FIU Students in South Dakota: Faculty Licensing Comes First

How South Dakota handles schools from elsewhere

South Dakota's June 2020 guidance to nursing programs from other states puts it plainly: the board does not approve them. When a school wants students in a direct-care setting there, the arrangement is made between that school and whichever local clinic or preceptor agrees to host.

The board's expectation lands on faculty instead. It wants the program to keep one instructor credentialed for South Dakota, by state license or practice privilege, and for NP students that credential has to be at the APRN level. ARSD 20:48:07:49, on distance education, holds instructors of NP students living in South Dakota to that same requirement.

FIU does not publish whether any of its faculty meet that standard. Put it to FIU's Office of Clinical Education early, ahead of any preceptor outreach.

Preceptor standards and South Dakota's licensure rule

When South Dakota approves its own schools, ARSD 20:48:07:34 governs their preceptors: nobody may precept below the credential a student is heading for, and an NP preceptor's clinical field should be similar to the student's. FIU's standards run along similar lines; the preceptor requirements page lists them. An adult primary care NP precepting an AGPCNP student fits both.

Thinking of practicing in South Dakota after graduation? The board's APRN licensure standard asks your graduate program for a clinical total of no less than 500 hours within your chosen role and population focus, plus graduate courses in three areas: pharmacology, pathophysiology or physiology, and physical and health assessment. FIU's MSN pages cite 770 clinical hours and its handbook a 630-hour minimum for the primary care tracks, both above that line, but the board decides what it accepts.

On AANP's classification, South Dakota NPs gain full practice after 1,040 transition hours spent under a written agreement with a collaborating physician, CNM or certified NP.

Compacts: one in force, one waiting

South Dakota has issued multistate RN licenses since January 2018. On February 5, 2024, its governor signed the APRN Compact, making the state one of five to enact it, but that compact only operates after seven states sign on. None of that changes FIU's MSN entry rule of Florida RN licensure held before you start (see the Florida RN license); FIU has not said whether a South Dakota compact license could count instead.