Studying with UNC Wilmington from Georgia
Georgia's Board of Nursing stays out of post-licensure education, so it asks nothing of UNCW before a nurse educator practicum, an RN-BSN practice experience or a leadership DNP project in the state. What it does regulate is licenses: yours, your preceptor's and your faculty's. UNCW's nurse practitioner students are a separate story, with every clinical hour in North Carolina.
Plan a UNCW practicum from Georgia
List your UNCW program, your city and the session or semester you start.
No program approval, but firm license rules
The Board, which sits inside the Georgia Secretary of State's office, neither approves nor regulates post-licensure programs, APRN programs included. An out-of-state RN-BSN, MSN or NP program can place a student in Georgia without Board approval. Only prelicensure schools face an approval gate, and by the Board's account no online or out-of-state prelicensure program is cleared for Georgia clinicals at present; UNCW's BSN runs on campus in Wilmington, so that gate never comes up.
What Georgia does insist on
- A Georgia resident in an out-of-state program who completes clinical hours in Georgia holds a Georgia license or a multistate license.
- Faculty and preceptors who teach or work with students in Georgia, whether in person or electronically, meet that same license standard.
- In APRN programs, only a nurse with Georgia APRN authorization may give clinical instruction.
The faculty point is the one to raise with UNCW before you enroll, since your UNCW course faculty will guide a Georgia practicum from a distance. The state authorization guide sets out what UNCW publishes for each program.
UNCW's programs, seen from Georgia
| Program | Where the hands-on part happens | Georgia license point |
|---|---|---|
| DNP FNP, AGPCNP or PMHNP; MSN-DNP PMHNP pathway; PMHNP Post-Doctoral Certificate | North Carolina only | A Georgia multistate license meets UNCW's compact option |
| MSN Nurse Educator or Nurse Educator certificate | A Georgia education or practice site you identify | Preceptor licensed in Georgia; you hold a Georgia or multistate license |
| RN-BSN | Practice experiences, at work or outside it | An active license in your state of residence |
| DNP Post APRN | A DNP project where you are licensed | Also APRN licensure or approval where you live |
| DNP Nurse Executive Leadership | A DNP project where you are licensed | An NC or compact RN license |
NP practice and Georgia's preceptor tax credit
AANP places Georgia in its restricted group. Georgia NPs work through physician delegation or supervision, and Schedule II prescribing is tightly limited for them. Georgia's compact start date was January 19, 2018, and that is why a Georgia multistate license carries into North Carolina for UNCW purposes.
Through its Preceptor Tax Incentive Program, Georgia offers an income tax credit to licensed physicians, APRNs and PAs who teach community-based students without pay. According to Augusta University's AHEC office, HB 144 reworked and lengthened the program and requires yearly registration starting in 2026; the Department of Revenue's page has not caught up and still carries the earlier terms. Neither source names a new end date. The credit is limited to preceptors of students in Georgia medical, NP or PA programs, so it does not extend to a UNCW student's preceptor.
Where Georgia nurse educators practice
An educator practicum needs a site where an MSN-prepared nurse educator already works. In Georgia, that often means a system such as Wellstar, Piedmont Healthcare or Emory Healthcare, or a hospital group like Northside or Grady, most of them concentrated in metro Atlanta, with more options around Savannah, Augusta and Columbus. The Georgia Department of Public Health is another setting for population-focused projects.
UNCW's preceptor profile for educators is specific: a license in the practicum's state, a master's degree or higher, three years of teaching in an education or practice setting, and employment at the practicum site. One site serves both practicum courses, and UNCW approves site and preceptor at least five weeks ahead. The nurse educator practicum page has the course detail.
NP concentrations: clinicals stay in North Carolina
For UNCW's FNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP tracks, Georgia is where you study, never where you precept. The DNP handbook confines practicum hours to North Carolina and to preceptors practicing there, and the North Carolina clinical rule page quotes it.
Georgia meets North Carolina only along the mountains in the far west, so most Georgia nurses face a long trip to their North Carolina sites. Plan for it: UNCW makes transport the student's job whatever the distance, and none of the drive counts as clinical time. The North Carolina preceptor guide explains how the state's systems handle NP students.
Why Georgia students choose us
UNCW students in Georgia choose us for a search built around UNCW's own rules. NP students get a North Carolina search planned around travel and housing, with a preceptor file that reaches the Graduate Clinical Coordinator complete and early. Educator students get a Georgia search for a nurse educator who matches UNCW's profile, checked against Georgia's license rules before anything is submitted. Use the form below to begin.
Questions UNCW students ask
Does the Georgia Board of Nursing need to approve UNCW before I start a practicum?
Not for UNCW's post-licensure programs. Georgia's Board leaves that whole category, APRN education too, outside its approval work, which lets a program from another state place MSN, RN-BSN or DNP students with no Board sign-off. License rules still apply to you, your preceptor and faculty who teach you in Georgia.
Can a Georgia nurse practitioner precept my UNCW FNP clinicals?
No. UNCW requires FNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP preceptors who practice in North Carolina, and the hours themselves must happen in North Carolina. A Georgia NP, however qualified, sits outside that rule. Start the North Carolina search early; UNCW's placement chart suggests 6 to 12 months before the course.
Can I complete RN-BSN practice experiences at my Atlanta hospital job?
Often, yes. UNCW allows RN-BSN practice experiences inside your present job and counts no set number of clinical hours. Keep your Georgia or multistate license current throughout. With Georgia's board out of the RN-BSN picture, your course requirements are what decide the plan.
What license does my Georgia educator preceptor need?
An active Georgia license. UNCW wants the educator preceptor licensed wherever the practicum site is, and Georgia applies its own license rule to anyone teaching students within its borders. Beyond that, UNCW looks for graduate-level education, three years spent teaching and employment at the practicum site.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against UNCW's catalog, handbooks and School of Nursing pages. Your course, your cohort's handbook and UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
UNCW asks you to find your own North Carolina preceptor. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UNCW program, your practicum course and where in North Carolina you can travel. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the CV, license and agency details UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator reviews, well before the deadline.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care, pediatrics and women's health for
NSGL 650toNSGL 653, adult and older-adult care for AGPCNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP - Preceptor CV with dates and site, license number and agency details ready for your submission
- In Wilmington, the Cape Fear region or wherever in North Carolina your clinicals can happen
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next practicum term is all we need to begin.