Samford NP clinicals in Mississippi
Samford welcomes Mississippi applicants to all of its NP tracks, and its licensure disclosure finds the tracks sufficient for Mississippi. Mississippi also reviews out-of-state programs whose students train inside its borders, and that review belongs to the state's higher education trustees (IHL), not the Board of Nursing. It can take months, so start the conversation with Samford long before your clinical term.
Plan a Mississippi rotation
Share your Mississippi town, your Samford track and when your next clinical course begins.
Samford's Mississippi status
Mississippi carries no asterisk in the NP disclosure Samford dated September 3, 2025, and it is nowhere in the closed-state table the six NP program pages share. Here is how each program reads for a Mississippi resident.
| Program | Mississippi applicants | Samford's licensure statement |
|---|---|---|
| FNP MSN, BSN or ADN entry | Accepted | Meets |
| PMHNP MSN, BSN or ADN entry | Accepted | Meets |
| FNP and PMHNP DNP | Accepted | Meets |
| Post-graduate NP certificates | Accepted | No disclosure published |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | No state bar; campus-based after two online semesters | Meets |
| Online RN to BSN | Accepted | Meets (BSN disclosure) |
IHL's review when an outside program trains students in Mississippi
In Mississippi, degree-level nursing programs answer to IHL, while the Board of Nursing's approval work covers practical nursing (LPN) programs. IHL's nursing education office says that an undergraduate or graduate nursing program from another state that offers clinical experiences in Mississippi is held to Mississippi's standards. It counts a clinical practicum inside the state as physical presence, which brings the program under IHL Nursing Education review.
IHL expects the review to run as long as three months, and its procedures manual (the August 2024 edition, Appendix S) asks a program governed from another state to file its request no later than four months before it begins. Separately, the program needs SARA participation or, failing that, distance-education authorization from MCCA. NC-SARA's directory lists Samford as a SARA participant.
Whether Samford has completed an IHL review, and for which programs, is not something its public pages address, so raise it with your program coordinator before contacting any Mississippi preceptor. A state rule can sink a clinical rotation request under Samford's handbook, and Mississippi's timeline is the reason to ask early.
License rules for Mississippi clinicals
IHL's standards want each post-licensure student in an APRN clinical course licensed as an RN, without encumbrance, for whatever state hosts the clinical work, and outside programs working in Mississippi are expected to match that. It is the same test Samford's handbook sets.
Mississippi has used the compact since January 19, 2018, two years before Alabama's January 1, 2020 start. According to the Mississippi Board, a nurse who keeps a good record and declares a compact state as primary residence can work across other compact states, and a Mississippi employer has no power to demand a separate remote-state license. An Alabama multistate license therefore covers Mississippi rotations; our RN license requirements page covers other cases.
Collaborative practice and where Mississippi NP students look
Reduced practice is AANP's label for Mississippi. The Board must approve every NP's collaborative relationship, and the collaborator is a physician or dentist holding a Mississippi license. Your preceptor will be working within that arrangement.
Jackson's metro holds 609,847 people in the 2025 Census estimate, Gulfport-Biloxi 431,329 and Hattiesburg 158,014, while the Mississippi share of greater Memphis tops a quarter million. Forrest Health and UMMC come up often in NP searches, as do North Mississippi Health Services, Singing River and Baptist Memorial Health Care, a Memphis-based system that runs Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. None of them is a site reserved for Samford.
North Mississippi Health Services, according to its student page, asks students to confirm first that their school has a clinical affiliation agreement with it; if none exists, the school or the would-be preceptor contacts its Student Experience Navigator, and the student profile checklist asks for the preceptor's name. The same system runs two hospitals in Alabama's Marion County, covered in our Shoals guide.
Why Samford students in Mississippi choose us
Samford's NP pages say its affiliation agreements cluster in the Southeast, invite requests for new ones near a willing preceptor, and lean on students' personal and professional connections. Your placement advisor supplies those connections in Jackson, the Coast, Hattiesburg or north Mississippi, matched to whichever course is next, from NURG 724 family practice to the NURG 790 PMHNP Practicum, and starts early enough for a state review and a new agreement to finish. Begin with the request form.
Questions Samford students ask
Does Mississippi review Samford before I train there?
IHL says out-of-state nursing programs offering clinicals in Mississippi are reviewed by its nursing education office, because a practicum there counts as physical presence. Samford's public pages do not say whether that review is complete for its NP tracks, so check with your program coordinator ahead of any commitment to a Mississippi site.
How early should a Samford student start a Mississippi preceptor search?
Two terms ahead is sensible. IHL allows up to three months for its review and asks programs from outside the state to request it four months in advance, and a new affiliation agreement or a hospital's own checklist can add time. A preceptor found late may not clear every step before the course starts.
Can a physician in a Mississippi collaborative practice precept me?
Alabama's APRN preceptor definition includes physicians as well as APRNs and other appropriately licensed, population-focused clinicians, and Samford approves each preceptor through your rotation request. The collaborating physician, or the NP working with that physician, can both be reasonable choices, depending on the course.
Could I cross the state line into Louisiana for a Samford clinical?
Louisiana is one of the 16 states from which Samford does not accept NP applicants. That list is written for applicants, not rotation sites, so a Louisiana clinic is a question for your program coordinator before you contact anyone there.
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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