Delaware: a small state with a detailed rulebook for visiting nursing programs
Delaware asks a great deal of a visiting nursing school: the board hears from the school, and reviews its paperwork, before a single student walks into a Delaware facility. Florida International University (FIU) offers no licensure verdict for Delaware and is silent on whether its online tracks may place students beyond Florida. Both questions go to FIU before your search begins.
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The Delaware board's checklist for out-of-state schools
Delaware's nursing education standards, in rule 1900 of Title 24 of its Administrative Code, hold programs from other states to a notice-first standard. They cover every nursing program without sorting prelicensure from RN to BSN or graduate study, so an NP track falls inside their reach. Before a school uses a Delaware clinical facility, the Board of Nursing expects:
- NoticeWord from the school that it plans to use Delaware facilities, sent ahead of the first student.
- Proof of standingProof that it is approved at home or nationally accredited.
- AgreementsSigned contracts with all the clinical agencies it intends to use.
- People and placesWhat the school requires of clinical faculty and preceptors, plus who they are and where each one is assigned.
- LicensesCopies of current Delaware or compact licenses for every faculty member and preceptor.
Facilities also need the board's go-ahead before any student is placed there, decided from the school's forms, and board staff may inspect in person.
Every item on that list is FIU's to file, not yours. Ask whether FIU has filed for your track before a Delaware preceptor sets aside time for you.
What FIU's own pages say
FIU's licensure page speaks for Florida alone. The three nursing programs on it, the BSN, the MSN and the DNP in Nurse Anesthesia, satisfy Florida's rules, and Delaware, like everywhere else outside Florida, gets no finding at all. Our licensure disclosure page reads that statement line by line.
Getting into the MSN hinges on a current Florida RN license. Online AGPCNP and PNP students identify their own sites and may reach past FIU's South Florida home counties, yet Delaware appears on no FIU page; that answer sits with the Office of Clinical Education. If you have already moved, report it, because FIU's Policy 1370.001 does not update your location on its own. See learner location and moving.
Licenses, the compact and the APRN Compact
Delaware and Florida have both belonged to the Nurse Licensure Compact since 2018. FIU's admission rule, though, names a Florida license and does not address a multistate one issued by Delaware; the Florida RN license page carries FIU's exact wording.
Delaware stands out on advanced practice. The APRN Compact became Delaware law in August 2021, and by 2026 only North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming had also enacted it. Seven states must enact the compact before it operates, so for now an NP in Delaware holds Delaware's own APRN license. AANP lists Delaware as full practice. In Delaware's definitions, a preceptor is a nurse holding a valid license and a bachelor's degree or more, and online programs must use instructors and preceptors in Delaware facilities whose license or privileges sit at the student's target level or above.
Where Delaware NP students look
Delaware's geography is compact. Wilmington and the north belong to the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro; Dover, the capital, has its own metro; Seaford's micropolitan area sits in the south.
ChristianaCare, Bayhealth and Beebe Healthcare are the in-state systems most students research. For PNP students the natural first look is the Wilmington hospital of Nemours Children's Health, a pediatric system with sites beyond Delaware. None has agreed to take anyone on this page's say-so. Each would decide on a student from an out-of-state university, FIU would need a signed contract, and Delaware's rule would add the board's facility approval.
Where we fit for a Delaware student
Delaware's filing burden shapes our timeline from the first call. We confirm FIU's position on a Delaware rotation with you, then find preceptors whose credentials fit both Delaware's definitions and FIU's standards, learn early which sites already hold FIU contracts, and hand the Office of Clinical Education a complete request. See how it works.
Questions FIU students ask
Can I study in FIU's online PNP track while living in Delaware?
Possibly, but three answers come first. FIU leaves Delaware as not determined for licensure, wants a Florida RN license before admission, and has published nothing on online-track rotations beyond Florida. Delaware then expects the school itself to alert the board and send documents ahead of any facility use in the state.
Could the APRN Compact cover my NP practice in Florida and Delaware at once?
Not yet. Delaware has enacted it, Florida has not, and the compact comes into force only after seven states adopt it. Until then, plan on one APRN license per state of practice after graduation, and check each board's requirements well before you finish FIU's program.
Can I do clinical hours at the Wilmington hospital where I work?
FIU does not allow clinical hours on the unit where you work, though a different unit at a large institution can be approved. Delaware's filing and facility rules would still apply to the hospital. Read working where you work before you propose your own employer as a site.
Which credentials must a Delaware preceptor hold for FIU?
Delaware asks the school to file copies of current Delaware or compact licenses for each preceptor. FIU, for its part, wants an NP or physician who has spent a year or longer in the specialty and holds national certification and an active license. Your preceptor needs to satisfy both lists before FIU's approval.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against FIU's own graduate handbook, preceptor manual, plans of study, catalog and licensure pages. Your plan of study, your course faculty, your clinical faculty and FIU's Office of Clinical Education have the final word.
FIU asks you to identify your clinical site. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your FIU track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, check early whether the site already holds an FIU contract, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NGR 6201L, pediatric primary care forNGR 6301L, an organizational mentor forNGR 7940C - Preceptor, facility, license and schedule details ready for the Preceptor Request Form, weeks ahead of the contract clock
- Across Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe, or beyond them where FIU approves your site
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