Montana and Northern Arizona University's NP Programs
Montana is Meets on Northern Arizona University's licensure table for every nurse practitioner plan, and graduate programs based in other states may run clinicals in Montana with no Board approval. Its one condition concerns you: a license good in Montana, which a multistate compact license already is.
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.
Montana's answer on NAU's table
All four NP rows say Meets for Montana, so NAU considers its MS and certificate education sufficient for Montana APRN licensure once you graduate. NAU links the Montana Board of Nursing's site from the row, and our licensure disclosure guide explains how the table works.
| NAU plan | Answer for Montana |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Why graduate students skip Montana's approval step
Montana sorts out-of-state programs by level. For pre-licensure schools, ARM 24.159.608 demands sign-off, from the Board itself or its executive director, before a student sets foot in a Montana facility, backed by a signed request covering accreditation, faculty supervision plans, the facility contract and word from Montana program directors that local students keep their places. The Board's FAQ lifts that burden from RN-to-BSN and graduate programs entirely.
The school still answers for your license: the Board wants it active and valid in Montana, since Montana patients are in your care. Out-of-state faculty, by the same FAQ, need Montana licensure only when they treat patients themselves; faculty who simply confer with you and your preceptor are exempt.
Montana's openness answers only Montana's side. NAU's own materials talk about Arizona clinical locations and stay silent on graduate practicums beyond the state line, so settle the plan with your program coordinator first; our state authorization guide shows where SARA fits.
Full practice and the Montana search map
AANP counts Montana among full practice states, so Montana NPs diagnose, treat and prescribe without physician oversight and are the obvious preceptors for FNP and PMHNP students, alongside physicians. NAU measures each candidate against Arizona rule R4-19-502, summarized on our preceptor requirements page.
No Montana metro reaches 200,000 people, so searches tend to be regional. Billings, near 194,000, has St. Vincent Regional Hospital, part of Intermountain Health, plus Billings Clinic, now combined with Kalispell's Logan Health. Great Falls students look to Benefis Health System, Missoula students to Providence St. Patrick Hospital, and the Bozeman area, around 129,000 people, and Helena's, around 97,000, add their own clinics. Each system handles students through its own process, and none is presented here as working with NAU.
Your license: the compact reaches Montana
Montana's compact start date, Jan. 19, 2018, matches Arizona's. Its RN licensing page is explicit: nurses holding a multistate privilege from another compact state skip the Montana license entirely. For an NAU student holding an Arizona multistate license, that one credential covers admission, Montana practicum hours and NAU's license-at-the-clinic rule. The RN license guide tracks NAU's wording across the years.
Montana is not among the states that passed the APRN Compact; plan on a separate Montana NP application after you finish.
Why Montana NAU students choose us
In Montana, a preceptor one town closer can decide whether a 300-hour practicum is workable at all. We search around your own community, whether Billings, Great Falls, Missoula, Bozeman, Helena or somewhere smaller, and vet every preceptor against NAU's Arizona standard before a name reaches you.
With no Board paperwork for graduate students, our effort goes where it counts: the preceptor's credentials gathered, the site's sign-off confirmed for your Green Form, an early heads-up if the clinic needs a new affiliation agreement, and NUR 661 through NUR 665 mapped in one pass. Should a preceptor quit mid-term, the hunt for a replacement starts immediately on our side. The contact form gets it moving.
Questions NAU students ask
Does NAU's online FNP program work for nurses in Montana?
Yes. Both FNP routes, the MS emphasis and the post-master's certificate, read Meets for Montana in NAU's table, and coursework is online. The 780 clinical hours, split over NUR 661 in summer, NUR 663 in fall and NUR 665 in spring, are the part to plan locally, after your program coordinator confirms that Montana hours fit NAU's plan for you.
Does NAU need Montana Board approval for my clinicals?
No, by the Board's own FAQ: RN-to-BSN and graduate programs sit outside the approval rule that out-of-state pre-licensure programs follow. The school's remaining duty is checking that your license works in Montana. NAU's own clearance for out-of-state hours comes from your program coordinator.
Can my Arizona multistate license cover Montana clinicals?
Yes. Montana's board lets nurses work on a privilege from another member state without adding a Montana license, and that privilege also meets NAU's expectation that your RN license be valid where the clinic is. If your only license comes from outside the compact, apply to Montana first.
How does a PMHNP student handle clinicals in Montana?
Montana's board draws no line between a PMHNP track and any other graduate program, so the Montana side is simple. The open points sit with NAU: NUR 680 must include in-person engagement, and NAU's published material shows neither PMHNP hours nor a PMHNP preceptor process. Your program coordinator fills those gaps before you contact a psychiatric clinic in Billings or Missoula.
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.