Oregon on Rivier's State Guide: NP tracks red, the DNP a yellow
Rivier University lists Oregon as red for its FNP and PMHNP, a color Rivier's legend links to prohibitive barriers, so Oregon students cannot enter either track. The Education and Leadership MSNs are red as well; yellow covers the DNP and campus pre-licensure study, and green goes to the online RN-BSN alone.
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Tell us your Rivier program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Rivier course.
Oregon's colors, program by program
Rivier assigns a color per program, and Oregon's row on the January 2025 guide is identical to the one in the February 2022 version. Find your own track before reading anything else into it.
| Program | Oregon | Rivier's key |
|---|---|---|
| FNP (MSN or post-master's certificate) | Red | Not open to Oregon residents |
| PMHNP (MSN or post-master's certificate) | Red | Not open to Oregon residents |
| Nursing Education (MSN or certificate) | Red | Not open to Oregon residents |
| Leadership in Health Systems Management | Red | Not open to Oregon residents |
| DNP | Yellow | Limiting criteria: speak with the Program Director |
| ASN/BSN pre-licensure | Yellow | Limiting criteria: the undergraduate program director, for students outside New England |
| RN-BSN | Green | OK to accept |
Two jobs fall outside the chart: rating the AG-ACNP, which gets no column, and deciding who can be licensed. Rivier's State Guide, explained covers both.
Oregon's board is permissive; Rivier's guide still decides
Oregon's nursing board asks strikingly little of NP programs based elsewhere. Its APRN FAQ answers the approval question for out-of-state programs with a flat no, and the prior-authorization requirement once placed on NP students from non-Oregon graduate schools came off the books on July 1, 2021. Annual notice is reserved for pre-licensure programs from other states. What OSBN does insist on is an Oregon license for any faculty member teaching in the state, plus authorization through Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission or NC-SARA for a school before it enrolls Oregon residents.
None of that changes Rivier's answer. Admission turns on the State Guide, not on Oregon's board, and the guide marks Oregon red for both NP tracks without giving a state-by-state reason. Treat the board's openness as background, never as a door into a red program.
Before you apply from Oregon
For Oregon residents, Rivier's green option is the online RN-BSN, whose program sheet carries no practicum course. The DNP is yellow, so a call to the Program Director comes before any application; the license question for doctoral work in Oregon is answered in the FAQ below.
A Portland or Bend nurse who hopes to study with Rivier while training in an accepted state should raise that directly with Rivier. The guide sets out no such arrangement; the decision would be Rivier's, weighed against its admission policies and the licensure you would need wherever you trained.
Moving to Oregon as an enrolled Rivier student
Rivier's change-of-residence policy has graduate students put a move in a letter to the Dean with 90 or more days to spare, and it hands the job of spotting obstacles to the student. For an NP student, Oregon's red cell is that obstacle, whether the destination is Salem, Eugene or the Portland suburbs.
Bring in your Program Director, and Rivier's practicum coordinator, before you commit, and remember that NP students still travel to Nashua for campus intensives wherever they live. Our page on mid-program moves walks through the timing.
Licensing in Oregon and how we help
Oregon stands apart from the Nurse Licensure Compact, with no membership bill in the pipeline, so an Oregon-issued RN license is what clinical work in the state requires. The state has not adopted the APRN Compact, and AANP puts Oregon in its full practice category.
Rivier students in the states the guide accepts turn to us because our searches mirror Rivier's own rules: preceptors vetted against the FNP, PMHNP or AG-ACNP requirements, sites near home, and Preceptor Request Form paperwork assembled before anyone asks for it. We build each timeline around the four-month lead and the August 1 and December 1 cutoffs, and graduate faculty give the final approval with everything they need in hand. Start with your state and track.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can I study Rivier's online FNP while living in Oregon?
No. The State Guide marks Rivier's FNP red for Oregon in both of its forms, the shade Rivier assigns where prohibitive barriers prevent acceptance. The PMHNP matches it. Oregon residents can look at the green RN-BSN or call the Program Director about the yellow DNP.
If Oregon's board allows out-of-state NP placements, why is Oregon red?
Oregon's board and Rivier answer different questions. OSBN decides what outside programs must do before placing students; Rivier's guide records, state by state, where Rivier itself can take students, without listing reasons. For admission the guide is what counts, and your Program Director can speak to it.
Would a Rivier DNP project in Oregon need an Oregon license?
Yes. Rivier's DNP wants a clean RN license issued where the project or practicum happens, and an APRN license there too on the Professional Practice track. Oregon sits outside the compact, so only an Oregon-issued license fits. With the DNP yellow for Oregon, confirm the whole plan with the Program Director first.
Does Oregon's board need to hear about an RN-BSN student?
Not according to OSBN, which exempts programs that stop short of licensure, the RN-to-BSN among them, along with MSN and DNP programs outside advanced practice, from its notice step. Rivier's RN-BSN is green for Oregon and has no clinical course to arrange, so the practical question for most Oregon nurses is admission itself.
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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