Illinois residents in EKU's online nursing programs
On EKU's side, Illinois is simple: no restriction, no state note, and Meets Requirements in the RN to BSN table and in the MSN table, which also governs the post-MSN certificates. The Illinois side takes more planning. Illinois has not adopted multistate nurse licensing, and one of its administrative rules sets up a review for nursing schools from other states that want Illinois clinical sites.
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Illinois on EKU's state list
| EKU program | Status for Illinois | Licensure table |
|---|---|---|
| MSN Family Nurse Practitioner | Enrolling | Meets Requirements |
| MSN Psychiatric Mental Health NP | Enrolling | Meets Requirements |
| Post-MSN FNP or PMHNP certificate | Enrolling | Meets Requirements (MSN table) |
| Post-master's DNP | Enrolling; no DNP restriction | No table for a non-licensure degree |
| RN to BSN | Enrolling | Meets Requirements |
EKU lists Illinois with the SARA states that carry no restrictions and writes no Illinois note. Because every Illinois site is outside Kentucky, EKU's catalog rule applies each time: tell EKU where the supervised placement will physically take place. EKU's state authorization guide covers the wider picture.
Illinois's rule for out-of-state clinical placements
The rule in question is subsection (n) of 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1300.340. It has a school based elsewhere apply before placing nursing students with Illinois facilities, and the application bundles five things: the course syllabus; the executed contract with each facility; a cover letter naming dates, facilities and units; proof that its home state's board approved or accredited it; and qualification forms for faculty and preceptors. An approval holds for two years, renews, and carries a yearly report, and faculty teaching in the program need Illinois RN licensure.
What the rule leaves unclear is who it covers. It appears among Illinois's provisions for approving RN programs, and its text is silent on post-licensure and APRN education. We could not resolve that from the public record, so put the question to your faculty early: does an Illinois site need an Illinois filing from EKU? Their answer sets your timeline.
The Nurse Practice Act adds a licensing exemption at 225 ILCS 65/50-15(b)(10): a nurse holding an RN license from elsewhere in the U.S. may practice within a course of study while enrolled in a graduate program, or a program completing a baccalaureate, "in this State". Those three words raise the obvious question for an online program headquartered in Richmond, Kentucky, and nothing public answers it.
Collaboration, preceptors and Illinois metros
Illinois lands in AANP's Reduced Practice group. Depending on the setting, an NP may need a written collaboration with a physician, and an NP who satisfies Illinois's practice and education thresholds can work without one, although prescribing some Schedule II medications and benzodiazepines still calls for a consulting relationship with a physician. PMHNP students are the likeliest to watch that relationship at work.
Chicagoland dominates, with roughly 8.71 million Illinois residents inside the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro. Downstate, roughly 672,000 people live in the Illinois share of the St. Louis metro, while the Peoria and Rockford metros hold about 364,000 and 337,000. The state's larger systems include Endeavor Health, UChicago Medicine and Advocate Health Care (Advocate Health's Illinois arm), along with Northwestern Medicine and OSF HealthCare. Each writes its own terms for outside students, and whether any has a contract with EKU is not public.
EKU secures preceptors under Kentucky's regulation and leaves you room to suggest one, as the Kentucky preceptor rule explains. Illinois also rewards APRNs who precept through license renewal credit, covered in the questions below.
Licensing: Illinois is outside the compact
Of EKU's neighboring states, only Illinois remains outside the Nurse Licensure Compact, and NCSBN's 2026 map data listed no pending legislation to change that. The gap cuts both ways. Coming in, a nurse whose multistate license was issued by Kentucky, Indiana or any other member state has no privilege to practice in Illinois on it, so training there takes an Illinois license or an exemption that plainly fits. Going out, an Illinois license is good in Illinois only, which matters to a Chicago-area resident weighing a site in northwest Indiana: that site needs a license Indiana recognizes.
EKU's own license rule applies on top of Illinois's: no encumbrance on any RN license issued to you, anywhere. RN license and Nursys explains how EKU keeps track.
Why Illinois students in EKU's programs choose us
Illinois is a state where groundwork decides the timeline, and groundwork is our specialty. We locate a preceptor near you whose practice fits your EKU course, verify Illinois licensure for the preceptor and for you, raise EKU's clinical contract with the site in the first conversation, and assemble the preceptor and site details EKU reviews. Should Illinois paperwork prove necessary, the dates, facility and preceptor information it asks for are already organized. Start your Illinois search.
Questions EKU students ask
My multistate license is from Missouri. Does it work at an Illinois site?
No. A multistate privilege reaches only compact states, and Illinois is not one. A student training in Illinois practices on an Illinois RN license unless an exemption clearly covers the program, and the exemption in Illinois law is written for programs "in this State". Talk to your faculty before relying on it, and plan for Illinois licensure if the site is the right one.
Does precepting count toward an Illinois APRN's license renewal?
It does. Illinois gives an APRN 10 continuing education hours per APRN student taught across a full academic semester or quarter, up to a ceiling of 30 hours each renewal period. The student's school documents the precepting, so an EKU student's preceptor would receive that record from EKU. Your placement advisor mentions the credit when approaching Illinois preceptors.
How early should I plan an Illinois clinical placement?
Earlier than you would in a compact state. If EKU confirms that Illinois's out-of-state placement rule applies, the submission needs a signed facility contract, the syllabus and preceptor forms before approval, which then lasts two years. Starting a term or more before NSC 800 leaves room for that. EKU publishes no Illinois-specific deadline, so ask your faculty.
Can I live in Illinois and do my clinicals in St. Louis?
EKU's public pages neither permit nor bar training outside your home state, so start with your faculty. A Missouri site carries EKU's Missouri note: EKU may sign only short-term agreements with Missouri sites, and its program approves each one. Missouri belongs to the compact while an Illinois license is single-state, so check which license Missouri will accept from you.
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
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