Studying with Rivier University from New York
For New York, Rivier University's State Guide shows yellow in every graduate column and in pre-licensure, with the RN-BSN the lone green. Yellow signals limiting criteria, and the guide tells you to call the Program Director before applying. New York also sets detailed rules for out-of-state nursing schools, so settle the call first and the preceptor search second.
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.
Start with the Program Director
Rivier's guide assigns colors without explaining them. A yellow cell tells a New York resident that limiting criteria exist and names the Program Director as the person to ask, so that conversation belongs before your application, not after an acceptance letter.
| Program group | Color |
|---|---|
| Family NP and Psychiatric-Mental Health NP (MSN and certificate) | Yellow |
| Nursing Education (MSN and certificate) and the Leadership MSN | Yellow |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice | Yellow |
| ASN/BSN pre-licensure (outside New England, ask the undergraduate program director) | Yellow |
| RN-BSN | Green |
Bring any question about the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP to the same call, since the guide has no column for that track. Colors for every other state sit on our State Guide page.
New York's gate for programs based elsewhere
Apart from anything Rivier decides, New York runs nursing oversight through its State Education Department (NYSED), where the Office of the Professions works with a State Board for Nursing. NYSED's rule for schools located elsewhere, online ones included, is that the program holds NYSED registration or approval before any student rotates through a New York clinical site. Federal settings, meaning VA and Armed Forces facilities, sit outside that rule.
- NP students: what counts is whether the NP education program itself carries NYSED registration.
- NYSED's NP guidance goes further and warns that rotating while enrolled in an unregistered program could be illegal.
- A separate NYSED office, the one that evaluates colleges and universities, counts a clinical placement in a licensed profession as physical presence in New York. That calls for an exemption or advance sign-off from the Office of the Professions, SARA institutions included, so Rivier's NC-SARA membership does not settle the question alone.
The Office of the Professions answers questions about a program's registration status. Hold its answer next to the Program Director's before you count on a New York site.
A New York license for a New York site
Compact licenses stop at New York's border. The state is not a Nurse Licensure Compact member, and NYSED's own FAQ says a multistate license issued elsewhere gives no authority to practice in New York. Because Rivier wants an RN license from the practicum state, a New York practicum calls for a New York RN license. The APRN Compact has not passed in New York, either. The practicum license rules explain the rest.
That single-state license matters in Nashua as well. One older Rivier document, a 2018 practicum form, tied FNP on-campus activities to holding a New Hampshire RN license, so ask the Program Director whether that still stands. Campus time is nine FNP days split into three intensives, three weekends for the PMHNP cohort, and ten days for the AG-ACNP.
Practice rules and the systems New Yorkers know
On AANP's map New York is full practice, but a newer NP stays tied to a collaborating physician, through a written practice agreement and protocols, for the first 3,600 hours. For the FNP, Rivier wants a physician (MD or DO) or family NP with a minimum of two years in an outpatient family practice; see the FNP preceptor rules.
Roughly 13 million of the state's residents are in the New York City metro area, which the Census calls New York-Newark-Jersey City. Upstate, three metros pass 900,000 residents each: Rochester, Albany-Schenectady-Troy and Buffalo-Cheektowaga. Examples of large systems, taken from their own sites and not presented as Rivier partners: NewYork-Presbyterian, Northwell Health, UR Medicine (the University of Rochester Medical Center), NYC Health + Hospitals and Mount Sinai Health System.
What we handle for New York students
When the Program Director's answer and New York's rules line up for your track, we run the whole preceptor search in person where you live, from Queens to the Capital Region to western New York. We match each candidate to Rivier's Handbook definition for your track, collect the preceptor documents the Preceptor Request Form calls for, and plan backward from Rivier's fall and spring cutoffs (August 1, December 1). Approval sits with Rivier's graduate faculty and Clinical Practicum Coordinator, and our files reach them whole. Tell us your track.
Questions Rivier students ask
Is Rivier's online PMHNP available to New York residents?
The PMHNP shows yellow for New York on Rivier's State Guide, for the master's and for the post-master's certificate. Yellow means limiting criteria, and the guide asks you to call the Program Director before applying. The Program Director can tell you whether a New York applicant can move forward and on what terms.
Can a New York resident do Rivier practicum hours in a neighboring state?
Only Rivier can say. The Handbook allows practicums in your own area and ties each one to an RN license from the practicum state, so a site across the border needs that state's license too. Put the question to the Program Director, then to the Clinical Practicum Coordinator; see practicums outside New Hampshire.
Does my New York RN license work at a New Hampshire site?
Not by itself. A New York license is single-state, since the state stays outside the compact. New Hampshire recognizes its own RN license and multistate licenses from compact states, so a New York nurse training at a New Hampshire site would need a New Hampshire RN license as well.
Is the RN-BSN open to New York nurses?
Yes. It is the one green cell in New York's row, meaning OK to accept in Rivier's key. The RN-BSN is online and its program sheet lists no practicum course, so the clinical placement rules described on this page do not come into play for it.
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 University State Guide: Out-of-State Acceptance by Program (January 2025)
- NYSED Office of the Professions: registered professional nursing
- NYSED Office of the Professions: nurse practitioner FAQs
- NYSED Office of College and University Evaluation: out-of-state institutions
- AANP: State Practice Environment
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.