Moving during an FIU nursing program: your learner location and your clinicals
Florida International University (FIU) records where you live when you enroll, and that record changes only when you formally tell FIU you have moved. Policy 1370.001 uses it to decide FIU's authorization and its licensure disclosures, and it counts clinicals as educational activity. Report a move as soon as you know about it, and settle your next clinical site with FIU in the same conversation.
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Tell us your FIU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your FIU course.
What Policy 1370.001 says
FIU's Learner Location policy, last revised February 12, 2024, sets each student's location from the information the student gives at enrollment. After that, the location on file changes only when the student formally reports a move to FIU. The Office of the Registrar keeps these records.
The policy spells out why the record matters. It decides whether FIU is authorized to offer you instruction where you are, and it decides which licensure disclosures apply to you. It also defines educational activity broadly: clinicals, practicums, internships and externships all count, and your physical location during one of them can affect FIU's authorization to offer that experience.
Nothing updates by itself. A new lease, a new job or a new driver's license elsewhere leaves FIU's record where it was; only your formal report changes it. Until you make that report, FIU is working from an address you may have left months ago.
Why a move reaches your clinical site
For an FIU student on an online track, the clinical rotation is the one part of the program tied to a place. Canvas courses follow you anywhere. A preceptor, a site and the contract between that site and FIU stay put, so a move can leave you with an approved site in the old city and nothing in the new one.
FIU arranges rotations a term ahead of each clinical course, and its current graduate handbook budgets six to eight weeks for a brand-new site agreement (older FIU documents give other figures); no rotation starts until that agreement exists. Because the handbook permits a fresh site and preceptor each semester, a move between terms is much easier to absorb than one in the middle of a practicum. Our page on site contracts explains that clock.
FIU publishes no rule for a student who relocates halfway through a practicum. If that is your situation, talk to your clinical faculty before you pack, since they approve your Typhon entries and can tell you what the course still requires.
Before you move: the order that works
- Report the move to FIUMake the formal report Policy 1370.001 relies on. Learner-location records sit with the Office of the Registrar, which can explain how the report is filed.
- Tell your programTell the track program leader for your specialty, or your Graduate Nursing Advisor. RN to BSN students go to the RN-BSN Program Coordinator, whom FIU's 2021 package names as the contact for students living outside Florida.
- Ask the Office of Clinical Education about your next siteConfirm that FIU will sign with a practice in your new area before you start searching there. Online-track students can train beyond FIU's four home counties, yet FIU is silent on whether another state qualifies.
- Check the license questionsFIU's MSN and DNP require a current Florida RN license. Leaving Florida? Read FIU's licensure disclosure and ask the new state's board of nursing about clinical hours and licensure there.
- Line up the new preceptor earlyCount back from your next practicum semester so the Preceptor Request Form, a possible new contract and your clearance renewals all fit before day one.
Moving within Florida
A move from Miami to Orlando, Tampa, Gainesville or Jacksonville keeps you inside FIU's licensure statement, which covers Florida. The clinical side is a different matter. FIU's long-standing clinical area is four counties: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and, down the Keys, Monroe. Its current Clinical Education page allows AGPCNP and PNP students on the online tracks to train beyond that area, as long as the student finds the site and FIU's clinical department has an agreement signed before day one.
Hybrid students, in FNP, PMHNP or AGACNP, are in a different position. FIU describes one-on-one placement help from its designated clinical department for them, run through the graduate nursing clinical coordinator. Nothing FIU publishes covers a hybrid student who relocates away from South Florida, so talk to that coordinator before you sign a lease.
Campus days travel with you too. Online-track students can be called to the Modesto A. Maidique Campus one to three times a semester, and hybrid tracks blend classroom and online study; see campus visits. For regional detail, our guide to preceptors outside South Florida covers Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville.
Moving out of Florida
Leaving the state raises three separate questions. Authorization comes first: FIU participates in NC-SARA, says 49 of 50 states are SARA members, and holds individual approval in California. Licensure is second: FIU vouches for Florida and has reached no determination for any other state. The third question is the one that stops rotations: whether FIU will use a clinical site in your new state at all, which its pages leave open.
Put that third question to the Office of Clinical Education first. Its answer decides whether you search in the new state, travel back to Florida for rotations, or time the move around your practicum semesters. Keep your Florida RN license current either way, since the graduate programs require one.
RN to BSN students carry the practicum with them. FIU's 2021 package is explicit that relocating, whether to north Florida or across a state line, does not excuse it.
What a move changes, and who to ask
| Your move | What it touches | Ask first |
|---|---|---|
| Within Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach | Your commute; perhaps a new site next semester | Your clinical faculty |
| Elsewhere in Florida, online primary care track | A new site and contract in the new area; travel for campus visits | Office of Clinical Education |
| Elsewhere in Florida, hybrid track | Placement support and campus days | Graduate nursing clinical coordinator |
| Out of Florida, graduate program | Learner location, licensure disclosure, whether a site there can be used | Registrar, Office of Clinical Education, the new state's board |
| Out of South Florida or out of state, RN to BSN | Practicum still required; self-identify if out of state | RN-BSN Program Coordinator |
If the move means sitting out for a while, learn the rules first. Policy 380.048 makes a formal Leave of Absence mandatory once you will go three terms in a row unregistered; approval has to come before the leave starts, and the degree clock keeps running. NP students on the MSN plan cannot simply skip a term without one. The details are in incompletes, leave and time limits.
How we help when you relocate
A move is when a preceptor search gets hardest, because you are building a network in a city you are still learning. That is the part we take on. Once the Office of Clinical Education confirms the new area works for your track, we look there for preceptors whose practice fits your course: an internal or family medicine office seeing adults and older adults if NGR 6201L is next, a pediatric office if it is NGR 6301L. We find out whether FIU already has an agreement with each practice and assemble every field of the Preceptor Request Form.
If the move is still months off, we work backward from your next practicum term so a new site has time for its agreement. Read how it works, or use the contact form to tell us your track, your new city and the term you need covered.
Questions FIU students ask
Do I have to tell FIU if I move during my nursing program?
Yes, if you want FIU's record to match where you live. Policy 1370.001 keeps your enrollment address as your learner location until you file a formal notice of a move, and that location governs FIU's authorization, its licensure disclosures and your clinical placements. Ask the Office of the Registrar how to file, then tell your program.
Can I move out of Florida during FIU's online NP program?
FIU's pages leave this open. Online AGPCNP and PNP students may train beyond FIU's four home counties, but FIU never says whether another state counts. Raise it with the Office of Clinical Education while your address is still in Florida, read FIU's licensure disclosure, and ask the new state's board how it treats clinical hours by out-of-state programs.
Can I switch to a preceptor near my new home?
Between terms, yes: the graduate handbook allows a different site and preceptor each semester. The new practice still needs faculty approval and a signed FIU agreement before your first day, and the handbook allows six to eight weeks for a brand-new one. For a move in the middle of a practicum, speak to your clinical faculty before anything else.
Does moving change my RN to BSN practicum?
The requirement stays. According to FIU's 2021 RN to BSN package, relocating out of South Florida or out of Florida does not excuse the practicum, and a student living in another state should make that known to the RN-BSN Program Coordinator. Your preceptor still needs a BSN and a site with a current NWCNHS contract.
Can I take a semester off while I move?
Not casually. According to FIU's MSN FAQ, the only way to pause is a Leave of Absence, decided case by case. Policy 380.048 requires that leave whenever you will go three straight terms without registering, needs approval before it starts, and leaves the degree clock running. Your Graduate Nursing Advisor is the first call.
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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