Clarkson College in Florida: Clinicals Without PA Preceptors
Florida is open to Clarkson College graduate nursing students: the 2026-27 state workbook marks it Meets for every MSN, certificate and DNP track. The Florida-specific catch comes from Clarkson itself. Its November 2023 clinical sheets bar physician assistants from precepting Clarkson NP students in Florida, so your search runs through physicians and nurse practitioners.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Clarkson program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Florida's row in Clarkson's workbook
Clarkson's AY 2026-27 workbook (file dated Aug. 28, 2026) answers Florida as shown here, with no footnote, and links the Florida Board of Nursing as the state contact.
| Clarkson tab | Florida |
|---|---|
| Graduate Nursing (MSN, certificates, DNP) | Meets Requirements |
| CRNA | Meets Requirements |
| RN-BSN | Does Not Meet Requirements |
With a Florida permanent address in MyCC, the Graduate Nursing line is the one that counts, and it clears every track. The RN to BSN is the outlier: Florida sits outside the seven states that tab approves, so a Florida RN eyeing that program should get the program's answer before enrolling. Every other state's row is on the state authorization page.
Physicians and NPs only: the Florida PA rule
Clarkson wrote the rule into all three NP rotation sheets revised in November 2023: "PAs cannot be used as preceptors in Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona, or Maryland." In most states a PA can take Clarkson FNP and AGACNP students, so the Florida student most likely to be caught is the one with a PA colleague already willing to help. Those sheets have since left Clarkson's public site, so ask course faculty whether the current version keeps the limit.
That leaves MDs, DOs and nurse practitioners, each held to the standard on the preceptor requirements page. AANP files Florida under restricted practice, citing the career-long physician protocol some Florida NPs must keep, with exemptions for others. In a protocol practice, the NP and the physician named on the protocol are both candidates, and Clarkson lets one course use two preceptors without extra approval.
What Florida asks of an out-of-state school
For graduate programs, very little. Section 464.019, Florida's program-approval law, is written for schools offering pre-licensure education inside Florida. Nothing in Florida law turned up requiring Board approval, or even a notice to the Board, when a graduate or APRN school based elsewhere sends students to Florida clinicals.
Florida does fund clinical training, but the money stays with Florida schools. Its TEACH funding program (section 409.91256), run by the state's health care administration agency, AHCA, subject to appropriation, pays eligible sites, among them community mental health centers, FQHCs and rural clinics, back for the hours APRN students spend there. It covers only students whose accredited program is located in Florida, so a clinic hosting a Clarkson student has no TEACH claim for those hours.
Where Florida NP students look, and the license you need
The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro alone holds over six million residents, and Florida's other big population centers are the Jacksonville, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater areas. AdventHealth, whose home base is Florida though it spans several states, is one major employer; BayCare Health System, the HCA Florida Healthcare hospitals, UF Health at the University of Florida and, farther south, Baptist Health South Florida are others. Approach each through its own student channel; this page makes no claim that any hosts Clarkson students. A site new to Clarkson needs an affiliation agreement, so raise it on the first call.
Florida has honored multistate RN licenses since its compact membership began on Jan. 19, 2018, so any compact member's multistate license is effective for a Florida clinical, which is what Clarkson asks of you (RN license guide). Your preceptor needs a Florida license whatever state issued yours. Florida has not enacted the APRN Compact.
Why Florida's Clarkson students choose us
Florida students come to us because the state's traps are screened out before a name reaches you. Every candidate is a Florida-licensed physician or nurse practitioner, two or more years into practice, in a setting that fits your course: all-ages primary care for FNP, acute care certification for AGACNP, a psychiatric practice for PMHNP.
We ask each site about its Clarkson affiliation agreement at the outset, gather what the DocuSign form needs well ahead of the Nov. 1, Mar. 1 or Jun. 1 deadline, and plan all five clinical courses together, so the pediatric and women's health hours in an FNP plan have a Florida preceptor waiting. Send your metro and course through our contact page.
Questions Clarkson students ask
Could a PA be my preceptor in Florida?
Not under Clarkson's November 2023 rotation sheets. Florida is one of four states, with Oklahoma, Arizona and Maryland, where Clarkson says PAs cannot serve as preceptors, and the FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP sheets all carry the rule. A PA can still introduce you to a physician or NP in the same practice. Confirm with course faculty that the current handbook still says so.
Which RN license covers a Florida clinical?
One that is effective in Florida. Florida takes part in the Nurse Licensure Compact, so the multistate license your compact home state gave you is enough. A license valid only in a non-member state falls short, and you would add a Florida license before logging any hours.
Can I move to Florida partway through the Clarkson FNP?
Florida reads Meets, so a move there keeps you in a state where the graduate program is cleared. Talk to your program director first and update your permanent address in MyCC, which Clarkson's Policy OG-33 uses to set your state. Every preceptor after the move must hold a Florida license, and each needs a new agreement form for that course and semester.
Is Florida too far from Omaha for Clarkson's campus visit?
The requirement is a single trip. NP students attend one Graduate Weekend on campus during NRS 830 for the physical assessment skills check-off, and missing any part of it fails the course. Your clinical hours themselves are logged in Florida with approved preceptors, so book that weekend early.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Clarkson College's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and Graduate Nursing advisor have the final word.
- Clarkson College: State Authorization and Licensure Information (AY 2026-27 workbook)
- Florida Board of Nursing
- Clarkson College FNP Clinical Rotation Information, revised Nov. 2023 (archived)
- Florida Statutes, section 464.019 (nursing education program approval)
- Florida Statutes, section 409.91256 (TEACH funding program)
Clarkson asks you to find your preceptor. We make the search the easy part.
Tell us your Clarkson track, your city and your next clinical course. We line up preceptors who fit the NRS course and Clarkson's rules, gather the details the site and preceptor agreement asks for, and flag early whether the site needs a new affiliation agreement.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages primary care for FNP, acute care units for AGACNP, psychiatric providers for PMHNP
- License, experience and site details checked against Clarkson's rules before the agreement is filed
- Every clinical course planned in sequence, close to home in a state where Clarkson's graduate nursing meets requirements
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