Maine nurses and NKU's online programs

Both of NKU's filters, the state-authorization table and the NP admission list, leave Maine out.

NKU also needs every preceptor to practice in an approved state, so Maine clinicians are outside its preceptor pool for now, whatever state the student lives in.

Maine's Board of Nursing is quiet on visiting programs. Chapter 7, its education rule, is about approving prelicensure schools based in Maine; schools elsewhere placing students at Maine sites never come up in it, and research of the Board's rules list and education pages found no separate guidance.

The Nurse Practice Act does carve out student practice, but narrowly. Under 32 MRSA §2103(2), someone studying toward a first nursing license in a board-approved program may practice without a license when the work is part of that program. A graduate or RN-to-BSN student is already an RN, so the question for them is never that exemption; it is whether the school is authorized, and for NKU the answer in Maine is no.

AANP lists Maine as full practice after a two-year runway: an NP first works 24 months with a physician or NP supervising, or is employed by a clinic or hospital with a physician serving as medical director. The state's main systems are Northern Light Health, MaineHealth, Central Maine Healthcare and MaineGeneral Health, spread across the Bangor, Lewiston-Auburn and Portland-South Portland areas.

Maine was one of the states where the Nurse Licensure Compact went live on January 19, 2018. A Maine multistate license lets you practice in other compact states, but a license that travels does not carry NKU eligibility with it; that depends on your home address. If you relocate, your license needs to be current in the state where you then live and practice, which is what NKU asks of MSN applicants. See our RN license page.

In New England, NKU's yes list has two names, Vermont and Connecticut, each open for the non-NP master's tracks, the doctorate and the bachelor's completion program. Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire stay closed. For the NP tracks, the nearest states on the NP application list are Ohio and Virginia, well to the south and west.

Moving anyway? Check the new state against NKU's lists for the term you would start, get licensed there before classes, and if you are mid-program, loop in your advisor before the truck is booked: NKU says a relocation can affect a student's standing in the program.

A placement advisor can help you compare NKU's open programs with a move you already have in mind, then map preceptors near your new home for the track you pick. Once you are admitted, we assemble the preceptor documents and a complete self-placement request for your first 7-week session. Tell us where you are headed.