Samford nurse practitioner clinicals in Hawaii
Samford accepts nurse practitioner applicants who live in Hawaii, and its September 2025 disclosure finds the NP tracks sufficient for licensure there. Two facts shape the rest: the islands sit outside the Nurse Licensure Compact, so rotations run on a Hawaii-issued RN license, and the preceptor pool is split by ocean, so the search starts on your home island.
Find a preceptor on your island
Tell us your island, your Samford program and the clinical course coming up next.
Hawaii in Samford's disclosures
Samford's statement for its MSN and DNP nurse practitioner tracks, current as of September 3, 2025, gives Hawaii's row no asterisk, and none of Samford's NP program pages puts Hawaii on its list of refused states. That Hawaii row links to the nursing board's statutes and rules. An older Samford list of authorized states, carrying a 2020 date in its title, also names Hawaii under every heading.
| Samford program | Hawaii applicants | Licensure finding |
|---|---|---|
| FNP: MSN, ADN to MSN, BSN to DNP, MSN to DNP | Accepted | Meets |
| PMHNP: MSN, ADN to MSN, MSN to DNP | Accepted | Meets |
| FNP and PMHNP post-graduate certificates | Accepted | Not published; no disclosure names them |
| Nurse anesthesia DNP | Accepted with conditions: two online semesters, then Birmingham and assigned sites | Meets |
| Online RN to BSN | Accepted | Meets, under the BSN disclosure |
Hawaii's board still decides each APRN application, as Samford's disclosure itself notes. Our state authorization guide explains the lists.
What Hawaii's board says about out-of-state students
Hawaii's board has addressed outside programs in writing, though nothing it has published names graduate or APRN programs. The licensing law, HRS 457-13, excuses from licensure only students of programs the Hawaii board accredits, and in September 2016 its Education Committee told a North Dakota BSN program it could not send an unlicensed student to Hawaii clinicals. You hold an RN license, so that ruling does not describe you.
When a post-licensure program has no campus in Hawaii, the board's FAQ says there is nothing to apply for and no notice to file, and that faculty need a Hawaii license only while teaching or precepting a student in person on the islands. The FAQ uses degree-completion and bridge programs as its examples. Because no Hawaii source speaks to NP programs, ask Samford how it treats a Hawaii rotation before you secure a preceptor: its handbook lets it refuse a clinical rotation request that state rules stand in the way of.
Honolulu, Maui and the Big Island: where to look
Oahu holds most of the state's clinical capacity. Census Bureau estimates for 2025 count 160,674 people around Kahului-Wailuku on Maui and 210,043 in Hilo-Kailua, far behind Honolulu. Students tend to start with the Queen's Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation and Hawaii Pacific Health, whose hospitals include Kapiolani, Straub, Pali Momi and Wilcox. Read them as a map of where clinicians work, with no Samford connection implied.
AANP rates Hawaii a full practice state, so island NPs work on their own license and many make natural candidates for Samford's approval. Your first FNP rotation, NURG 723, wants an adult primary care clinic, and NURG 724 wants a family practice with pediatric patients; PMHNP students look for a psychiatric prescriber through NURG 788 to NURG 790 and a therapist's setting for the NURG 767 hours. A preceptor on another island means flights, and Samford neither arranges nor reimburses clinical travel (travel planning).
A Hawaii RN license for every island rotation
Hawaii is not a compact member, and NCSBN's map records no compact bill pending there. A multistate license issued in Alabama or elsewhere gives you nothing on the islands, so your clinicals run on a license from Hawaii's board. Samford's graduate handbook wants an unencumbered RN license both where you practice and where you rotate; for a student who lives and trains in Hawaii, that is one and the same license.
The limit also runs toward the mainland. Clinical hours near family in another state would need a license that state recognizes, since a Hawaii license carries no multistate privilege. The APRN Compact is not operating anywhere, so your NP license after graduation will also come from Hawaii's board. See RN license requirements.
Why Samford students in Hawaii work with us
Samford's NP pages credit personal and professional connections with making a placement near home possible, and most of Samford's clinical agreements are with agencies in the Southeast, an ocean away. We supply that connection on your island. Your placement advisor shortlists Oahu, Maui or Big Island clinicians who fit the specific Samford course, verifies Hawaii licensure for you and the preceptor, and assembles the site and preceptor details Samford reviews, including anything a new affiliation agreement needs, timed around your trips to Birmingham for on-campus intensives. Should a preceptor drop out partway through a course, your advisor lines up the next one. Start with the form below.
Questions Samford students ask
Does Hawaii's preceptor tax credit cover someone who precepts a Samford student?
Probably not. Hawaii's credit rewards preceptors who live in Hawaii and run a primary care practice there, whether physicians, APRNs or pharmacists, once the Department of Health certifies a volunteer rotation. Its FAQ confines it to students from schools accredited in or based in Hawaii with a mostly local enrollment, and an Alabama university fits neither test.
Can I split Samford clinical hours between two islands?
Samford publishes no rule against it, so the questions are approval and cost. Each site needs Samford's approval, and Samford does not arrange or reimburse travel. With clinical weeks of 10 to 20 hours, flying in for a whole rotation is hard to sustain, so most students stay on their home island and look elsewhere only for a specialty missing nearby.
How often will I fly to Birmingham during a Samford NP program?
That depends on your track. FNP students in the MSN and certificate attend two or three intensives in Birmingham, BSN to DNP students three sessions lasting two to four days each, and PMHNP students one or two, which the PMHNP DNP allows on campus or by telehealth. A transpacific trip eats into clinical weeks, so share each date with your preceptor the day Samford announces it.
Is Hawaii one of the states Samford turns away?
No. Every one of the 16 states closed to Samford NP applicants is on the mainland, from Arizona and California to New York and Pennsylvania. Hawaii residents can apply to every open Samford NP track, and the post-graduate certificates use the same state table, even though Samford's disclosures never mention the certificates by name.
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
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.