South Dakota and Northern Arizona University's NP programs
South Dakota reads Meets for all four Northern Arizona University NP plans, so a nurse in Sioux Falls, Rapid City or Aberdeen can study NAU's FNP or PMHNP online. On clinicals, the South Dakota Board of Nursing steps back: the school and the local clinician or agency work out a placement themselves, with one licensing condition on faculty.
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.
The South Dakota rows in NAU's table
For South Dakota, NAU links the Board of Nursing twice, through its own site and through the Department of Health's boards page. Each NP plan reads Meets, and the four BSN formats agree.
| NAU plan | Answer for South Dakota |
|---|---|
| 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 |
South Dakota's own education test is easy to check against NAU. APRN programs answer to a Board minimum of 500 clinical hours inside the role and population, alongside graduate courses in pharmacology, physical and health assessment, and pathophysiology. NAU's FNP tracks run to 780 hours over NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665. The full table is explained in our disclosure guide.
How South Dakota handles out-of-state clinicals
The Board's information sheet for programs based elsewhere (its June 2020 revision) says plainly that South Dakota gives them no approval. When an out-of-state student needs direct patient care in the state, the school settles it with the South Dakota clinician, the agency, or both.
What the Board keeps is a faculty condition. ARSD 20:48:07:49 says that anyone teaching APRN students who are physically in South Dakota carries South Dakota APRN licensure or a privilege to practice in the state, and the Board looks for at least one faculty member like that in the program.
Whether NAU has that faculty member, and whether it places graduate students outside Arizona at all, is for your program coordinator to answer: NAU's pages describe clinicals throughout Arizona and say nothing definite about other states. Our state authorization page covers NAU's SARA standing.
Preceptors, practice rules and where students search
AANP places South Dakota among the full-practice states, with a catch for new graduates: their first 1,040 hours run under a written collaborative agreement. That partner may be a physician, though South Dakota equally accepts a certified NP or certified nurse midwife in the role. Separately, NAU wants its preceptors to have a full year in practice, so a clinician fresh out of school may not qualify yet.
For preceptors in the programs it approves, ARSD 20:48:07:34 asks for licensure at the student's target level or higher and, for advanced practice, a role or specialty close to the student's. That sits near NAU's own requirements, so a clinician who passes one test usually passes the other.
Sioux Falls is the biggest metro and the usual first search area, with Rapid City second and Aberdeen's smaller micropolitan area in the northeast. Avera Health is one system students research; Monument Health and Sanford Health are the others. Their student processes vary by system, and listing them here implies no NAU tie to any. Research found no South Dakota preceptor incentive.
Licensing for a South Dakota practicum
South Dakota's multistate licenses date from Jan. 19, 2018, when the compact went live. Because South Dakota residents with a multistate license can also practice in Arizona, one license settles NAU's admission requirement and NAU's where-you-train licensing rule together. Our RN license guide shows how NAU has worded that since 2021.
South Dakota signed the APRN Compact on Feb. 5, 2024, and NCSBN counted it as the fourth jurisdiction to do so. The compact has never switched on, and in 2026 NCSBN said it was reworking it with the state boards, so a South Dakota APRN license will be good in South Dakota only for some time.
Why South Dakota students choose us
Because South Dakota lets the school and a local clinic arrange the placement directly, the first approach to that clinic carries weight. We identify preceptors within reach of your home who suit your NAU course, check their license level and specialty, confirm the agency is ready to sign, and assemble the CV, license and certification your Green Form needs. PMHNP students get psychiatric sites suited to the in-person NUR 680 practicum. Tell us where you are.
Questions NAU students ask
Does NAU's MS FNP meet South Dakota licensure requirements?
NAU's licensure table says it does: the MS FNP reads Meets for South Dakota, as do the MS PMHNP and both graduate certificates. South Dakota's minimum for APRN programs is 500 clinical hours within the role and population, and NAU's FNP plans include 780.
Is South Dakota board approval needed before NAU clinicals start?
The Board's guidance for programs based elsewhere contains no approval step. A placement comes down to what the school agrees with the South Dakota clinician or agency. The Board does want a faculty member holding South Dakota APRN licensure or a privilege to practice, so confirm the arrangement with your program coordinator.
Can a new South Dakota NP in the collaborative period be my preceptor?
South Dakota's 1,040-hour period governs the NP's own practice, not teaching. NAU applies its own test: a year or more of clinical practice, a comparable population focus and national certification. An NP only months into practice may fall short of the year, and the FNP Program Coordinator makes the call.
Is there an APRN multistate license in South Dakota yet?
No. South Dakota passed the APRN Compact in 2024, but nothing happens until seven states have enacted it, and NCSBN is now redesigning it. After graduation, plan to apply state by state for APRN licensure wherever you intend to practice.
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.