Samford NP students in South Dakota: clinicals and licensing
South Dakotans can apply to all of Samford's FNP and PMHNP tracks, and Samford's 2025 disclosure finds the tracks sufficient for South Dakota licensure. The Board of Nursing treats placement agreements as the school's business with the clinic but wants program faculty able to practice in the state, a point to raise with Samford before your first rotation.
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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.
What Samford publishes for South Dakota
South Dakota does not appear among the 16 states Samford closes to nurse practitioner applicants. The state's row in Samford's NP disclosure, dated September 3, 2025, links to the Board of Nursing's CNP licensing page, and Samford's verdict for South Dakota matches its other accepted states: the NP master's and doctoral tracks satisfy the educational requirements for licensure.
| Program | South Dakota applicants | Licensure finding |
|---|---|---|
| FNP (MSN, ADN to MSN, BSN to DNP, MSN to DNP) | Accepted | Meets (September 3, 2025) |
| PMHNP (MSN, ADN to MSN, MSN to DNP) | Accepted | Meets (September 3, 2025) |
| Post-graduate FNP and PMHNP certificates | Accepted | Not named in a disclosure |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | No state bar; two online semesters, then campus and assigned sites | Meets (August 28, 2025) |
| Online RN to BSN | Accepted | Meets (BSN disclosure) |
Read the state authorization guide for how Samford marks each state.
How the South Dakota Board views an Alabama school
South Dakota's Board publishes an information sheet for programs based elsewhere, revised June 2020, saying the Board does not approve them. Placing a student with a patient-care site in South Dakota is a matter for the school to settle with the clinic or the individual preceptor, which puts the weight on Samford's own affiliation agreement with your clinic.
The Board does want at least one of the school's faculty cleared to practice in South Dakota: an in-state APRN license, or the privilege to practice, when the students are APRN students. Rule ARSD 20:48:07:49 on distance education says the same about instructors of APRN students living in the state. That piece belongs to Samford, so ask your program coordinator how it is handled before you plan dates; state rules are a stated ground for denying a clinical rotation request.
Preceptors, specialty fit and hours
AANP counts South Dakota as full practice, though a newly certified NP first spends 1,040 hours collaborating in writing with a physician, certified nurse midwife or fellow certified NP, so a recent graduate precepting you may still be in that stage. The Board's standard for in-state programs asks that an APRN preceptor's own role and specialty resemble what the student studies, a fair test for any Samford match: family practice for NURG 724, psychiatric care for NURG 788 to NURG 790.
The Sioux Falls metro holds about 305,000 South Dakotans and the Rapid City metro about 157,000, per 2025 Census estimates, with the Aberdeen area near 42,000. NP students in the state look at systems such as Avera Health, Monument Health and Sanford Health, whose student processes differ. Sanford Health, spelled with an n, is a separate organization from Samford University.
Licensing: two compacts and the Minnesota edge
For Samford, your RN license must be current and clean in the state where you practice and in each clinical state. South Dakota has issued multistate licenses since the compact's January 2018 launch, but Minnesota stays outside it, and the Sioux Falls metro spills across that border: a clinic in the Minnesota portion needs that state's RN license. North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska and Iowa are compact states too, but each is on Samford's NP exclusion list; that list governs applications, so get Samford's view before arranging a clinic in any of them.
South Dakota signed the APRN Compact in February 2024, yet it remains dormant: five states have enacted it, seven are needed, and NCSBN announced a redesign effort with state boards in May 2026. See the RN license guide for every Samford state.
Why South Dakota students choose us
South Dakota's guidance leaves placements to the school and the site, which makes the first introduction count. Samford's connections passage treats professional and personal ties as the path to a nearby placement, and those ties are what we bring: a preceptor near your town whose specialty fits the Samford course, with the paperwork details Samford asks for when it adds a clinic, sent early. We remain on call all term and replace a preceptor who drops. Begin at the form below.
Questions Samford students ask
Can I take Samford's online PMHNP program from South Dakota?
Yes. South Dakota is not on Samford's exclusion list, so you can choose the psychiatric track at the master's, post-master's doctoral or certificate level, or any FNP route. The psychiatric rotations are local to you; the one or two PMHNP intensives bring you to Birmingham, Alabama.
Does the South Dakota Board of Nursing need to approve Samford?
The Board's guidance says it approves no out-of-state schools and leaves the placement contract to the school and the local site. What it does expect is a program faculty member able to practice as an APRN in South Dakota. Ask Samford how it handles that before your rotation request goes in.
Is Sanford Health part of Samford University?
No. Sanford Health is a health system operating in South Dakota, and Samford University is in Birmingham, Alabama; the names differ by one letter. Like Avera Health or Monument Health, Sanford Health is an example of where NP students look, and its own student process plus Samford's approval decide whether a rotation there works.
Will Samford's program satisfy South Dakota's APRN licensure rules?
Samford's 2025 disclosure reports that its NP degrees meet South Dakota's licensure requirements. For APRN licensure the Board looks for 500 or more supervised hours in your role and population from a graduate program, along with graduate coursework in pathophysiology or physiology, pharmacology, and health assessment. Samford's FNP and PMHNP plans list 750 clinical hours or more.
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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