Vermont clinicals for Samford nurse practitioner students
Vermonters may enroll in any Samford FNP or PMHNP track, and Samford's 2025 disclosure reports that the tracks satisfy Vermont's licensure education rules. Vermont's rules say little about schools from elsewhere placing students, yet its Board is exacting on the question of who can precept APRN students, and two neighboring states sit on Samford's excluded list.
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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.
Vermont in Samford's disclosure
Samford's NP tracks decline applicants from 16 states, and Vermont is not among them. The Vermont row in the September 3, 2025 disclosure links to the state's Board of Nursing, and the disclosure's finding for Vermont is that Samford's NP master's and doctorate meet the educational bar for licensure.
| Samford program | Vermont applicants | Licensure |
|---|---|---|
| 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) |
| FNP and PMHNP post-graduate certificates | Accepted | No disclosure names them |
| Nurse Anesthesia DNP | No state bar; online for two semesters, then Birmingham | Meets (August 28, 2025) |
| Online RN to BSN | Accepted | Meets (BSN disclosure) |
The state authorization guide explains Samford's markings.
A quiet rulebook for out-of-state programs
Vermont's nursing rules took effect May 11, 2023, and Part 5 forbids operating an education program in the state unless the Board has approved it; the exception is a fully online program cleared by the state's Agency of Education. We searched the rules, the Board's FAQ and the statutes and turned up nothing aimed squarely at a school from another state sending students into Vermont clinics.
One wrinkle: the statute exempting nursing students from licensure, 26 V.S.A. 1583(2), speaks of practice incidental to study in programs the Vermont Board has approved. Samford already insists on your RN license in each rotation state, but how Vermont views an Alabama school's clinicals is a question only Samford can settle. Raise it before a preceptor says yes, because Samford can deny a clinical rotation request over state rules.
Who may teach an APRN student in Vermont
Vermont's Board FAQ spells it out. The preceptor has to be an APRN or a physician holding an unencumbered Vermont license, experienced in the same role and population focus as you, and in direct contact with Samford faculty. PAs are excluded from precepting APRN students. For Samford, that points FNP students toward Vermont family NPs or physicians for NURG 723 and NURG 724, and PMHNP students toward psychiatric NPs or psychiatrists for NURG 788 to NURG 790.
Vermont is a full practice state on AANP's map, yet NPs early in their careers keep a Vermont-licensed physician or APRN as formal collaborator, shedding that requirement only after 24 months and 2,400 hours of practice. NP students look at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, part of the Dartmouth Health family, at Rutland Regional, and at three University of Vermont Health hospitals: Porter, Central Vermont and UVM Medical Center. Burlington-South Burlington, the largest metro, held about 228,000 people in 2025 Census estimates. A 2022 incentive grant for preceptors at Vermont's critical access hospitals was a one-time program for Vermont schools' students, and we found no trace of it after fiscal 2023.
Licensing along the New Hampshire and New York lines
Your RN license has to be unencumbered both in your home practice state and wherever you rotate, per Samford's handbook. Compact membership began for Vermont in February 2022. Under Board Rule 4.1, a multistate license from any other compact state is enough to practice in Vermont; a Vermont license becomes necessary only when Vermont turns into the nurse's primary state of residence. Vermont has not enacted the APRN Compact.
The borders take care. New York is outside the compact, Massachusetts has enacted it but targets May 2027 to start, and both New Hampshire and New York appear on Samford's NP exclusion list. Samford's public documents address applicants from those states, not rotations in them, so check with your program coordinator before you plan a clinic in the Lebanon area or across Lake Champlain. Our RN license guide covers each Samford state.
Why Vermont students work with us
In a small state with specific preceptor rules, the right introduction saves a semester. Samford names personal and professional connections as the route to placements near home, and we supply them: a Vermont-licensed APRN or physician near you whose role and population focus fit the Samford course, plus the site information Samford reviews before adding an agreement. Your advisor stays reachable through the whole term. Start with the form below.
Questions Samford students ask
Can a Vermont resident take Samford's online FNP or PMHNP program?
Yes. Nothing in Samford's exclusion list touches Vermont, so both specialties are available at every level Samford offers. Rotations stay in Vermont, while on-campus intensives take you south to Birmingham: two or three for FNP students, one or two for PMHNP students.
Is a PA allowed to precept a Vermont NP student?
Not under Vermont's Board guidance, which rules out physician assistants as preceptors for APRN students. Look for a Vermont-licensed APRN or physician, license unencumbered, whose experience matches your role and population. Samford approves the final choice under the policies in its NP Clinical Manual.
Could I do a rotation at a Dartmouth Health site in New Hampshire?
Ask Samford first. A Vermont multistate license reaches New Hampshire, a compact state, but New Hampshire is also one of the states whose residents Samford's NP tracks decline. Whether a site there can host a current student is a question for your program coordinator.
How early should a Vermont student line up a preceptor?
Samford does not post NP lead times publicly, so check the Nurse Practitioner Homeroom on Canvas or ask your program coordinator. Expect a Vermont clinic to need a fresh agreement, given that Samford's agreements cluster in the Southeast, and begin the search a full term ahead, earlier still for NURG 724.
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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