Studying to be an NP with NAU while living in Utah
Yes, you can. Every one of NAU's four nurse practitioner plans reads Meets for Utah on its licensure table, the two PMHNP rows included since spring 2026. Utah shares the Nurse Licensure Compact with Arizona but sets conditions for any out-of-state school that sends students into Utah clinics, so your program coordinator settles where your hours happen.
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.
Utah's row in NAU's licensure table
Four Meets answers mean NAU judges each NP plan to cover the education Utah expects before it licenses a nurse practitioner. The psychiatric rows are the newcomers: an archived copy from March 2026 showed both PMHNP plans at Does Not Meet for Utah, and by May 2026 they had turned around. The table carries no date, so look again in the term you apply; the licensure disclosure guide explains what a Meets answer leaves open.
| NAU plan | Utah |
|---|---|
| Nursing - Advanced Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner (MS) | Meets |
| Nursing - Advanced Practice, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (MS) | Meets (Does Not Meet in the March 2026 copy) |
| Family Nurse Practitioner (GCERT) | Meets |
| Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (GCERT) | Meets (Does Not Meet in the March 2026 copy) |
The conditions Utah puts on schools from other states
Utah regulates the school rather than the student. Rule R156-31b-609 of the Utah Administrative Code tells any nursing program based outside Utah to satisfy the state's licensing division and nursing board first, before a single student starts clinical or practicum work in a Utah agency.
What NAU would have to show Utah
- Approval from Arizona's board, since Arizona is NAU's home state.
- Current nursing accreditation from a federally recognized accreditor.
- Program-employed faculty who meet its accreditor's and Arizona's standards and, whenever they supervise in person, carry a Utah or compact license.
- A plan covering how preceptors, faculty and sites get chosen and overseen.
- A yearly Aug. 1 filing with its Utah student headcount, a license attestation for faculty and preceptors, and proof that accreditation is current.
Every item sits on NAU's side of the desk. NAU describes its clinical sites as spread throughout Arizona, and none of its published documents says whether graduate practicums may run in another state, so ask your program coordinator about a Utah site before you promise a preceptor anything. The state authorization guide covers SARA and moving.
Full practice, and who can precept in Utah
AANP lists Utah as full practice, so Utah NPs need no agreement placing them under a physician's oversight. Under Utah's rule, any preceptor teaching an out-of-state program's student must be licensed by Utah or by a fellow compact state, and that license must be in good standing. NAU then adds its own Arizona-based test for experience, population focus and certification, set out on our preceptor requirements page.
Salt Lake City-Murray is Utah's biggest metro, with Provo-Orem-Lehi and Ogden next and St. George, the one nearest Arizona, well behind. A Utah search tends to weigh Intermountain Health first, then University of Utah Health, with HCA's MountainStar Healthcare also in view, and no two share a student rulebook.
An FNP placement in Utah has to absorb 780 hours over three terms, NUR 661, then NUR 663, then NUR 665, with children, adults and women's health in the recommended mix. A PMHNP placement has to host NUR 680 face to face, as NAU's catalog requires.
Your license: one compact in force, one on paper
Utah's compact membership and Arizona's began on the same day, Jan. 19, 2018. A Utah-issued multistate RN license therefore satisfies NAU's admission test and is good for RN work in both states, which answers NAU's requirement of a license valid where you train. If your Utah license is not multistate, read the RN license guide first.
Utah enacted the APRN Compact back on March 24, 2022; Arizona's attempts in 2023, 2024 and 2025 all stalled. Seven enacting states are needed before that compact operates, and NCSBN said in 2026 that it is redesigning it, so a multistate NP license is still hypothetical. After graduation, a Utah NP license comes through Utah's licensing division, DOPL, and an Arizona one through Arizona's Board.
Why Utah NAU students choose us
Every preceptor we bring a Utah student holds a clean license from Utah or a fellow compact state and clears NAU's Arizona standard before any paperwork moves. Your placement advisor searches close to home, whether that is Ogden, Provo or St. George, and brings back the preceptor's CV, license and certification together with the site's approval, ready for the Green Form. FNP students see all three terms mapped at once, and a note through the contact form gets it moving.
Questions NAU students ask
Does NAU's PMHNP program meet Utah's licensure requirements?
Yes, as NAU's table reads now. Both PMHNP rows, the MS emphasis and the graduate certificate, show Meets for Utah. They read Does Not Meet in a March 2026 copy of the table and had switched by May 2026. Recheck the live, undated table before you apply.
Can I complete NAU clinical hours in Utah?
Nothing NAU has published settles graduate clinicals beyond Arizona, and Utah expects an out-of-state school to meet its conditions under R156-31b-609, the yearly Aug. 1 report among them, before placing students in Utah agencies. Your program coordinator decides whether a Utah site fits your practicum, so raise it early.
Is a Utah compact license enough to start NAU's NP program?
For admission, yes. NAU admits RNs whose license satisfies the Arizona board's multistate rules, and Utah is a compact state. The same multistate license covers RN practice in Arizona and in Utah, so it is valid wherever in either state your clinical hours end up.
Could Utah's APRN Compact cover NP work in Arizona later?
Not as things stand. Utah passed it in 2022, but the compact needs seven member states before it operates, Arizona's bills never passed, and NCSBN is reworking the model. Budget for a separate NP license in every state you intend to practice in once you finish at NAU.
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.