Montana and EKU: open enrollment, rural clinicals
EKU enrolls Montana residents in every online nursing program it runs. Montana appears on EKU's unrestricted SARA list, and the MSN licensure table, which also covers the post-MSN FNP and PMHNP certificates, marks it Meets Requirements, as does the RN to BSN table. Montana's Board of Nursing asks for no approval before graduate or RN to BSN clinicals, which keeps the route to a Montana site short.
Find a preceptor in Montana
Tell us the Montana town you live in, your EKU program and your clinical term.
Montana's line on EKU's page
For a Montana resident, EKU's online format means no trips to Richmond: your clinical courses, from NSC 800 Advanced Practice Role through the internship, happen in Montana with an EKU-approved preceptor.
| Program | Montana | Licensure table |
|---|---|---|
| MSN, FNP track | Enrolls | Meets Requirements |
| MSN, PMHNP track | Enrolls | Meets Requirements |
| Post-MSN certificate, FNP or PMHNP | Enrolls | Meets Requirements |
| DNP (Organizational Leadership) | Enrolls; no restriction listed | Not published |
| RN to BSN | Enrolls | Meets Requirements |
Kentucky's APRN program rule makes EKU responsible for securing your preceptors and keeps your input in the process, whether you train in Billings or in a town of a few hundred people (the Kentucky rule).
What Montana's board expects of a graduate program from another state
Montana's placement rule for out-of-state students, ARM 24.159.608, targets pre-licensure schools. Such a school needs written permission from the Board or its executive director, requested in a signed letter that addresses accreditation and faculty supervision and includes Montana program directors' assurance that in-state students will not lose their clinical places. For graduate and RN to BSN programs, the Board's FAQ settles it: Board approval is not needed to hold clinicals in Montana.
The FAQ does leave EKU one task: checking that your active license covers Montana, because the people you treat during clinicals are Montana patients. EKU faculty who never care for a patient themselves, only advising you and your preceptor, can teach without a Montana license; hands-on care would change that.
Rural Montana and EKU's FNP Internship
EKU still markets its FNP as Rural Health FNP, and its catalog calls NSC 876 FNP Internship a concentrated rural primary care practicum. EKU's FNP builds to 750 hours of direct patient care, with the final 300 meant to pull earlier coursework together. A family practice in a Montana town is the kind of setting that description points to; see the FNP Internship.
Billings, Bozeman, Missoula and Helena are Montana's metros. In Billings you find Billings Clinic, since merged with Logan Health, and Intermountain Health's St. Vincent Regional Hospital; Missoula has Providence St. Patrick Hospital, part of Providence Montana; and Benefis Health System rounds out the larger systems. EKU lists no Montana clinical partners, so these show where the state's clinicians gather, alongside small-town practices.
EKU has shown this model working far from Kentucky: a 2021 EKU Online post features an FNP graduate in Alaska who picked EKU partly because she could complete clinicals at her own workplace.
Licenses for Montana clinicals
The Nurse Licensure Compact took effect in Montana in January 2018. Per the Board's RN licensing page, a nurse working in Montana on the privilege that comes with another compact state's multistate license does not also need a Montana license. AANP counts Montana as full practice, and the state has not enacted the APRN Compact. EKU still requires every RN license you hold to be unencumbered; see RN license and Nursys.
Why Montana EKU students work with us
Rural placements take more legwork, and we put it in. Your placement advisor maps practices within a workable drive of your home, confirms the preceptor's focus matches your EKU course and that their clinic days fit your schedule, and prepares the license and site details EKU needs to review the placement. If a small-town preceptor has to step back, your advisor reopens the search for you. Tell us where you live on the request form.
Questions EKU students ask
Can I split clinical hours between Montana and another state?
EKU's public pages set no rule against it, but EKU must hear about every site outside Kentucky, your license must be valid in each state, and the other state's rules apply there. Wyoming, for example, wants written notice and a facility contract from the program, while North Dakota requires board recognition first. See the Wyoming and North Dakota guides.
Where do PMHNP students in Montana find psychiatric preceptors?
EKU's PMHNP sequence, NSC 800 alongside the PMHNP courses and then the NSC 886 internship, calls for psychiatric-mental health practice. If none is close to your town, a regional hub such as Billings or Missoula may be the practical choice. EKU does not publish a PMHNP hour total, so confirm the figure with your faculty.
Can Montana nurse leaders use their own organization for EKU's DNP?
EKU describes its DNP projects as work you can carry out in your own organization or community, and it lists no Montana restriction on the post-master's DNP. The archived DNP handbook had students file a Request for DNP Experience Site Approval Form for each clinical course, approved by the Clinical Placement Coordinator. See the DNP guide.
Do I have to contact the Montana Board before my clinicals?
No. The Board's FAQ puts the license check on the program, and graduate programs need no Board approval. Your part is keeping your RN license current and unencumbered, making sure it is valid in Montana, and giving EKU accurate details about your preceptor and site.
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.