Hitchcock publishes its list of affiliated nursing schools. Look for Rivier on that list and ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator about it before contacting a Dartmouth clinician, since Rivier publishes no graduate partner list.
Will New Hampshire's 2026 nursing rule proposal change my Rivier practicum?
The Nur 601-607 proposal titles its petition forms for pre-licensure or graduate programs based outside New Hampshire and asks preceptors to affirm an unencumbered New Hampshire license. Rivier is based in Nashua, so the petitions target other schools. Check OPLC's rules page for the adopted version and ask the Program Director if anything in it reaches Rivier students.
Is an APRN license from another state valid in New Hampshire?
No. New Hampshire has not enacted the APRN Compact, and OPLC's FAQ says the APRN license carries no reciprocity, so an APRN licensed elsewhere files an initial New Hampshire application, with no temporary license while it is reviewed. DNP Professional Practice students feel this most, because Rivier asks for an active APRN license in the state where their practicums take place.
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
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