Rivier University graduate nursing from West Virginia
Rivier University's State Guide skips West Virginia, so no program shows a color for students there and the guide cannot tell you whether Rivier can accept you. Ask Rivier's graduate admissions office before you apply. West Virginia itself sends graduate clinical questions away from its nursing board, and AANP classes it as reduced practice, which affects the preceptors you will meet.
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.
Off the chart: get Rivier's answer first
West Virginia is one of the handful of states with no row on Rivier's guide. With no color there is nothing to infer, whether you want the FNP, the PMHNP, the DNP or the fully online Nursing Education and Leadership tracks.
Graduate admissions at Rivier (its formal name: Office of Graduate and Professional Studies Admissions) can tell you where West Virginia stands for your track, so ask before you submit an application. Our State Guide page explains what the colors mean in listed states.
Who oversees graduate clinicals in West Virginia
West Virginia's RN board (its formal title is the West Virginia Board of Registered Nurses) limits its program oversight to pre-licensure education, and a different board licenses LPNs. Pre-licensure schools from other states submit an approval application to the RN board before bringing students to West Virginia facilities. Graduate programs are sent in another direction, toward their national nursing accreditor and the Higher Education Policy Commission, known as WVHEPC.
An office inside WVHEPC that handles nursing education and workforce has written a clinical rotation guide for schools outside the state. It ties WVHEPC approval for graduate and APRN clinicals to two triggers: an institution outside NC-SARA, or 10 or more students at a single site. Rivier's catalog lists Rivier as an NC-SARA member; the Clinical Practicum Coordinator can confirm how the guide applies to your placement.
Reduced practice and your preceptor
On AANP's map, West Virginia is reduced practice. For their first three years, NPs there prescribe only within a physician collaborative agreement, and Schedule II narcotic prescriptions stop at a three-day supply.
Rivier's track rules decide who can precept you. FNP students need an outpatient family practice preceptor (an MD, a DO or an FNP) with a two-year practice history, and PMHNP students need a psychiatrist or a nurse holding PMH certification, also with two years; see the FNP preceptor rules.
Where West Virginians live and train
- Metros: Charleston, Morgantown, Huntington-Ashland, a metro crossing into Kentucky and Ohio, and Hagerstown-Martinsburg, which West Virginia shares with Maryland.
- Major systems: WVU Medicine; Marshall Health Network; and Vandalia Health, which brings together CAMC (Charleston Area Medical Center), Mon Health and Davis Health.
- These systems are named from their own sites as places NP students look, not as Rivier partners.
License rules and trips to Nashua
West Virginia's compact membership took effect in January 2018. On licenses, the WVHEPC rotation guide says a graduate or APRN student who lives in West Virginia trains there on a valid West Virginia RN license, and one whose primary residence is another compact state trains on a multistate license. Rivier asks for a license good in the practicum state, and a West Virginia multistate license also covers New Hampshire. West Virginia has not adopted the APRN Compact.
Plan also for Nashua: FNP students attend three intensives (nine days all told), the PMHNP cohort meets for three weekends, and AG-ACNP students spend ten days on campus. Dates for the FNP sessions are on our campus intensives page.
Why West Virginia students choose us
Once Rivier confirms you can enroll from West Virginia, we handle the search from start to finish. That means in-person preceptors near your home who match your track's Handbook rules, a finished Preceptor Request Form packet carrying the preceptor's license, credentials and CV, and a schedule counted back from Rivier's four-month lead time. When the file reaches Rivier's graduate faculty and Clinical Practicum Coordinator for approval, it arrives in one piece. Start here.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can I apply to Rivier's online PMHNP from West Virginia?
West Virginia is missing from Rivier's State Guide, so the PMHNP has no published status for residents there. Before applying, write to graduate admissions and name the PMHNP. With Rivier's go-ahead, your preceptor would be a psychiatrist or PMH-certified nurse who has practiced two years or longer.
What license covers a Rivier practicum in Morgantown?
If you make your home in West Virginia, the state's rotation guide calls for a West Virginia RN license, and a multistate version also covers New Hampshire. Rivier's own rule looks for a license good where the practicum takes place. The practicum license page explains Rivier's side.
Can a West Virginia NP with fewer than three years in practice precept a Rivier FNP student?
West Virginia's three-year collaborative agreement concerns an NP's prescriptive practice. Rivier's own yardstick for FNP preceptors is two years or more in outpatient family practice. Rivier's graduate faculty decide on every site, so share the preceptor's license and CV early.
What if I move to West Virginia during the program?
Rivier wants the Dean told in writing no less than 90 days before you relocate. Because West Virginia carries no status on the guide, add a question to graduate admissions alongside that notice. Checking for barriers falls to you under the Handbook. See our moving guide.
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.