Maine and NAU's online nurse practitioner programs
From Portland, Bangor or a town hours from either, a Maine RN can enroll in Northern Arizona University's online NP programs: NAU's licensure table shows Maine as Meets on all four NP plans. Research found no Maine board guidance for schools based outside Maine that send students to its clinics, so your clinical plan rests on NAU's rules, your program coordinator and a preceptor close to home.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your NAU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Maine's answer on NAU's table
The licensing board NAU names for Maine is the Maine State Board of Nursing, and the row adds no condition.
| NAU plan | Maine answer |
|---|---|
| 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 row answers one question, whether NAU's education fits Maine's licensure requirements. Whether your graduate clinicals may happen in Maine is another, and NAU's clinical pages speak of sites throughout Arizona without ruling on other states. Ask your program coordinator; the licensure disclosure guide explains how NAU builds the table.
How Maine's 24-month rule shapes your preceptor pool
Maine sits in AANP's full practice column, with a two-year supervised start attached for new NPs. During those 24 months the supervision comes from a physician or NP, or from employment at a clinic or hospital run with a physician medical director. So the NPs you approach come in two groups: those past two years who practice on their own, and those still working inside that supervised stretch.
Either group can precept an NAU student if the person meets Arizona rule R4-19-502 as NAU applies it. Twelve months of NP or physician experience is NAU's floor, so an NP fourteen months into practice may qualify while Maine's supervision rule still covers them; certification and a matching population focus count as well. The FNP Program Coordinator makes the call, and NAU's preceptor rules give the full wording.
What Maine's board says about outside programs
Very little, and that absence is the finding. Maine's Chapter 7 rules deal only with approving the state's own prelicensure programs; nothing in them addresses clinical placements by outside schools, and neither the Board's rules list nor its education pages link to guidance on it. In the Nurse Practice Act, 32 MRSA §2103(2) exempts students whose board-approved program leads to initial licensure. That is not you: an NAU NP student already practices on an RN license.
Silence from Maine is not permission from NAU. Before you build a Maine practicum, confirm it with your program coordinator, and read state authorization for the SARA side of studying from another state.
Where a Maine search starts
By population, the Portland-South Portland metro dwarfs Bangor and Lewiston-Auburn, Maine's other two; beyond those three, drives stretch out. For large systems, think of MaineHealth first, then Northern Light Health, with Central Maine Healthcare and MaineGeneral Health among the others. Their student intake processes are separate and their own; naming them is about geography, not an NAU link.
FNP students should look past hospital systems as well. NAU's recommended hour mix asks for primary care across the lifespan, including roughly 100 pediatric and 100 women's health hours, so ask each practice which ages and visit types it sees. The hour mix guide breaks it down.
Licensing for Maine clinicals
Maine was among the states whose compact membership took effect on Jan. 19, 2018. A Maine resident's multistate license does double duty: it covers Maine clinicals, and it answers NAU's admission requirement, which accepts licenses meeting Arizona's multistate rules. Hold only a single-state Maine license and NAU will look for an Arizona license or your eligibility for one. The RN license guide tracks NAU's wording across documents.
Maine has no APRN Compact law, which keeps your future NP license a Maine-only credential. One Arizona item follows you north regardless: NAU requires the Arizona DPS IVP Fingerprint Clearance Card of NP students living outside Arizona too, and the fingerprint card page covers applying from afar.
Why Maine NAU students choose us
Outside Maine's three metros, distance is the problem to solve, and we plan around it. Your placement advisor searches outward from your own town, sorts candidates by Maine's 24-month rule and NAU's certification requirement, and has each preceptor's CV, license and certification in hand before your Green Form is filed, with the site's approval already secured.
Your 780 FNP hours across NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665 become one Maine itinerary built around the shortest drives we can find, and PMHNP students get psychiatric settings able to host the in-person work NUR 680 calls for. A mid-term preceptor exit sends your advisor straight back to the search.
Questions NAU students ask
Could an NP in Maine's supervised first two years be my preceptor?
Possibly. Maine's supervision period describes how the NP practices; NAU cares whether the person has passed its one-year experience mark and holds the right certification, so someone between month twelve and month 24 can fit both. The FNP Program Coordinator decides.
Do I need permission from Maine's board to train there as an NAU student?
Research turned up no Maine board process for outside schools, and as a licensed RN you train on your own license. The open question is NAU's: ask your program coordinator whether a Maine practicum fits its current rules.
What happens if I move from Maine to New Hampshire mid-program?
Tell NAU first: it asks students to update their location and contact the program about practicum effects before a move. New Hampshire also reads Meets on NAU's table and belongs to the compact, but changing your primary residence can mean licensing in the new home state, so check with its board.
Does Meets mean I can be licensed as an NP in Maine after NAU?
Meets says NAU's program satisfies Maine's education requirements. Licensure itself runs through the Maine State Board of Nursing after national certification, and once licensed, you begin Maine's 24-month supervised period yourself.
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
Start your placement plan
Track, town and next practicum is all we need to begin.