West Virginia nurses studying with Miami Regional University
As a SARA member, West Virginia is one of the states MRU enrolls online students from. For graduate and RN-to-BSN clinicals the state's RN Board steps aside, and the office that matters is the Higher Education Policy Commission, whose test is short: is the school in NC-SARA, and will ten or more of its students share one site?
West Virginia preceptor help
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 MRU offers West Virginia residents
MRU admits students to its online NP, RN-to-BSN and leadership MSN programs only if they reside in a SARA member state (or Florida) until they finish, and West Virginia meets that test (residency rule). West Virginia's row in MRU's 2025 NC-SARA licensure disclosure shows "Meets" for FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP. The catalog is narrower, promising licensure fit only in Florida and pointing you to your home board first: the West Virginia Board of Registered Nurses, which licenses RNs while LPNs answer to a separate board.
| MRU program | West Virginia residents | Format | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN-FNP | Can enroll | Online or on campus | MSN5700, MSN6050, MSN6150, MSN6400; no total published |
| FNP Post-Master's Certificate | Can enroll | Online or on campus | Same courses; a gap analysis may trim them |
| PMHNP certificate | Can enroll | Online | 765 across three clinical courses |
| AGACNP certificate | Can enroll | Online, three campus days in semester I | 810 across three clinical courses |
| DNP | Can enroll with a Florida or Compact RN license | Online, practice offsite | 765 practice hours |
| MSN Healthcare Systems Leadership | Can enroll | Online or on campus | 180 in MSN5855 |
| RN-to-BSN | Can enroll | Online or on campus | 135 in NUR4269, NUR4679, NUR4689 |
| ASN, BSN, MSN Direct Entry | Campus programs | Miami Springs | 450, 675, 495 |
Two regulators, and which one reaches you
Pre-licensure programs are the only ones the West Virginia Board of Registered Nurses regulates. Before a pre-licensure program from another state uses West Virginia facilities, it files the Board's Out-of-State Prelicensure Nursing Education Program Approval Application. For advanced-degree and graduate programs, the Board points instead to their national accreditor and to WVHEPC, the state's Higher Education Policy Commission.
WVHEPC, through its Office of Nursing Education and Workforce Development, applies two triggers. Its approval is required for an out-of-state APRN or graduate program's West Virginia clinicals only if the institution is not in NC-SARA or if a single site takes ten or more of its students. MRU's catalog says MRU participates in SARA, so the ten-student line is the one to ask the Office of Academic Affairs about.
If several MRU classmates are eyeing the same West Virginia site, tell MRU. Ten or more students at one site brings WVHEPC approval into play.
Collaborative prescribing and where students look
West Virginia is reduced practice in AANP's rating. For the first three years of prescriptive practice, a West Virginia NP must have a collaborating physician under agreement, and supplies of Schedule II narcotics are capped at three days. If your preceptor is still inside those three years, a collaborating physician sits in the background, which is worth knowing when you ask. MRU's own preceptor criteria are in its portal handbook (what MRU publishes).
The metros are small. Charleston had about 200,000 people in 2025, Morgantown about 142,000, and the West Virginia shares of the Huntington-Ashland and Hagerstown-Martinsburg metros were about 185,000 and 158,000. Students usually consider Vandalia Health (CAMC, Davis Health and Mon Health), Marshall Health Network and WVU Medicine; we cite them for orientation, not as MRU sites.
The RN license West Virginia expects
The same WVHEPC guide sorts students by primary state of residence. If that state is West Virginia, APRN and graduate clinicals there call for a valid West Virginia RN license; if it is anywhere else, a multistate license is needed. Because MRU requires you to live in the state, the West Virginia license is the one that counts. West Virginia joined the enhanced multistate compact at its 19 January 2018 start, so that license can be multistate and meet the DNP's condition; the APRN Compact has not been adopted there.
Our part for West Virginians
We search around Charleston, Morgantown, Huntington, Martinsburg or wherever you live for an NP or physician able to teach your MRU course, and help you get the preceptor's and site's details ready for MRU. If the preceptor drops, we search again. MRU approves every preceptor. Send us your details.
Questions MRU students ask
Must MRU get approval from the West Virginia RN Board for my NP clinicals?
No. Graduate programs are passed from the Board, which handles pre-licensure programs, to WVHEPC. Under WVHEPC's guide, an out-of-state school needs approval for graduate clinicals only if it is not an NC-SARA member or if one site receives ten or more of its students. Your preceptor also needs MRU's approval before hours count, and each facility can set its own terms.
Can a newly licensed West Virginia NP precept me?
Nothing in the West Virginia sources gathered for this page rules it out. A new NP will be inside the three-year collaborative period for prescribing, so the collaborating physician may want to know about a student. MRU decides whether the NP meets its criteria, which are set out in the student handbook rather than publicly.
I'm a nurse manager in West Virginia. Which MRU program fits?
The MSN in Healthcare Systems Leadership is built for that. It runs 40 credits and includes MSN5855, whose 180 practicum hours are supervised by a nurse preceptor holding a master's degree or higher in administration and management. You secure the preceptor, and a graduate clinical coordinator approves them. See the leadership MSN page.
My RN license is from another state but I now live in West Virginia. Is that enough?
Probably not for long. WVHEPC's guide ties the license to your primary state of residence: a West Virginia resident doing graduate clinicals in the state needs a West Virginia RN license. Apply for one, and let MRU know you have moved, because residence is an admission condition.
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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