Rivier's CastleBranch requirements, item by item
Rivier University keeps every clinical requirement in CastleBranch, in a myCB account you open and pay for, and all of it has to be on record before any clinical or practicum course starts. Graduate students work to a firmer date: requirements are due four months before practicum courses. This page lists every item, which ones renew, and what a gap in the file costs.
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.
What CastleBranch does in Rivier's clinical process
CastleBranch is where Rivier checks that you are cleared for clinical work. You set up a myCB account at castlebranch.com, upload each document to it, and pay the fees that come with it; Rivier's Nursing Student Handbook places those costs on the student. Nothing can be outstanding when a clinical or practicum course opens: the whole list must already be on file.
The Clinical/Practicum coordinator sets the due dates. For graduate students, the Handbook adds an outer limit of four months before practicum courses, the same lead time Rivier suggests for securing the placement itself.
Your myCB file runs on a separate track from the placement paperwork. The Preceptor Request Form and the contract with your site move on their own timeline, and no practicum hour counts until the Clinical Practicum Coordinator has signed off that every document and contract is in.
Every item on Rivier's list
Rivier's Handbook sets these requirements for students entering clinical and practicum courses, and they are stored in CastleBranch. Items with a guide of their own are linked under the table.
| Requirement | What Rivier's Handbook asks for |
|---|---|
| MMR | Two doses or titers |
| Varicella | Two doses or a titer |
| Hepatitis B | A positive titer |
| Tdap | Tdap, with a Td booster when the Tdap is over 10 years old |
| Influenza | A flu vaccine every year by September 30; only a medical waiver from your PCP is accepted |
| Tuberculosis | A 2-step skin test, QuantiFERON or T-SPOT every year; after a positive history, a chest X-ray within 5 years and a yearly PCP symptom check |
| Physical exam | Every year, on the DNHP health record form |
| Color vision | A color-vision test |
| Health insurance | Proof of coverage for the whole program |
| Medical release | The Authorization to Release Medical Information form |
| Background check | Every year, through the Division's contracted agency; outside checks are not accepted |
| Drug screen | Every year, through the Division's contracted agency; random and targeted testing possible |
| CPR | BLS from the American Heart Association or American Red Cross, current at all times |
| Liability coverage | Rivier's professional liability policy, with an annual fee |
| Bloodborne pathogens | Stericycle Bloodborne Pathogens Training |
| Orientation | The Centralized Clinical Placement (CCP) online orientation every August |
On top of the list, graduate students hand in three items of their own: proof of RN licensure in the practicum's state, an up-to-date resume, and Rivier's Student Information Sheet for Clinical Experience. The license rule, including New Hampshire and multistate licenses, is explained on the RN license page. Shots and TB testing have their own immunizations and TB guide.
The four-month deadline in calendar terms
Graduate students complete their clinical requirements and upload them four months before practicum courses start. On Rivier's 2026-27 calendar the fall semester opens September 8, 2026, so a fall practicum points back to early May. Spring 2027 opens January 18, which puts the four-month mark in mid-September 2026, and summer opens May 10, 2027, which puts it in early January.
The records clock and the placement clock run side by side. Rivier suggests securing the placement four months out as well, and the current Handbook's hard cutoffs are August 1 ahead of fall and December 1 ahead of spring; the older 2018 form used May 1 and September 1. The placement deadlines guide compares the two sets of dates.
A file that was complete for your first practicum is not automatically complete for the next one. Several items expire on a yearly cycle, so recheck every date before each practicum semester.
What renews and when
Most of the list is gathered once. The rest runs on a cycle, and those are the items that catch students out in their second or third practicum.
Items on a cycle
- Flu vaccine: every year, on file by September 30.
- TB test: every year, whichever of the three accepted tests you use.
- Physical: every year, on the DNHP health record form.
- Background check: every year, before the academic year starts.
- Drug screen: every year, and random or targeted testing can come in between.
- CCP orientation: every August.
- Liability coverage: billed annually while you take clinical courses.
- BLS: current at all times, so renew before the expiry date, not after it.
The yearly pair of screenings has its own page, background check and drug screen. Health insurance works differently again: it has to cover the whole program, including semesters with no practicum in them.
What a missing record costs you
Rivier treats a gap in the file as grounds to pause clinical work. The Handbook's list of outcomes runs from exclusion from clinical to a hold on your registration and removal from clinical courses, and undergraduates also risk fines and clinical make-up fees. A graduate student's practicum can be put on hold until whatever is missing comes in.
The placement policy adds a bigger cost. Anyone who reaches the deadline lacking either a confirmed placement or a complete record is asked to defer to a later semester. Because the practicums run in a set order across semesters, a deferral usually pushes the later ones back as well, and with them your graduation date.
Hours logged before the Clinical Practicum Coordinator confirms your documents and contracts do not count, however ready your preceptor is.
Site requirements on top of Rivier's
Rivier's checklist is the baseline. The older 2018 practicum form puts the placement agency's requirements above Rivier's own, so a hospital or practice can ask for extra items, different forms or earlier dates.
A site can also decline a student. Rivier's Handbook gives two examples, a background check result and a vaccine exemption, and makes clear that a refusal leaves Rivier under no duty to line up a different site. The steps that follow a refusal are laid out in when an agency says no.
The practical answer is to ask every site, before you commit, what its own onboarding involves, then finish its items in the same window as your myCB uploads.
Why Rivier students bring us in early
We plan your preceptor search on the same calendar CastleBranch runs on. From your practicum semester we work back to the four-month mark and the August 1 or December 1 deadline, and aim to have a qualified preceptor and site ready for Rivier's review well before either one.
For every site we present, we find out what its onboarding asks of students, so those items land on your list at the start rather than in week one. The Preceptor Request Form wants your preceptor's CV, license and credentials, and Rivier's contract wants the site's details; we assemble both. Approval of the site and preceptor belongs to Rivier's graduate faculty and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, and our part is handing them a package that is complete and already fits Rivier's rules. Read about our process, or send your details through the form below.
Questions Rivier students ask
Who pays for CastleBranch as a Rivier nursing student?
You do. Rivier's Nursing Student Handbook assigns the fees tied to your CastleBranch record to the student, and the same goes for the testing behind the background check and drug screen. Other practicum charges, such as Rivier's yearly liability fee and agency ID cards, are covered in the placement costs guide.
Can I start practicum hours while a myCB item is still pending?
No. Rivier expects the full file to be in place before your clinical or practicum course opens, and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator signs off on documents and contracts before hours count. A graduate practicum can be paused while something is missing, and no hour logged before the semester's opening day counts in any case.
Will Rivier accept a background check my employer already ran?
No. The Handbook sends every background check through the Division's contracted investigative agency and turns away checks run anywhere else, however recent. The yearly drug screen follows the same route. Plan to order both through Rivier's process each year before the academic year begins.
Does the September 30 flu deadline apply if my practicum is in spring?
Yes. The Handbook sets September 30 as the yearly flu vaccine date for clinical students, with no separate date for spring or summer practicums. Its one exception is a medical waiver signed by your PCP. If you missed the date, tell the Clinical Practicum Coordinator before your practicum semester starts, not after.
Who decides my CastleBranch due dates at Rivier?
The Clinical/Practicum coordinator sets them, according to the Handbook. Graduate students should treat four months before practicum courses as the outer limit, since complete records are also a condition of keeping your placement for that semester. If two dates you have been given disagree, ask the coordinator which one governs your file.
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.