Missouri, MRU and the collaboration rule for NP clinicals
Missouri NPs practice under a collaborative arrangement with a physician for their whole careers, which puts Missouri in AANP's restricted category and shapes every preceptor search there. On the paperwork side the picture is lighter: no rule we located makes an out-of-state program register with the Missouri Board before clinicals.
Plan your Missouri 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.
What Missouri residents can take at MRU
SARA covers Missouri, so MRU admits Missouri residents to its distance programs, and the disclosure MRU filed for NC-SARA puts "Meets" against all three NP tracks for Missouri. The catalog frames MRU's licensure commitment around Florida alone and advises out-of-state students to contact their home board, the Missouri State Board of Nursing, before enrolling.
| Program | Missouri residents | Delivery | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN-FNP | Accepted from Missouri | Online, or face to face in Florida | Four clinical courses with no published total |
| FNP Post-Master's Certificate | Accepted from Missouri | Online, or face to face in Florida | As many of the four as a gap analysis leaves |
| PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate | Accepted from Missouri | Fully online | 765 in three courses |
| AGACNP Post-Master's Certificate | Accepted from Missouri | Online, and on campus for a semester I skills weekend | 810 in three courses |
| DNP | Accepted with Missouri multistate or Florida RN licensure | Offsite and online | 765 practice |
| MSN Healthcare Systems Leadership | Accepted from Missouri | Online, or face to face in Florida | 180 in MSN5855 |
| RN-to-BSN | Accepted from Missouri | Online, or face to face in Florida | 135 in three courses |
| ASN, BSN, MSN Direct Entry | Florida enrollment only | Miami Springs | 450, 675, 495 |
Missouri's rules on visiting programs, and your license
Missouri's program rules at 20 CSR 2200-2 apply to the programs the Board approves itself. A student exemption in RSMo 335.081(6)(a) allows supervised practice without a Missouri license for anyone studying at an approved school of professional or practical nursing; it is silent on how programs from other states fit in. Nothing we located obliges a visiting program to apply to the Board or notify it before Missouri placements; the Board was not contacted, so confirm with MRU.
You practice on your own license in any case. Missouri's Compact statute, RSMo 335.360, took effect on 20 July 2017, and implementation followed on 19 January 2018. Held as multistate, a Missouri license works across Compact states and satisfies what the DNP asks of applicants' licenses. MRU's clearance steps are on clinicals outside Florida.
Career-long collaboration and the Missouri preceptor search
AANP rates Missouri restricted because an NP's collaborative practice arrangement with a physician never ends: it lasts the whole career and sets limits covering ratios, chart review and controlled substances. Every Missouri NP you approach has a collaborating physician, and some practices may want that physician's agreement before taking a student. MRU's handbook decides who can precept, and the public outline is on MRU's preceptor requirements.
About 2.14 million people (2025) live in the Missouri portion of the St. Louis metro and about 1.33 million in its portion of Kansas City; Springfield, at roughly 501,000, and Columbia, at roughly 219,000, come next. NP students tend to consider MU Health Care, SSM Health, BJC HealthCare, CoxHealth and Mercy. They show the market; none is described here as taking MRU students.
A preceptor tax credit that leaves NPs out
Since 1 January 2023, RSMo 135.690 has offered the Community-Based Faculty Preceptor Tax Credit to physicians and physician assistants licensed in Missouri who take Missouri medical or PA students, without direct pay, through primary-care preceptorships lasting 120 hours or more. Nurse practitioners and nursing students are not included. Do not raise it with a prospective NP preceptor; it does not apply to them or to you.
How the placement desk works in Missouri
We search around St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia or your own area for an NP or other preceptor type suited to your MRU course, keeping in mind that the collaborating physician may need to agree. We assemble with you the preceptor documents MRU verifies, and restart the hunt if a preceptor falls through. MRU holds the approval decision. Start with your details.
Questions MRU students ask
Can my NP's collaborating physician precept me instead?
Missouri law does not decide that; MRU does. MRU keeps its preceptor qualifications in the student handbook, reachable only through the MRU PORTAL. In a Missouri practice the collaborating physician is often close at hand, so it is worth asking MRU whether a physician is acceptable for your course before you approach one.
Will my Missouri preceptor qualify for the state preceptor tax credit?
Not if your preceptor is an NP. RSMo 135.690 covers Missouri-licensed physicians and physician assistants precepting Missouri medical or PA students, and it does not include nurse practitioners or nursing students. An MRU rotation would not qualify even with a physician preceptor, since MRU students are neither medical nor PA students.
I live on the Missouri side of Kansas City. Can I train in Kansas?
Your Missouri multistate license works in Kansas, which is also a Compact state. KSBN expects Kansas preceptors of APRN students to be licensed as Kansas APRNs in the role being studied, oriented, and signed up to an agreement. Tell MRU before planning hours in Kansas. See our Kansas page.
Does the Missouri Board of Nursing need to approve MRU?
We found nothing saying so. Missouri's program rules cover programs the Board approves, and the student exemption refers to approved schools without addressing out-of-state programs. MRU students hold RN licenses and practice on them. Because the Board was not asked directly, check with MRU before your first Missouri clinical day.
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
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