Samford NP clinicals in Arkansas
Samford takes Arkansas residents into every NP track, and its licensure disclosure lists Arkansas as a state where those tracks satisfy requirements. Reading the Arkansas State Board of Nursing's rules, our research saw no approval hurdle for a school from another state whose students merely train in Arkansas clinics, though that reading has not been confirmed with Board staff. Planning therefore centers on Samford's approval, your compact license and a preceptor near home.
Find an Arkansas preceptor
Tell us your Arkansas city, your Samford track and the clinical course you need covered next.
Samford and Arkansas applicants
Samford's NP disclosure, current as of September 3, 2025, prints no asterisk beside Arkansas, and the closed-state table on each NP program page skips it. The same holds across Samford's other nursing programs.
| Samford program | Arkansas residents | Licensure (Samford's disclosure) |
|---|---|---|
| FNP MSN, BSN or ADN entry | May apply | Meets |
| PMHNP MSN, BSN or ADN entry | May apply | Meets |
| FNP or PMHNP DNP | May apply | Meets |
| FNP and PMHNP certificates | May apply | No disclosure published |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | No state bar; two online semesters, then campus and assigned sites | Meets |
| Online RN to BSN | May apply | Meets, per the BSN disclosure |
Arkansas Board rules and out-of-state programs
Arkansas regulates schools from other states when they try to open a nursing program in Arkansas itself. In that case the Board's pre-licensure standards (17 CAR Part 125) send the school through the Arkansas Division of Higher Education, its home-state board and national accreditation. The Board's APRN education rules (17 CAR Part 123, Subpart 10) handle APRN programs through deemed status earned by national accreditation. As our research read them, neither set addresses an Alabama school whose students simply do clinical hours in Arkansas.
Arkansas's Nurse Practice Act exempts students of Board-approved programs from licensure for nursing incidental to their studies. A Samford NP student does not lean on that exemption: you practice on your own RN license, which is exactly what Samford's handbook requires in every clinical state.
Board staff were not asked to confirm any of this, so check with Samford before you commit. Samford's handbook lets it deny a clinical rotation request that runs into a state's rules.
Collaborative practice and who can precept
AANP rates Arkansas as reduced practice. Arkansas NPs hold a regulated physician agreement for one or more parts of their practice, and some drugs can be prescribed only through a protocol agreement with a physician. You will see that arrangement in your preceptor's prescribing during NURG 724 and NURG 730.
As an Alabama program, Samford works under the Alabama Board of Nursing's preceptor definition, which reaches beyond NPs to physicians and other properly licensed clinicians in the matching population focus. Samford approves each preceptor, and our guide to preceptor requirements explains the public details.
Where Arkansas NP students look, and the neighbors to watch
In the Census Bureau's 2025 figures, the Little Rock metro and northwest Arkansas's Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro sit well ahead of Fort Smith, which spills into Oklahoma, and Jonesboro, while the Memphis metro takes in part of Arkansas too. UAMS Health, Arkansas Children's, CHI St. Vincent (part of CommonSpirit), Baptist Health in Little Rock and Mercy, the St. Louis-based system with hospitals in Fort Smith and northwest Arkansas, are names Arkansas NP students commonly consider, not sites reserved for Samford.
Arkansas borders two of the 16 states Samford closes to NP applicants, Missouri and Louisiana. That list governs applicants, not clinic addresses, but a rotation in either state is a question for your program coordinator before you approach anyone there. Rotations in Memphis bring in Tennessee's pending legislation, covered on our Tennessee page.
Licensing for Arkansas clinicals
Arkansas built the compact into its Nurse Practice Act (Title 17, Chapter 87, Subchapter 6), and NCSBN's implementation table dates Arkansas's participation to January 19, 2018. An Arkansas multistate license covers Arkansas clinicals and those in other compact states, while Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi are compact states as well. The RN license requirements page covers the exceptions.
Why Samford students in Arkansas choose us
Samford's NP pages describe agreements concentrated in the Southeast, a path to new ones when a nearby preceptor says yes, and a reliance on personal and professional connections to open doors near home. Your placement advisor supplies those connections in Little Rock, northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith or Jonesboro, fits each preceptor to your Samford course, and flags any border-state question before it reaches your rotation request. Begin through the form below.
Questions Samford students ask
Must Samford get the Arkansas Board's approval before my Arkansas clinicals?
Our research found no Arkansas rule or Board guidance aimed at a school from another state that only sends clinical students; the rules cover programs setting up in Arkansas. Board staff were not asked to confirm that, so ask Samford whether anything applies to your site.
Can I live in eastern Arkansas and do my clinicals in Memphis?
Your Arkansas multistate license covers Tennessee through the compact. The open question is Tennessee's 2026 bill pausing approvals for nursing programs based outside Tennessee, whose enactment could not be confirmed. Raise it with Samford before you commit to a Memphis preceptor.
Could a Samford rotation take place in Missouri from northwest Arkansas?
Missouri is on Samford's list of 16 states closed to NP applicants. The list is written for applicants, and Samford publishes nothing about rotations there, so ask your program coordinator first. Staying on the Arkansas side of the line is the simpler plan.
Does Arkansas's physician agreement rule limit who can precept me?
It shapes practice, not eligibility to teach. The agreement governs how Arkansas NPs practice and prescribe. Under Alabama's preceptor definition, an NP working under that agreement or the physician can precept, subject to Samford's approval of the person and the site.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Samford's own program pages, plans of study, the 2026-27 Graduate Nursing Student Handbook and Alabama rules. Your course, your program coordinator and Graduate Student Services have the final word.
Samford says connections are essential. We are the connection.
Tell us your Samford track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare the details Samford needs to approve the rotation, including a new affiliation agreement where one is needed.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult primary care for
NURG 723, family practice across the lifespan forNURG 724, psychiatric care forNURG 788 - Preceptor, license and site details ready for your clinical rotation request
- In your own community, anywhere Samford accepts you and your RN license is valid
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