EKU from Florida: enrollment status, clinicals and preceptors
Florida is fully open on EKU's state authorization page: both the MSN and RN to BSN licensure tables say Meets Requirements, and EKU attaches no nursing restriction to the state. EKU's online programs need no campus visits, so your clinicals happen in Florida under its restricted NP practice rules, while EKU stays responsible for securing your preceptor.
Plan your Florida clinicals
Tell us your county, your EKU program and your next clinical course. Your placement advisor starts the Florida search from there.
What EKU's page says for Florida
| EKU program | Enrolls Florida residents? | Licensure table result |
|---|---|---|
| MSN Family Nurse Practitioner | Yes | Meets Requirements |
| MSN Psychiatric Mental Health NP | Yes | Meets Requirements |
| Post-MSN FNP and PMHNP certificates | Yes | Meets Requirements (the MSN table covers both) |
| Post-master's DNP | Yes, no DNP restriction published | No table: the DNP does not lead to a license |
| RN to BSN | Yes | Meets Requirements (separate RN-BSN table) |
Florida sits on EKU's list of SARA member states without restrictions and carries no nursing note, so no program is closed and no condition applies. Two habits still count: give EKU the physical address of every supervised placement outside Kentucky, as the graduate catalog requires, and reread the page before each clinical course, because EKU edits it through the year. The state authorization guide walks through the whole page.
Restricted practice and who can precept you in Florida
AANP classes Florida as a restricted-practice state. Some Florida NPs must stay under a physician protocol agreement for as long as they practice, with exemptions possible. The NP you hope to train with may therefore work under a written physician protocol, so ask early how that shapes prescribing and patient flow at the practice.
Kentucky's APRN program regulation, which governs EKU, counts an APRN, a physician or a physician assistant as a preceptor. EKU has not published its own specialty or experience standards, so your faculty judge fit: a family practice clinician for FNP courses, a psychiatric-mental health clinician for PMHNP. Preceptor requirements lays out what EKU has and has not published.
That same regulation makes securing preceptors EKU's job and protects your input, which is how a Florida student can steer a placement toward a clinic near home. The Kentucky rule page explains it.
Florida's board rules and where NP students train
Florida's program-approval law (s. 464.019) targets institutions wishing to run prelicensure nursing education in the state, and Florida's Board of Nursing likewise describes its approval work in prelicensure terms. No Florida provision was found that makes graduate or RN to BSN programs based elsewhere seek the Board's approval, or give it notice, before sending students into Florida clinicals.
More than 14 million Floridians live in four metros. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is the biggest at about 6.4 million, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater comes next, then Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, with Jacksonville fourth. Among the state's systems, UF Health belongs to the University of Florida, AdventHealth is headquartered in Florida, and BayCare Health System, Baptist Health South Florida and HCA Florida Healthcare round out the examples. They are listed as context for a Florida search; none is described here as taking EKU students.
Small-town and rural practices outside those metros can suit the NSC 876 FNP Internship, which EKU's catalog describes as a concentrated rural primary care practicum.
Your RN license for Florida clinicals
January 19, 2018 is when Florida's membership in the updated Nurse Licensure Compact took effect, so a Florida multistate license carries into the other compact states, Kentucky among them. The APRN Compact is a separate matter: Florida has not adopted it, and it still lacks enough member states to start, so Florida NP licensure after graduation goes through the Florida Board of Nursing.
EKU's most recent available MSN Student Handbook (2021-22, archived) asks that each RN license you hold, from any state, be unencumbered, and your license must be valid wherever you train. A restricted license in another state can stall a Florida placement even when your Florida license is clear. Confirm the current rule with your program coordinator, and see RN license and Nursys.
Why Florida EKU students choose us
Your placement advisor starts from your county and your course: a primary care preceptor for NSC 800 and the NSC 876 internship, or a psychiatric-mental health preceptor for PMHNP clinicals leading to NSC 886. We confirm each preceptor's Florida license and protocol arrangement, assemble the preceptor information and site paperwork EKU will look at, and stay on call all term with a replacement search ready if a preceptor steps back. EKU approves every placement, and yours reaches it complete. Tell us your Florida plans on the request form.
Questions EKU students ask
Can I study EKU's online PMHNP while living in Florida?
Yes. EKU's MSN licensure table covers the PMHNP along with the FNP and both post-MSN certificates, and it lists Florida as Meets Requirements with no Florida restriction attached. Your psychiatric clinical hours and the NSC 886 internship would be completed in Florida. EKU publishes no PMHNP hour total, so confirm what you owe with your faculty early.
Does Florida's TEACH funding program cover an EKU clinical placement?
No. Florida's Training, Education, and Clinicals in Health program, run by the Agency for Health Care Administration, supports certain safety-net sites, from FQHCs to rural clinics, that train students. Only accredited programs based in Florida qualify, so a Florida site hosting an EKU student falls outside it.
Can a Florida physician precept my EKU FNP clinicals?
Kentucky's regulation for APRN programs names physicians alongside APRNs and physician assistants, so a physician is not excluded by definition. EKU does not publish its own matching standards, and your faculty decide whether a preceptor suits each course. Ask before you put a physician forward, and say which course the hours are for, since the NSC 876 internship is a rural primary care practicum.
What happens if I leave Florida partway through my EKU program?
Talk to your advisor before you move. EKU warns that relocating after admission could result in removal from the program, and your new state has to be open to your program. A move to Louisiana or Tennessee, for example, would land you where EKU is not accepting nursing students, while most states share the Meets status Florida has.
Can my Florida workplace be my EKU clinical site?
EKU has not published an MSN rule on training at your employer. A 2021 EKU Online story quotes an FNP graduate who chose EKU partly because she could do clinicals where she worked, and EKU approves each site. If your Florida practice fits the course, put it forward as your input. See clinicals where you work.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against EKU's own catalog, program pages and handbooks, and Kentucky's regulations. The current MSN Student Handbook, your course and your faculty have the final word.
EKU secures your preceptor. Your input decides how well it fits your life.
Tell us your EKU program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors in your community who fit the course and prepare everything EKU reviews, so the option you put forward is ready to approve.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family primary care for
NSC 800andNSC 876, psychiatric care forNSC 886 - Preceptor, license and site details organized for EKU's preceptor information form
- In your own community, wherever EKU enrolls students and you hold your RN license
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.