Virginia nurses in UNC Wilmington's nursing programs
Virginia's Board of Nursing keeps its approval work to the state's own prelicensure schools, so Virginia itself puts nothing between a UNCW online student and a practicum at home. The limit comes from UNCW instead: nurse practitioner students log every clinical hour in North Carolina. Everyone else, from RN-BSN students to future nurse educators and DNP leaders, can do the practice work in Virginia.
Find your preceptor from Virginia
Share your UNCW program, where you live and when your practicum begins.
How Virginia treats nursing programs from other states
The Virginia Board of Nursing describes its reach narrowly: programs based in other states, and post-licensure programs wherever they are based, sit outside its approval and oversight. The 80% in-state clinical rule and the site approval sections of 18VAC90-27 bind only prelicensure schools the Board has approved.
Virginia law adds a license exemption. Under § 54.1-3001 of the Virginia Code, a nurse holding a license from another state, D.C. or a U.S. territory may complete the clinical practice their advanced program requires, with no Virginia license needed for that part. Anything beyond that coursework needs the usual license.
UNCW's state authorization page reminds nursing students that each state writes its own requirements and asks those outside North Carolina to check before enrolling. For Virginia, that check comes back simple; the out-of-state programs guide compares Virginia with states that are stricter.
Where each UNCW program puts your hands-on work
| If you are in | Your practicum or project happens | What Virginia's board requires |
|---|---|---|
| DNP FNP, AGPCNP or PMHNP, the MSN-DNP PMHNP pathway or the PMHNP Post-Doctoral Certificate | In North Carolina, with preceptors practicing there | Nothing, since the hours happen outside Virginia |
| MSN Nurse Educator or the Nurse Educator certificate | At a Virginia education or practice site, with a preceptor licensed in Virginia | No program approval |
| RN-BSN | Practice experiences, often at your own job | No program approval |
| DNP Post APRN or Nurse Executive Leadership | A DNP project in the state where you are licensed | No program approval |
Educator students keep one site for both practicum courses. UNCW looks for a preceptor on that site's staff with a graduate degree and three or more years of teaching, and it signs off on the site-and-preceptor pair no later than five weeks out. The MSN Nurse Educator page covers the courses.
Compact license and NP practice in Virginia
Virginia put the compact into effect on January 19, 2018. When your Virginia license carries multistate status, it fits the compact option UNCW lists for NP applicants and for its Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership tracks, so most Virginia applicants need no second RN license.
AANP lists Virginia as restricted practice. Virginia NPs keep a written agreement with a patient care team physician, and the way out is an attestation showing three years' worth of full-time clinical practice. That matters when you plan your career after the DNP; your UNCW clinical training itself happens under North Carolina's rules.
Virginia settings for educator practicums and DNP projects
Virginia's largest systems give a sense of where nurse educators, staff development specialists and nurse leaders work: Carilion Clinic, Sentara Health, Inova, VCU Health and UVA Health. Northern Virginia belongs to the Washington metro, and Richmond, Roanoke and the Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk area anchor the rest. These are examples of settings, and any site you pick needs an agreement and UNCW's sign-off.
Post APRN and Nurse Executive Leadership DNP students alike tend to log immersion hours where they already work. No preceptor is assigned; the employer and UNCW sign an agreement covering the project instead.
SB 405, signed March 31, 2026, moved Virginia's Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program from the health department to a nursing workforce center under the state's Health Workforce Development Authority. It is limited to preceptors whose students attend Virginia nursing schools, so a UNCW placement falls outside it.
Nurse practitioner students: the practicum map is North Carolina
UNCW's handbook allows FNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP hours only at North Carolina sites, supervised by preceptors practicing in North Carolina. Your Virginia address, and your Virginia license, change where you sleep, not where you train. The North Carolina clinical rule page lays out the handbook language.
The Census Bureau draws the Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk metro across the state line into North Carolina, which helps nurses in that corner. Elsewhere in the state, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist includes UNCW on its list of affiliated nursing schools. The North Carolina preceptor guide walks through how the state's systems handle NP students.
A Virginia-based NP, however close to the border, cannot serve as your UNCW NP preceptor: the preceptor has to practice in North Carolina.
Why Virginia students choose us
Virginia students come to us because we know UNCW's process in detail. NP students get a North Carolina search shaped around the commute from Virginia, and every document UNCW's Graduate Clinical Coordinator reviews arrives complete and early. Educator students get a Virginia search for a nurse educator with the credentials UNCW names. Reach your placement advisor through the contact page to get the search moving.
Questions UNCW students ask
Does Virginia require UNCW approval before my MSN Nurse Educator practicum?
No Virginia approval step applies. The state's board treats out-of-state and post-licensure programs as beyond its approval role, and its site rules reach only Virginia prelicensure schools. The Virginia license your preceptor needs comes from UNCW's own rule for educator practicums. Run the plan past UNCW before enrolling.
Can I use my Virginia multistate license for UNCW's FNP clinicals?
Yes, for the license part, since a Virginia multistate license is exactly the compact credential UNCW's NP admission pages mention. Where you train is another matter: FNP hours come only from North Carolina sites and preceptors, so work out the travel before your first practicum.
Can I do UNCW NP clinical hours in Norfolk or Virginia Beach?
No. Those cities sit in Virginia, and UNCW's handbook confines NP clinical hours to North Carolina. The same metro reaches into North Carolina, though, so nurses in that area may find North Carolina sites within a manageable drive. Travel time never counts toward your hours.
Does the Post APRN DNP work for an NP practicing in Virginia?
It can. The track is built for working APRNs: UNCW looks for an NC or compact RN license, your APRN credential and national certification from home, and a job in an advanced practice role. The project then runs in your licensed state, usually inside your own practice, counted as immersion hours rather than precepted clinicals.
Does Virginia's Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program cover a UNCW student's preceptor?
Not for a UNCW student. The program is written for preceptors whose students are enrolled at Virginia's public or private nonprofit nursing schools. Your preceptor can weigh UNCW's own offer to preceptors, set out on its Preceptor's Corner, instead.
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
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