Maine residents in FIU's online nursing programs
Florida International University (FIU) vouches for its licensure programs in Florida and has reached no conclusion about Maine. Maine's Board of Nursing is just as quiet about outside schools that want to use Maine clinics. With both sides quiet, your first job is to get written answers from FIU and the Board before you approach anyone in Portland, Bangor or Lewiston-Auburn.
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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.
Start here: FIU's answer for Maine
Nothing on FIU's website mentions Maine by name. What applies to you comes from pages written for every student outside Florida.
| Where FIU says it | What that means from Maine |
|---|---|
| Professional Licensure page | The BSN, MSN and DNP Nurse Anesthesia are confirmed for Florida only; Maine is undetermined, and FIU sends you to Maine's licensing agency before enrollment. |
| Graduate admissions | The MSN and DNP expect a current Florida RN license; a Maine multistate license is not addressed for the MSN. |
| Clinical Education page | Online primary care students find their own site and may go beyond FIU's four South Florida counties; states outside Florida are not discussed. |
FIU also keeps a learner location for every student, taken from the address you enroll with, and a Maine address is what the university will weigh when a Maine clinic comes up. Our page on learner location and moving explains how Policy 1370.001 handles it.
Maine's Board and schools from away
Chapter 7, the Board's education rule, deals with approving Maine's own prelicensure schools and says nothing about outside programs. Nothing else on the Board's site fills that gap.
Maine's practice act does exempt students (32 MRSA §2103(2)), but in language aimed at people training for a first license in a Board-approved school. An NP student from a Florida university fits that description awkwardly at best. Ask the Board how it sees your situation, then check with FIU's Office of Clinical Education on whether it would sign a Maine site at all. Our guide to clinicals outside South Florida lists what to ask.
Silence in Maine's rules is not the same as permission; get the Board's and FIU's answers in writing before you contact a clinic.
Full practice after a transition period
AANP counts Maine among the full practice states, with a condition attached. For their first two years, new NPs practice under supervision, either by a physician or an experienced NP or through a hospital or clinic whose medical director is a physician. Independence comes after that.
A Maine NP you ask to precept may therefore run an independent practice or still be inside that supervised window. Either way FIU's minimums still govern, from a year of specialty experience through certification, and relatives or close friends are ruled out. The preceptor requirements page also covers FIU's unresolved rule that expects a master's in nursing while still letting physicians precept.
Where Maine NP students tend to look
Maine's population and specialty care gather in a handful of places: Portland-South Portland first, then Bangor and Lewiston-Auburn. Central Maine Healthcare, MaineGeneral Health, Northern Light Health and MaineHealth are the systems you will meet most often. Read that as a map of where care happens rather than a list of willing sites; every organization writes its own terms for students.
If your interests run toward community health or a DNP project, Maine CDC, the state's public health arm, is a useful reference.
Licenses: your Maine RN and FIU's Florida rule
Maine and Florida came into the compact together, on the same day in January 2018. Holding a multistate license with Maine as your primary residence lets you work as an RN across the other member states. FIU's MSN admissions wording nonetheless insists on an active Florida RN license, and the Florida RN license page covers the gaps in FIU's wording.
The APRN Compact still lacks enough states to start, and Maine is not among those that have signed on. After graduation, NP licensure is a separate application in each state where you mean to practice.
Why Maine students choose us
What Maine students get from us is a search that opens with the right question. We confirm with you what FIU and the Board have said, then line up preceptors close to your town whose patients fit your FIU course, gather everything the Preceptor Request Form needs and keep the contract clock visible so nothing stalls in the weeks before your practicum. When a preceptor withdraws partway through a term, the next candidate is already on our list. Tell us where you are.
Questions FIU students ask
Can an FIU online NP student train in Maine?
FIU lets online primary care students train outside its four South Florida counties but has not said whether that includes other states, and Maine's Board publishes no rule for outside programs. Get the Office of Clinical Education's view on a Maine site before you approach a clinic.
Does FIU's MSN meet Maine's licensing requirements?
FIU has not made that determination. Its licensure page confirms Florida only and points anyone planning to be licensed outside Florida to that state's regulator, which for you is the Maine State Board of Nursing.
Must a Maine nurse hold a Florida RN license for FIU?
For the MSN and DNP, yes: FIU's admissions pages list an active Florida RN license, which nurses from other states secure before they are admitted. Whether a Maine multistate license would satisfy the MSN is not stated, so raise it with FIU admissions early.
What happens after graduation if I want to practice in Maine?
You would apply to the Maine Board for NP licensure, bearing in mind that FIU has not said whether its program meets Maine's requirements. Maine then asks new NPs to complete 24 months under a supervising physician or NP, or with a qualifying employer, before practicing fully on their own.
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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