Rhode Island and UCCS: Planning a Move Around the Lists
Neither of UCCS's residency lists includes Rhode Island, so the online NP programs and the RN to BSN are closed to anyone living around Providence and Warwick today. A nurse who relocates to a listed state can apply as a resident there. With Rhode Island back in the nurse compact since 2024, it pays to know which listed states share it.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UCCS program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UCCS course.
What UCCS offers a Rhode Island resident
The college looks at where you physically live, and Rhode Island is on neither roster: fourteen states for NP study, twenty-one for the RN to BSN. No New England state made either list. Both appear in the approved states guide.
| Program | From a Rhode Island address | Where hours would be done |
|---|---|---|
| MSN: Family, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care or Psychiatric-Mental Health NP | Not open | A listed NP state, close to your new home |
| RN to MSN; Post-Graduate NP Certificate | Not open | Your home state, once it is an NP-list state |
| BSN to DNP; Post-Master's DNP | Requires an RN license from an approved state | Where you live in that approved state |
| RN to BSN | Not open | NURS 4450 at a community site in a listed state |
| Traditional or Accelerated BSN | For Colorado residents or those moving there | Colorado sites UCCS assigns |
Rhode Island's board, compact and NP practice
The licensing body is the Board of Nurse Registration and Nursing Education, housed in the state health department. Compact membership resumed at the start of 2024, and multistate RN and LPN licenses have gone to qualified residents ever since. The APRN Compact has not been enacted, and AANP counts Rhode Island among its full practice states.
The state's nursing education regulation governs Rhode Island's own basic programs; nothing in it was found requiring a school from elsewhere to win board approval before placing students. CharterCARE Health of Rhode Island, Brown University Health, South County Health and Care New England Health System are among the state's main health systems, and the Providence-Warwick metro counts roughly 1.1 million Rhode Islanders.
Which listed NP states share the compact
UCCS's practicum handbook links your license to the state where hours happen: a multistate license in a compact state, that state's own RN license otherwise. Across the 14 NP states, the split runs like this.
| Compact status | UCCS NP states |
|---|---|
| Compact members | Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming |
| Outside the compact | Alaska, California, Nevada |
A move changes your home state, so check with the licensing board in your destination state about how your license transfers before you apply. The license guide explains UCCS's side of it.
Clinical hours once you have moved
UCCS's program pages hand the search for primary care hours to the student, in the area where they live, and the admission essay asks how you will secure clinical sites. Each placement goes to the college as a Clinical Site Sheet; the college then prepares the agreement and preceptor letter, and hours start after the "good to go" email.
Why relocating Rhode Island nurses choose us
We make that search the easy part of your program. Near your new address, we find a preceptor and site that suit your UCCS course, assemble the credentials and exact hours the college needs, and submit early; should a preceptor withdraw, a fresh search is under way at once. Use the form below to name your destination.
Questions UCCS students ask
Could I take UCCS's online FNP while living in Providence?
Not from a Rhode Island address. Only residents of UCCS's 14 listed states may apply to its NP programs, with residence meaning where you physically live. A relocation has to happen first, and each admission decision rests with UCCS, so check your plans with the college before you commit.
Can my Rhode Island multistate license stand in for living in a listed state?
License reach and UCCS eligibility are separate questions. UCCS allows hours only in its listed states and bases admission on where you live, so a Rhode Island resident with a multistate license still sits outside its lists. After a move, the handbook's license rule applies in your new state.
Does UCCS's curriculum meet Rhode Island licensure requirements?
UCCS's APRN licensure disclosure marks Rhode Island as a state whose educational requirements its curriculum satisfies, a point that matters for a nurse who trains through UCCS elsewhere and later comes home to practice. It describes curriculum, not admission; the disclosure page sets out the difference.
Do out-of-state schools have to use Rhode Island's clinical placement registry?
The state regulation asks Rhode Island's board-approved programs to show active participation in a central clinical placement registry through their clinical agency agreements. It does not address schools headquartered outside Rhode Island. For UCCS the question never arises, since its hours happen only in listed states.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UCCS's catalog, practicum handbooks and college pages. Your degree plan, the handbook for your cohort and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
UCCS asks you to find your clinical hours where you live. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UCCS track, your next clinical course and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the details your Clinical Site Sheet needs, early enough for the agreement to be signed before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 6900, acute and chronic care forNURS 6915andNURS 6925, psychiatric prescribers forNURS 6801toNURS 6803 - Credentials, license, certification and the site's signer ready for the Clinical Site Sheet
- In Colorado Springs, along the Front Range, or in any of UCCS's approved states
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