South Dakota residents enrolled at Miami Regional University
South Dakota is a SARA state, so you can take MRU's online graduate programs from Sioux Falls, Rapid City or a small town. Out-of-state programs are not approved by the state Board of Nursing; placements rest on agreements between MRU and your preceptor or agency, and the Board expects MRU to have a faculty member licensed in South Dakota.
Look for a South Dakota preceptor
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.
Programs MRU opens to South Dakota residents
South Dakota's SARA membership is what lets MRU enroll you in its NP certificates, MSN-FNP, RN-to-BSN and leadership MSN, as long as you remain a resident until you finish (why residency matters). The 2025 NC-SARA disclosure lists South Dakota as "Meets" for FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP. MRU's catalog is more guarded, promising licensure fit in Florida only, so read the South Dakota Board of Nursing's APRN rules yourself.
| Program | Open to South Dakotans? | Delivery | Clinical load |
|---|---|---|---|
| PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate | Yes | Online only | 765 hours: 115 child and adolescent, 150 psychotherapy, 500 lifespan |
| AGACNP Post-Master's Certificate | Yes | Online, with one 3-day campus session in semester I | 810 hours |
| MSN-FNP and FNP certificate | Yes | Online or in Miami Springs | Four courses; about 765 hours by MRU's 45-per-credit rule (our arithmetic) |
| Leadership DNP | Yes, holding a Florida or Compact RN license | Online, practice offsite | 765 practice hours |
| MSN Healthcare Systems Leadership | Yes | Online or in Miami Springs | 180 practicum hours |
| RN-to-BSN | Yes | Online or in Miami Springs | 135 clinical hours |
| ASN, BSN, MSN Direct Entry | Only by attending campus | Miami Springs | 450, 675, 495 |
The Board steps back, with one faculty expectation
In guidance written for nursing programs based outside South Dakota, last revised in June 2020, the Board says it does not approve such programs. Placing you in a South Dakota direct-care setting depends on an agreement between MRU and your preceptor, the agency, or both.
What it does want is for at least one program faculty member to hold a South Dakota license or a privilege to practice there; where the students are APRN students, that has to be a South Dakota APRN license. ARSD 20:48:07:49, which covers distance education, says the same for faculty who teach APRN students based in South Dakota. Whether MRU has such a person is a fair question for the Office of Academic Affairs before you line up a preceptor.
In South Dakota the placement agreement runs between MRU and your preceptor or agency. You can open the door, but you cannot finish that paperwork alone.
Who can precept you in a 1,040-hour state
AANP rates South Dakota full practice, though only once an NP logs 1,040 hours collaborating, by written agreement, with a physician, a certified NP or a certified nurse midwife. Someone licensed recently could still be working through that stretch.
For its own approved programs, ARSD 20:48:07:34 expects each preceptor to hold licensure at or above the level the student is working toward, with APRN preceptors in a similar role or specialty; a psychiatric NP for PMHNP hours fits that benchmark, though MRU sets its own rules. Most students here look first to Sanford Health, Avera Health and Monument Health. The Sioux Falls metro held about 315,000 people in 2025, Rapid City about 157,000 and the Aberdeen area about 42,000; none of these systems is presented as linked to MRU.
Licenses: one compact live, one waiting
Since the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact launched on 19 January 2018, it has covered South Dakota, so a multistate license you hold as a resident works for clinicals here and satisfies the DNP. The state also signed the APRN Compact on 5 February 2024, one of only five enacting states; it stays inactive until seven have joined.
One MRU requirement travels awkwardly: the catalog wants immunization records signed off by a Florida-licensed healthcare provider. Ask MRU how students in South Dakota satisfy it, and read immunizations and health records first.
Our part in a South Dakota search
We look around Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen or your own county for a preceptor whose role matches your MRU course, and we help you prepare the credentials and site details MRU reviews. If that preceptor bows out partway, we restart the search. MRU approves every preceptor. Tell us your course.
Questions MRU students ask
Who signs the agreement for an MRU clinical in South Dakota?
According to the state Board of Nursing, the agreement connects the out-of-state program to the in-state preceptor, the agency, or both. That puts MRU on one side of it. Your job is to find a willing preceptor and site and give MRU accurate details; the placement specifics live in MRU's handbook on the student portal.
Can an NP still in the 1,040-hour collaborative period precept me?
The South Dakota records gathered for this page do not rule it out, and MRU keeps its preceptor criteria in the portal handbook. Tell MRU the preceptor's license date and collaborative arrangement when you submit them, and let MRU decide. An NP past the transition period removes the question.
Do MRU's NP hours clear South Dakota's 500-hour APRN licensure floor?
On paper they exceed it: the PMHNP certificate has 765 clinical hours and the AGACNP certificate 810. The FNP has no printed total, though MSN6400 alone calls for at least 180 hours; see FNP clinical hours. Licensure decisions still belong to the South Dakota Board, and MRU's catalog assures licensure fit only in Florida.
Could the APRN Compact give me practice rights in other states once I graduate?
Not yet. South Dakota enacted it in 2024, but by 2026 only five states (South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Delaware and North Dakota) had done so, and it needs seven to operate. For now an APRN license is state by state, while your RN license can be multistate under the Nurse Licensure Compact.
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
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.