Pennsylvania and EKU: open enrollment, collaborative-practice preceptors
EKU sets no Pennsylvania restriction on any online nursing program, and both of its licensure tables mark the state Meets Requirements. What shapes your clinicals is Pennsylvania law: NPs there practice under physician collaborative agreements, and a Board rule opens required clinical work to nurses licensed in other states while they study in an accredited graduate or BSN program.
Plan your Pennsylvania clinical
Share your EKU program, your county and the days you can train. Your placement advisor maps Pennsylvania preceptor options for you.
What EKU's page says for Pennsylvania
| Program | EKU status for Pennsylvania | Licensure table result |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | Enrolling, no Pennsylvania restriction | Meets Requirements |
| MSN PMHNP | Enrolling, no Pennsylvania restriction | Meets Requirements |
| Post-MSN FNP and PMHNP certificates | Enrolling (covered by the MSN table) | Meets Requirements |
| Post-master's DNP | Enrolling; listed among SARA states without restrictions | No table: the DNP is not a licensure degree |
| RN to BSN | Enrolling | Meets Requirements |
EKU's graduate programs involve no campus visits, which puts a Pennsylvania student's clinical hours in Pennsylvania, within reach of home. Under the graduate catalog, a clinical site outside Kentucky has to be reported to EKU by its physical address, so your Pennsylvania site goes on record.
Collaborative agreements and who precepts you
AANP classes Pennsylvania as reduced practice. An NP there keeps a written collaborative agreement with physicians for the length of a career, and prescriptive authority depends on agreements with at least two physicians. Expect your preceptor's prescribing during NSC 800 and the internship to run through those arrangements, which is worth understanding before you step into the practice.
The agreements leave the pool of possible preceptors unchanged. Kentucky's regulation, which EKU's NP programs follow, counts APRNs, physicians and PAs as eligible preceptors, and EKU layers its own unpublished qualification standards on top. What to ask your faculty is laid out on the preceptor requirements page. Research found no Pennsylvania tax incentive for preceptors.
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the places between
Roughly 4.2 million people live on the Pennsylvania side of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro and 2.4 million in greater Pittsburgh; Harrisburg-Carlisle and Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton follow in size. Geisinger, Penn State Health, UPMC, Jefferson Health and Penn Medicine are among the big systems. Read that list as a map of where students look rather than a list of EKU sites; each system runs student requests through its own process.
Our research turned up no Board regulation or web guidance obliging a school based in another state, or a distance program, to get the Board's sign-off before its students begin clinicals in Pennsylvania. The Board's Distance Education Application is aimed at programs the Board itself approves. The approval that matters for you is EKU's, since EKU approves every preceptor and site.
Licensing for Pennsylvania clinical hours
Since July 7, 2025, Pennsylvania has been a fully implemented compact state, so a nurse whose home state issued an active, unencumbered multistate license can practice there on it, and a resident's own license covers a site at home.
The state adds a student route in 49 Pa. Code § 21.118. If another U.S. state or territory, or Canada, licenses you as an RN and you study in an accredited graduate nursing or BSN program, you can complete the clinical work that program requires with no Pennsylvania license, provided you are paid nothing beyond a stipend, scholarship or program award. EKU's own condition still applies: each RN license you hold must be unencumbered, as the RN license guide explains.
Why Pennsylvania EKU students choose us
EKU carries the duty to secure NP preceptors under Kentucky's rule, and the same rule protects your input (what the rule means). We make that input count in Pennsylvania: a preceptor in your specialty near home, whether you live outside Pittsburgh or near Harrisburg, with the collaborative-agreement and license details gathered for the clinical contract and preceptor information form EKU asks you to keep current. We start well ahead of NSC 800, stay on call through the internship and line up a new preceptor if yours has to step back. See how it works.
Questions EKU students ask
Is the PMHNP open to Pennsylvania residents?
Yes. EKU's MSN licensure table lists Pennsylvania as meeting requirements and the state carries no nursing note, so the MSN PMHNP and the post-MSN PMHNP certificate are both open. No PMHNP hour total appears in EKU's published material; the PMHNP program guide covers the psychiatric sequence ending in NSC 886.
Can I hold a paid nursing job in Pennsylvania on an out-of-state license while in EKU's program?
A multistate license issued by your compact home state already covers Pennsylvania employment. A single-state license is different: § 21.118 reaches only the clinical work your program requires, so a paid RN job in Pennsylvania means applying to the State Board of Nursing for a license by endorsement, with a temporary permit to practice while that is processed.
Will Pennsylvania's 2026 nursing education rulemaking change my clinicals?
The Board has a large nursing education rulemaking in progress, tracked by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission as #16A-5141. The Board sent its final version on September 8, 2026, the Commission takes it up at an October 15, 2026 public meeting, and the student clause in § 21.118 comes through the final annex largely unchanged. Check the result after that meeting.
Is EKU's DNP open to Pennsylvania nurses?
Yes. EKU names Pennsylvania among its unrestricted SARA states and attaches no DNP caveat. The degree is post-master's: the catalog wants 1,000 or more documented clinical hours counted from the BSN onward, EKU works out at admission how many you still owe, and your employer can host the project. See DNP clinical hours.
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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