MRU clinicals in Florida, Miami Regional University's home state
Every MRU nursing program is open to you if you live in Florida, and Florida is the one state where MRU's catalog commits to meeting licensure requirements. The rule that shapes your search is a state rule: a preceptor at a Florida site must hold a Florida license, and MRU must approve that person before your first clinical hour counts.
Plan your Florida clinicals
Tell us your MRU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with what an MRU-ready preceptor and site look like for you.
Which MRU programs you can take while living in Florida
Living in Florida satisfies the residence condition MRU prints for its online and hybrid programs, which require residence in Florida or a SARA member state throughout the program. It also places you in the only state where the catalog says MRU makes sure licensure requirements are met. Everywhere else, the catalog tells students to check with their own board first, even though MRU's NC-SARA disclosure (reviewed August 2025) marks the FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP tracks "Meets" in 49 states.
| Program | Open to Florida residents? | Delivery | Clinical or practice hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN-FNP and FNP Post-Master's Certificate | Yes | Onsite in Miami Springs or online | Four clinical courses, MSN5700 to MSN6400; MRU prints no total |
| PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate | Yes | Online | 765 |
| AGACNP Post-Master's Certificate | Yes | Online, plus a 3-day skills and simulation weekend on campus in semester I | 810 |
| DNP (leadership) | Yes, with an active Florida or Compact RN license | Offsite and online | 765 practice hours |
| MSN in Healthcare Systems Leadership | Yes | Onsite and online | 180, in MSN5855 |
| RN-to-BSN | Yes | Onsite and online | 135 |
| ASN, BSN, MSN Direct Entry | Yes, on campus | Onsite; externships at contracted agencies | 450, 675 and 495 |
For the four NP tracks and the leadership MSN, the catalog says students must secure their own preceptor. If you do not, MRU appoints one and charges the one-time Practicum Affiliation Fee, which is waived only when you bring an approved preceptor yourself. The pre-licensure programs are scheduled by MRU at its externship agencies.
Who may precept you at a Florida site
Florida Administrative Code rule 64B9-4.001(13) defines a qualified preceptor as a certified, practicing APRN, a licensed MD or DO, or a licensed dentist who supervises, teaches and evaluates an NP student in the clinical setting. When that setting is in Florida, the preceptor must hold a Florida license under chapter 458, 459, 464 or 466. The rule sets no minimum years of experience.
The same rule expects the student to be an RN licensed under chapter 464. A Florida-issued license plainly meets that. Whether a multistate license issued by another Compact state counts is not spelled out in the rule text, so if you moved here recently on another state's license, raise it with the Office of Academic Affairs before your first MSN5700 shift.
MRU sets its own standards on top of the state's, and those are not public: preceptor qualifications, form names and deadlines sit in the nursing student handbook on the MRU PORTAL. What is public is who signs off. The Office of Academic Affairs approves FNP, FNP-PMC and AGACNP preceptors; the 2025 catalog names the Program Coordinator for PMHNP, while MRU's October 2025 PMHNP sheet names Academic Affairs. There is more on who can precept an MRU student.
A Florida license is necessary, not sufficient: no hours count until MRU has approved the preceptor.
Protocol or autonomous: how Florida APRN law shapes your search
Most Florida APRNs practice under a protocol, a written arrangement with a supervising physician (or dentist) that is filed at the practice site. AANP rates Florida as restricted practice for that reason. Under s. 464.0123 an APRN may instead register for autonomous practice, but only in primary care: family medicine, general pediatrics and general internal medicine. Registration needs 3,000 clinical hours under physician supervision within five years, recent graduate coursework in differential diagnosis and pharmacology, and no recent discipline.
For your search this cuts two ways. An autonomous family-practice APRN answers to no supervising physician, which can make a yes quicker for MSN5700 or the single-setting MSN6400. In a protocol practice, both the APRN and the supervising physician qualify under 64B9-4.001(13), so ask early whether the physician expects to be told before a student starts. Acute care is not on the autonomous list, so an AGACNP preceptor in a Florida hospital will be a protocol APRN or a physician.
Board rule 64B9-4.001(12) defines primary care to include behavioral and mental health conditions, and psychiatric medications prescribed by psychiatric nurses are exempt from Florida's seven-day limit on Schedule II supplies. Both points matter if you want a PMHNP preceptor for MSN5056C through MSN6065C. Read more on protocol and autonomous preceptors.
South Florida: what Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach systems publish
Most MRU students live somewhere in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, a metro area of about 6.39 million residents in 2025. Every large system here that publishes a student policy starts with the same condition: your school needs an agreement with them. MRU publishes no list of clinical sites or affiliation agreements, so confirm MRU's place on a system's list with the system and with MRU before you build a plan around one hospital.
- Jackson Health System allows clinicals only when the school has an affiliating school agreement. The list sits on an employee-benefits portal, is refreshed every six months, and marks some agreements as covering Jackson employees only.
- Baptist Health South Florida needs a Master Agreement and a Program Letter of Agreement, accepts requests only through Complio, and wants profiles at least 10 business days before the start date. Rotations run up to four months, students may contact Baptist providers directly to find a preceptor, and employees cannot rotate where they work.
- Nicklaus Children's Hospital says NP students must secure a preceptor before submitting requirements and must attend an affiliated institution.
- Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood has no public nursing or NP student page; its visiting medical students onboard through Complio.
- HCA Florida Healthcare has no South Florida student page. Its Lake Monroe hospital asks for an affiliation agreement, a request at least a month ahead and no direct contact from students.
Independent primary-care, pediatric and psychiatric practices in Broward and Palm Beach counties sit outside these hospital processes. There the gatekeepers are the practice itself and MRU's approval, plus any site paperwork the handbook asks for. See South Florida NP preceptors for more.
Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville
Online MRU students live across the state, and each of the other large metros has its own systems. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, about 3.42 million people in 2025, is BayCare Health System's home region. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, about 2.96 million, is where Florida-headquartered AdventHealth has its largest presence. Jacksonville, about 1.79 million, has a UF Health hospital, and HCA Florida Healthcare operates in all three regions. Treat these as examples of where NP students look, not as places that have agreed to take MRU students. The Florida-license rule reads the same in Pensacola as in Hialeah.
One state program is worth knowing if you aim for a community clinic. Under s. 409.91256, AHCA runs the TEACH funding program, which pays qualified facilities back for the clinical hours they host for nursing students and primary-care APRN students. Rural health clinics, FQHCs, certain shortage-area nonprofits and community mental health centers are among the facilities that can qualify. Preceptors must be Florida-licensed, students must attend accredited Florida-based programs, funding depends on appropriation, and the section is repealed on 1 July 2034. Any claim is the facility's to make.
Florida's workforce figures, with their dates
The Department of Health's Division of Medical Quality Assurance counted, at 30 June 2025, 50,378 in-state active APRN licenses, 10,596 active APRN licenses held by people living out of state, and 66,600 renewable APRN licenses in total. It also counted 347,857 in-state active RNs, 62,069 in-state active MDs and 9,461 DOs. Those APRNs, MDs and DOs are the pool rule 64B9-4.001(13) draws on for Florida sites.
The demand side is documented too, with older numbers. The Florida Center for Nursing's report for academic year 2021-22 counted 23 graduate nursing pathways in its South region (Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe), with 1,753 qualified applicants, 1,287 accepted and 526 graduates. Statewide, the 79 pathways that responded accepted 3,576 of 4,722 qualified applicants. FCN notes that no complete list of Florida graduate programs exists, so these figures cover only the programs that answered.
Read together, South Florida has a large preceptor pool and a large number of graduate students asking it for time. An early start does more than any single contact.
License, clearance and paperwork for Florida clinicals
Florida has been a Nurse Licensure Compact state since 19 January 2018, and MQA issued 7,489 multistate RN and LPN license upgrades in FY 2024-25. A Florida multistate license also keeps the DNP's license condition simple.
MRU's clearance runs through American Data Bank and includes a Level II background check with fingerprints. Florida law uses the same term: chapter 435 Level 2 screening sends fingerprints to FDLE for state and FBI checks. Whether a hospital screens students through AHCA's Clearinghouse is its own policy, and Memorial's visiting-student rules, for example, ask for their own Level 2 check with fingerprints.
MRU wants immunization proof from a Florida-licensed provider, which is easy to arrange here. MRU Health, the clinic on the third floor of the Miami Springs building, helps with TB, flu, hepatitis B, MMR, varicella, Tdap, titers, CPR, a physical and drug screening. Proof of individual liability insurance is due at least 15 days before your externship starts.
Why Florida MRU students choose us
We search Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and the rest of the state for a Florida-licensed preceptor and a site that fit your MRU course, whether that is adult and geriatric primary care for MSN5700 or 405 lifespan hours for MSN6065C. We help you gather the preceptor details and credentials MRU verifies, and we search again if a preceptor drops mid-term. Every preceptor and site still needs MRU's approval, and the Florida file we help you build gives that review everything it asks for from the start. Here is how it works.
Questions MRU students ask
Can I do MRU clinicals at the Florida hospital where I work?
Possibly, but the hospital's student rules come first. Baptist Health South Florida does not let employees rotate at the facility where they work, and Nicklaus Children's keeps employee students out of their own department and scheduled work hours. Jackson's school list marks some agreements as employees-only. Check your employer's student policy, then have MRU approve the preceptor before any hours count.
How early should I start looking for a preceptor in South Florida?
Earlier than the hospitals' own cut-offs. Baptist wants Complio profiles 10 business days before a start date, and HCA's Lake Monroe hospital asks for requests a month ahead. MRU adds approval before the preceptorship, insurance proof 15 days before the externship, and registration that opens 20 days before the semester. For Spring 2027, which starts 4 January, a search that begins in early fall leaves room for all of it.
Does MRU publish a list of approved clinical sites in Florida?
No. MRU's catalog and website name no partner hospitals or affiliation agreements, and details such as preceptor forms and paperwork deadlines live in the nursing student handbook on the MRU PORTAL. For the NP tracks and the leadership MSN, you bring the preceptor and MRU approves them, or MRU appoints one for the Practicum Affiliation Fee.
Is rule 64B9-4.001(13) the same thing as MRU's preceptor requirements?
No. The rule is the state's floor for Florida sites: a certified APRN, MD, DO or dentist holding a Florida license. MRU's own qualification rules are not published outside the student handbook, so read that first or ask the Office of Academic Affairs before you approach anyone. A preceptor can meet the Florida rule and still need MRU's approval.
I'm in MRU's DNP in Florida. Do I need a preceptor too?
The 39-credit leadership DNP works differently from the NP tracks. A DNP Project team mentor is assigned to you, the 765 practice hours are indirect and logged in myevaluation.com, and the 2025 catalog says program faculty approve practicum hours, projects, preceptors and mentors. Your project also needs third-party IRB approval in DNP8200 before you implement it. See the DNP page.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
We check these pages against MRU's own catalog, addenda and program pages. The nursing student handbook on the MRU student portal and MRU's Office of Academic Affairs have the final word.
MRU says secure your own preceptor. We start the search now.
Tell us your MRU program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We look for preceptors who fit the course and help you gather what MRU checks before approving them.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult primary care for
MSN5700, women's health, pediatrics, psychiatric or acute care - Credentials, license and site details collected before MRU's credential check
- Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, or wherever in a SARA state you live
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