Samford NP clinicals in North Carolina
Samford takes North Carolina applicants in all of its NP tracks and rates those tracks sufficient for North Carolina licensure. The state's Board of Nursing keeps graduate programs outside its approval process, your multistate license works here, and NPs practice under a career-long physician agreement, which shapes who precepts you and how.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Samford program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Samford course.
North Carolina on Samford's lists
In Samford's NP licensure disclosure, dated as of September 3, 2025, North Carolina carries no asterisk, and its row links to the North Carolina Board of Nursing. No NP program page names it among the closed states.
One document disagrees by omission. Samford's older State Authorization list, internally dated January 2020, has no North Carolina row at all, though its own text covers 49 SARA member states. SARA membership for North Carolina dates to June 2016, and NC-SARA lists it today. For NP applications, the current disclosure and program pages are what Samford applies.
| Samford program | North Carolina applicants | Licensure statement |
|---|---|---|
| FNP MSN (BSN or ADN entry) | Yes | Meets |
| PMHNP MSN (BSN or ADN entry) | Yes | Meets |
| FNP DNP and PMHNP DNP | Yes | Meets |
| FNP and PMHNP certificates | Yes | Not published |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | No state bar; online only at the start | Meets |
| Online RN to BSN | Yes | Meets (BSN disclosure) |
What the NC Board oversees, and what it leaves to schools
North Carolina's visiting-program rule, 21 NCAC 36 .0233, concerns pre-licensure students. For them, the host agency's chief nursing administrator files with the Board 30 or more days before the rotation begins, attaching the home state's approval, faculty credentials and proof that the preceptor practices on an active North Carolina RN license.
Samford NP students are licensed RNs already, and the Board's education FAQ places post-licensure graduate and doctoral study, along with RN to BSN, beyond its reach; it neither approves nor disapproves such programs, in state or out. The same FAQ adds two points. Graduate students without a North Carolina or multistate license are sent to the Board's Licensure Department to learn what training in North Carolina requires, and a student of a SARA institution could qualify to complete clinicals there while taking that school's online courses.
The Board stepping back from graduate programs leaves Samford's own review in place. Its handbook still lets a clinical rotation request fall on state rules, so ask your program coordinator how North Carolina rotations are handled.
Restricted practice: the physician behind every NP
On AANP's map North Carolina is restricted. Each NP there needs a physician agreement for as long as they practice, and a panel of the nursing and medical boards jointly oversees NP licensure. Whoever precepts your NURG 723, NURG 724 or the 300-hour NURG 730 NP Practicum therefore works inside a physician partnership, and that physician may be a candidate too; Samford approves each preceptor. The preceptor requirements page explains what to confirm.
Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and Winston-Salem
The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro is home to about 2.5 million North Carolinians in 2025 Census estimates, with Raleigh-Cary at 1,595,720, Greensboro-High Point at 805,945 and Winston-Salem at 712,206. Among large systems, students name Atrium Health (now within Advocate Health) and Novant Health, along with UNC Health, Duke Health and ECU Health. Treat them as places NP students look, not sites committed to Samford.
North Carolina sits in the Southeast, where Samford says most of its hundreds of affiliation agreements are, but the clinic you want may still need a new one; the affiliation agreements page explains the request. Research found no North Carolina preceptor incentive.
Licensing: compact since 2018, with open neighbors
North Carolina's compact membership took effect January 19, 2018. With North Carolina as your primary residence, your multistate license also reaches South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia, each a compact state and each open to Samford NP applicants. That covers the licensing side of Samford's handbook in all five states. A Charlotte student eyeing a clinic in South Carolina still needs Samford's approval of that site; see the South Carolina and Virginia guides.
Why North Carolina students choose us
Your placement advisor searches where you live, checks each preceptor's license and physician agreement, and fits the preceptor to the exact Samford course. We put together the preceptor and site information your rotation request needs, time the search so a new agreement can clear, and stay reachable through the term. Start your request.
Questions Samford students ask
Can I apply to Samford's PMHNP program from North Carolina?
Yes: the PMHNP MSN, ADN to MSN, MSN to DNP and certificate all accept North Carolina applicants. Samford's plans total 750 psychiatric clinical hours: 75 in NURG 767, then 150, 225 and 300 in NURG 788, NURG 789 and NURG 790. The track adds one or two intensives in Birmingham. Our PMHNP MSN page has the full plan.
I just moved to North Carolina with a license from a non-compact state. What now?
Two calls. The Board points graduate students who lack both a North Carolina license and a multistate one to its Licensure Department for the rules on training in the state. Samford's handbook separately makes relocating students responsible for notifying their program coordinator, and your state location follows the permanent address you keep current in Banner.
Does SARA cover my Samford clinicals in North Carolina?
Partly. Samford takes part in SARA, and North Carolina's Board says SARA students can sometimes train clinically in the state while studying online with their school. Samford's own consumer information page adds that SARA distance education comes with restrictions tied to clinicals, and SARA never settles licensure. Your license and Samford's rotation review still decide.
Will North Carolina license me as an NP after Samford?
Samford's September 2025 disclosure lists North Carolina among the states where its MSN and DNP NP tracks meet the educational bar for licensure, while each board still decides individual applications. North Carolina then licenses NPs through its joint subcommittee and expects a physician agreement for practice. Our certification exams page covers the national exam step.
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.