Keiser's online FNP for nurses in Virginia
Virginia's Board of Nursing regulates and approves neither out-of-state programs nor post-licensure ones, so no Virginia approval stands between Keiser and your practicums. Keiser's November 2025 FNP disclosure marks Virginia as meeting requirements, and the Graduate School FAQ's restriction list passes over it. That leaves Keiser's own checklist and a preceptor hunt across Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond and Roanoke.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Keiser program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Keiser course.
Keiser's checklist, applied to a Virginia applicant
- Carry two licenses.Keiser admits FNP and WHNP students holding an active, unrestricted Florida RN license, and it also wants a license from the state where clinicals take place, which here means Virginia. The license guide covers the details.
- Get Virginia's position in writing.Anyone applying from outside Florida hands Keiser a written statement that Virginia allows the clinical rotations and would license them as an NP after graduation. The Virginia Board of Nursing is the office to ask.
- Check both of Keiser's lists.Virginia meets requirements on the November 2025 FNP and WHNP disclosures, and the Graduate School FAQ's roster of restricted states leaves it off. Keiser's lists conflict elsewhere, so confirm with the Graduate School anyway.
- Find, then clear, each site.FNP students secure their own preceptors. Keiser approves each one and signs an affiliation agreement with the site before any hour counts.
Every Keiser nursing program, from Virginia
| Program | Open to Virginians? | Where clinical hours are done |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | Yes on the November 2025 disclosure, pending the Graduate School's word | Virginia practices you secure, cleared by Keiser; two Fort Lauderdale residencies |
| MSN WHNP | Also meets requirements for Virginia | Women's health settings you choose; three on-campus weekends |
| Post-master's DNP | Needs the RN license of the state you live in; no license results | Mentored practice hours; a two-day Flagship campus residency |
| RN to BSN (online) | Needs the RN license of the state you live in | The 45-hour community clinical in NUR4636 |
| BSN tracks and ASN | Florida campus programs | Program-arranged Florida sites |
How Virginia treats NP students from outside schools
The Board's education page says so directly: schools based in other states, and programs for nurses already licensed, are not ones it oversees. Its 80 percent in-state clinical rule and the site-approval rules of 18VAC90-27 belong to pre-licensure programs Virginia itself has approved.
A narrow exemption sits in Virginia Code 54.1-3001. An RN whose unrestricted license comes from any other state, a U.S. territory or DC may go without Virginia licensure during advanced nursing study whose curriculum calls for clinical practice, and only for the clinical work that curriculum demands. Keiser's admission rule still expects a license for your clinical state, so follow Keiser's requirement, and remember Keiser's 2023 policy manual cautions that some states may refuse to count practicum hours earned beyond Florida.
Practice agreements, the compact and Virginia's incentive
Virginia has been a Nurse Licensure Compact state since 2018; the APRN Compact is not law there. AANP labels Virginia restricted: an NP works on a patient care team under a practice agreement with a physician unless the NP attests to the equivalent of three years in full-time clinical practice. Keiser counts MDs and DOs among acceptable FNP preceptors, so a team physician can be as useful a lead as an NP.
Virginia's Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program rewards Virginia-licensed clinicians who teach students from Virginia nursing schools, public or private nonprofit. Senate Bill 405, signed March 31, 2026, shifted it away from VDH; it now sits with the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, which accepts claims for hours from July 1, 2026 onward. Eligibility hinges on the student attending a Virginia school, so a Keiser student's preceptor does not qualify; Keiser's preceptors volunteer, as Keiser describes them.
From Arlington to Roanoke, and the lines to stay inside
Virginia's metro areas in the Census Bureau's 2025 estimates include Roanoke, Richmond, Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, and Virginia's side of Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, home to nearly half of that metro's residents. Systems in the state include VCU Health and Carilion Clinic, along with Inova, Sentara Health and UVA Health, and the Virginia Department of Health runs public health. They are examples of settings, not Keiser partners.
Two of those metros cross borders. The Washington area spills into DC and Maryland, two places Keiser's FAQ restricts, and Maryland is also "does not meet" for the WHNP. Hampton Roads reaches into North Carolina, another FAQ-restricted state. Keep every site on the Virginia side unless Keiser tells you otherwise.
Residencies, lead time and why Virginians choose us
Fort Lauderdale hosts the FNP's two in-person residencies, the first spanning three days of the assessment course and the second two days of the Integration Practicum at the program's end. Each practicum fills one eight-week term, planned about three months ahead.
We are specialists in exactly this Keiser process. We scout preceptors and sites that suit your practicum, in person where you live, in Richmond, Roanoke or anywhere between, and assemble every piece Keiser's preceptor form and coordinator review ask for, from the preceptor's résumé and license to the agreement signer and your clinic days. If a preceptor leaves midstream, we line up a new one. Start with the form below.
Questions Keiser students ask
Does any Virginia agency have to sign off on Keiser before my clinicals?
Not from the Board of Nursing, whose oversight skips schools from other states and post-licensure study. Keiser's own steps still apply: preceptor approval, a signed affiliation agreement, and the licenses its admission terms call for. Ask the Graduate School to confirm your status before you apply.
Can my Virginia preceptor claim the Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program?
Not for precepting you. Only preceptors of students from Virginia's in-state public and private nonprofit nursing schools qualify, and Keiser, a Florida university, is not one of them. Keiser lists no preceptor payment of its own; clinicians who take its students volunteer.
I live in Northern Virginia. Could my practicum be in DC or Maryland?
Treat that as unlikely without Keiser's explicit say-so. Keiser's Graduate School FAQ restricts both DC and Maryland for MSN, FNP and DNP students, and Maryland is marked "does not meet" on the WHNP disclosure. Keiser also expects a license in any state where you train, so Virginia sites are the straightforward choice.
Does Virginia's student exemption mean I can skip a Virginia license?
Virginia Code 54.1-3001 excuses an RN licensed elsewhere from Virginia licensure during required clinical practice in an advanced nursing program. Keiser's admission terms are a separate requirement: a Florida RN license plus a license for your clinical state. Follow Keiser's rule and confirm your license set with the Graduate School.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Keiser's catalogs, graduate nursing manuals, licensure disclosures and program pages. Your course, the Clinical Coordinator and the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog have the final word.
Keiser asks you to find your own preceptor. Let us run that search.
Tell us your Keiser program, your next practicum and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the CV, license and site details your Preceptor/Mentor Information Form needs, about three months ahead.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NUR602AandNUR603A, pediatrics forNUR604A, women's health forNUR605A - CV, license, certification and site contact ready for Keiser's review and the affiliation agreement
- Across Florida, from Miami to Jacksonville, and in the other states where you are licensed
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next practicum term is all we need to begin.