Samford nurse practitioner clinicals in Rhode Island
Rhode Island residents are eligible for all of Samford's FNP and PMHNP tracks, and Samford's September 3, 2025 disclosure calls those tracks sufficient for Rhode Island licensure. The real work is clinical: preceptors around Providence, Warwick or South County, lined up early enough for Samford to add an affiliation agreement in New England.
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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.
Where Samford stands on Rhode Island
Samford's NP tracks turn away applicants from 16 states, and Rhode Island is not one of them. In the NP licensure disclosure, Rhode Island's row links to the Department of Health's licensing page, and Samford files the state under its heading for places where the NP degrees suffice for licensure and certification.
| Program | Open to Rhode Island applicants | Licensure |
|---|---|---|
| FNP: BSN to MSN, ADN to MSN, BSN to DNP, MSN to DNP | Yes | Meets (NP disclosure, September 3, 2025) |
| PMHNP: BSN to MSN, ADN to MSN, MSN to DNP | Yes | Meets (same disclosure) |
| FNP and PMHNP post-graduate certificates | Yes | Not named in any disclosure |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | No state bar; online for the first two semesters only | Meets (August 28, 2025) |
| Online RN to BSN | Yes | Meets (BSN disclosure) |
How Samford builds these lists, and why the certificates have no disclosure of their own, is covered in the state authorization guide.
Rhode Island's rules for out-of-state clinicals
The state regulation covering nursing education, 216-RICR-40-05-3, centers on approving Rhode Island's own basic nursing programs. When we read it for this guide, nothing in it required a school from another state to win the nursing board's approval before its students start clinicals in a Rhode Island clinic.
One detail deserves an early question. That regulation also tells Board-approved Rhode Island schools to prove, through their agreements with clinical agencies, that they participate actively in a statewide placement registry, without saying whether an Alabama program is covered. Ask Samford how it treats a Rhode Island site before a preceptor commits, because Samford's handbook says a clinical rotation request can be denied based on state rules.
Preceptors from Providence to South County
AANP lists Rhode Island under full practice, so NP-led offices belong in the preceptor pool next to physician practices, with Samford approving each one. The FNP sequence calls for adult primary care in NURG 723, a family practice that sees children in NURG 724 and a strong final site for NURG 730. PMHNP students need psychiatric preceptors for NURG 788 through NURG 790, plus therapy hours for NURG 767.
Census figures for 2025 put the Providence-Warwick metro near 1.7 million people, with about 1.1 million living in Rhode Island itself. NP students in the state often look at the Brown University Health hospitals, CharterCARE, South County Health and Care New England, plus community clinics and private offices. Whether a given clinic can host you comes down to its own student process and to Samford's approval.
Licensing after the 2024 compact change
Samford's graduate handbook requires a current, unencumbered RN license both in your workplace's state and in every rotation state. Rhode Island's return to the Nurse Licensure Compact took effect January 1, 2024, and the Department of Health treats RN licenses it has issued since then to qualified residents as multistate. Holding an older license? Check its multistate status with the Board before planning a rotation outside Rhode Island.
The neighbors differ. Connecticut implemented the compact on October 1, 2025, so a Rhode Island multistate license reaches clinics there. Massachusetts is still waiting: lawmakers approved the compact late in 2024, and its board is aiming at May 2027 to switch it on. Rhode Island has stayed out of the separate APRN Compact. For every other Samford state, see our RN license guide.
Why Rhode Island students work with us
Samford's program pages credit personal and professional connections with landing placements close to home, and that passage is exactly where we come in. A Rhode Island student gets a placement advisor who searches around their own town, fits each preceptor to the exact Samford course, and assembles what Samford needs to set up a new affiliation agreement well ahead of the term. Should a preceptor step away partway through, your advisor is already lining up the next one. Send your course number and planned term through the form below.
Questions Samford students ask
Can I earn a Samford FNP while living in Rhode Island?
Yes. Rhode Island falls outside the 16 states Samford excludes from its NP tracks, so every FNP entry point is open, from the BSN or ADN route into the MSN to the two DNP routes and the certificate. Your rotations stay in Rhode Island, and the two or three FNP intensives take you to Birmingham, Alabama.
Does Samford already have clinical sites in Rhode Island?
Samford's public pages do not list its agencies. Its agreements number in the hundreds, mostly with Southeastern agencies, and students may ask for new ones when a willing preceptor practices nearby. Plan on a Rhode Island clinic needing a new agreement unless Samford tells you otherwise.
Do I need a Massachusetts license for a clinic just over the state line?
For now, yes. Massachusetts lawmakers adopted the Nurse Licensure Compact, but the state's nursing board says multistate licenses from elsewhere carry no privilege to practice there until implementation is complete. Samford's handbook requires a license in every clinical state, so hold a Massachusetts RN license before your first clinical day in that state.
Who can precept my PMHNP hours in Rhode Island?
Samford approves every preceptor, and its NP preceptor criteria are not on the public site; enrolled students find Samford's clinical policies in the NP Clinical Manual in Canvas. Alabama's Board defines an APRN program preceptor as an APRN, a physician or another suitably licensed clinician in the right population focus. For NURG 788 to NURG 790, that usually points to a psychiatric NP or a psychiatrist. See PMHNP clinicals.
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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