Studying Rivier's online NP programs from Texas
Texas earns green on Rivier University's State Guide in all five graduate columns, so Texans can take the online FNP or PMHNP and complete practicums near home. The Texas Board of Nursing does approve schools from other states before their clinicals, but that process targets pre-licensure programs. For NP students, Texas practice law, the state's size and the distance to Nashua matter more.
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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.
Texas, column by column
| Program | Texas status | What Rivier says it means |
|---|---|---|
| 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 (Professional Practice and Systems Leadership) | Green | OK to accept |
| ASN/BSN pre-licensure | Yellow | Limiting criteria: call the undergraduate program director |
| RN-BSN | Green | OK to accept |
Texas follows the pattern most states on the guide share: graduate programs green, pre-licensure yellow, RN-BSN green. Acute care students get no answer from the chart, which omits the AG-ACNP, so the Program Director is the one to ask; how to read the guide covers the rest.
What the Texas BON's out-of-state rule covers
The Board requires programs from other states to earn its approval before any clinical learning experience takes place in Texas, and NC-SARA participation does not excuse them. Guideline 3.1.3, last revised in May 2026, together with 22 TAC 214.3 and 215.3, points that requirement at pre-licensure vocational and professional RN programs. Graduate and APRN programs sit outside those rules.
Chapter 219 of the Texas rules, which sets APRN education standards, governs programs seeking Texas approval rather than nationally accredited programs from other states. Its section 219.10 still offers a useful picture: preceptors drawn from licensed APRNs and other licensed clinicians, and written agreements tying program, preceptor and agency together, much as Rivier's Preceptor Request Form and affiliation agreement do.
Delegated practice and Texas preceptor incentives
AANP files Texas under restricted practice. Nurse practitioners there work under physician delegation and supervision, maintain written protocols with a physician across their careers, and meet setting limits when prescribing Schedule II drugs. Whether your FNP preceptor is an NP or a physician, the practice runs on that delegation model.
State incentives point elsewhere. Texas's Exemption Program for Clinical Preceptors cuts tuition at public Texas colleges for RN preceptors of undergraduate professional nursing students, and THECB's Nursing Shortage Reduction Program funds Texas nursing programs as institutions. Neither reaches an NP preceptor, so approach a Texas preceptor expecting goodwill rather than a state benefit.
Four big metros to search
Four Texas metros each passed 2.6 million residents in the Census Bureau's 2025 estimates: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, the Houston area, San Antonio and Austin. Systems to research include Houston Methodist and UT Southwestern Medical Center, San Antonio's University Health, and Texas Health Resources and Baylor Scott & White Health. Search inside your own metro; a site you can reach on a workday keeps a semester of clinical days realistic.
License, and the flights to Nashua
Texas has issued multistate RN licenses under the current compact since January 2018. That kind of license answers Rivier's practicum-state rule and carries into New Hampshire for campus days, while Texas has yet to enact the APRN Compact. See the license guide.
The calendar places fall 2026's FNP intensives between August 24 and September 4, and spring's between January 4 and January 15, 2027. PMHNP students spend three weekends on campus; AG-ACNP students, ten days. Plan the trips before you set clinical days.
Why Texas students choose us
We focus your search on the metro where you live, match you with preceptors who meet Rivier's rules for your track, and assemble every document Rivier's form asks for. Your request lands with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator complete, with weeks to spare before Rivier's deadlines, and Rivier's graduate faculty make the final decision on the site with the full picture.
Questions Rivier students ask
Does the Texas BON need to approve Rivier before my NP clinicals?
That approval process is built for pre-licensure vocational and RN programs, and the Board's out-of-state rules leave graduate and APRN programs out. Your Texas site still needs Rivier's own approval plus a signed contract with Rivier, and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator checks both before any hours count.
Can a Texas physician be my Rivier FNP preceptor?
Yes, when that physician, MD or DO, works in outpatient family practice and has at least two years of practice behind them. A PA may fill in on some days but cannot be the primary FNP preceptor. Because Texas NPs practice under physician delegation, a family practice with both an FNP and a delegating physician offers two possible preceptors.
What can I offer a Texas preceptor in place of a state incentive?
Your own organization. Texas's tuition exemption covers RN preceptors in public undergraduate programs, and THECB's grant pages show no preceptor tax credit or NP-preceptor grant. What you can bring instead is a student with paperwork done, dates fixed and a realistic weekly schedule, which busy clinicians notice.
Can I move to Texas partway through Rivier's program?
Texas is green for the FNP and PMHNP, so the move is possible. Rivier's Handbook wants a written notice on the Dean's desk 90 days or more before you relocate, and it places the burden of checking practicum and licensure barriers on the student. Start a Texas preceptor search at the same time; moving during your program covers the process.
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.