Illinois nurses and Northern Arizona University's online NP programs
Northern Arizona University marks all four of its NP plans Meets for Illinois. The real work lies elsewhere: Illinois licenses only its own nurses, outside the Nurse Licensure Compact, and keeps a filing rule of its own for schools that place students there, so licensing and paperwork deserve attention long before your first practicum.
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Tell us your NAU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Illinois in NAU's licensure table
NAU's licensing link for Illinois is the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which houses the Illinois Board of Nursing. Every NP plan reads Meets, and so do the four BSN formats.
| NAU plan | Answer for Illinois |
|---|---|
| Nursing - Advanced Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner (MS) | Meets |
| Nursing - Advanced Practice, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (MS) | Meets |
| Family Nurse Practitioner (GCERT) | Meets |
| Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (GCERT) | Meets |
The table weighs NAU's education against Illinois's NP licensure rules and nothing else. Our guide to NAU's licensure table explains what it leaves open.
What Illinois wants from a school based elsewhere
Illinois puts its out-of-state requirement in Title 68 of the Administrative Code, section 1300.340(n). Read literally, a nursing program from another state files five items with IDFPR before its students begin clinical work in Illinois.
| Item | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Home-state approval or accreditation | The program is recognized where it is based |
| Request letter | Time frame, clinical agencies and units |
| Course syllabus | What students will learn on site |
| Executed contract with the facility | The site has signed with the school |
| Faculty qualification and preceptor forms | Who teaches and who precepts |
Approval runs two years, renews, and brings yearly reports, and faculty need Illinois RN licensure. Yet the rule lives among the RN program-approval provisions, and nothing in it says whether an APRN program is covered. The practice act adds a wrinkle: its exemption for nurses licensed in other jurisdictions, 225 ILCS 65/50-15(b)(10), is framed around graduate study in this State, which may or may not describe an online program run from Flagstaff.
That leaves two unknowns: whether Illinois's rule reaches NAU, and whether NAU places graduate students outside Arizona at all, since its pages describe clinicals throughout Arizona. Your program coordinator can answer both; our state authorization guide covers SARA.
Preceptors in a reduced-practice state
In AANP's terms Illinois is reduced practice. Depending on setting, some NPs keep a written collaborative agreement with a physician. For certain Schedule II medications and for benzodiazepines, an NP's prescribing rests on that agreement or on a consultative relationship backed by added practice and CE hours. Physicians and NPs can both teach you if they meet NAU's preceptor requirements.
Programs under Illinois rules carry extra conditions: each preceptor is approved and oriented by faculty, stays on site during any patient care the student gives, and is RN-licensed in the state hosting the training.
Illinois pays preceptors in renewal credit rather than cash. Taking one APRN student through a full semester or quarter logs 10 CE hours for the APRN preceptor, who can bank as many as 30 in each renewal cycle once the school supplies documentation.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin dwarfs the rest of the metro list; behind it come Peoria, Rockford and the Illinois portion of greater St. Louis. Students often research Northwestern Medicine and Advocate Health Care, and also Endeavor Health, OSF HealthCare and UChicago Medicine. Each handles students in its own way, and none is presented here as an NAU site.
Licensing: why an Illinois license comes first
Illinois honors only Illinois licenses, with no compact bill in its legislature. A multistate card from Arizona or any member state confers nothing in Illinois, so a practicum there means an Illinois RN license, which is also where NAU's requirement of a license valid in the state of clinical practice points. The reverse holds as well: an Illinois license by itself does not reach Arizona, so check how you meet NAU's Arizona rule on our RN license page.
Illinois has not enacted the APRN Compact. The Chicago metro also runs into Indiana, and a clinic on that side follows Indiana's rules; see our Indiana guide.
Why Illinois students choose us
Illinois rewards a placement built with its rules in view. We look for APRNs and physicians near you who suit your NAU course, confirm each holds an Illinois license, mention the 10 CE hours when we ask, and gather the CV, license and certification for a Green Form that goes in with the site's approval. FNP students get the 780 hours across NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665 planned from the start; PMHNP students get psychiatric settings for NUR 680. Share your town and track.
Questions NAU students ask
Will my Arizona multistate license cover an Illinois clinical?
It will not. Illinois never joined the compact, and multistate privileges end at its border. Hold an Illinois RN license for any clinical hours in Illinois. NAU's own rules point the same way: the license has to be good wherever the clinical happens.
Does NAU's MS PMHNP meet Illinois licensure requirements?
NAU's table says Meets for Illinois on the MS PMHNP, the PMHNP certificate and both FNP plans. That verdict covers education requirements only. Where the in-person NUR 680 practicum takes place is a separate question for your program coordinator.
Does Illinois's out-of-state rule apply to NP programs?
The text leaves it open. The rule sits with the RN program-approval provisions and never mentions graduate APRN education. If it does apply, the filing belongs to NAU rather than to you, using the five items described above. Your program coordinator can tell you where NAU stands.
Do Illinois preceptors get CE credit for teaching NAU students?
Yes. Preceptors get something back in Illinois: 10 continuing education hours toward APRN renewal per academic term (semester or quarter) of precepting, 30 at most per renewal period, once the school documents it. Research found no Illinois tax credit or grant for preceptors.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Northern Arizona University's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your program coordinator and course faculty have the final word.
NAU welcomes a preceptor you arrange. We arrange one close to home.
Tell us your NAU track, your town and your next practicum. We line up preceptors who fit the course and Arizona's preceptor rule, confirm the site's approval, and gather the CV, license and certification the Green Form needs, well before NAU's cutoff.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages family primary care for FNP, psychiatric settings for PMHNP
- License, experience and certification checked against the rule NAU applies, before the Green Form goes in
- All three FNP practicums planned together, near home instead of a long drive away
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