Colorado clinicals for Sacred Heart University nurses
Colorado is open to Sacred Heart University's online NPs: every FNP and PMHNP line on the September 2026 disclosures reads "Yes" for Colorado, and Colorado's nursing rules ask nothing extra of a Connecticut graduate program. What sets the state apart is its practice law, which grants NPs full authority but asks new prescribers to log 750 mentored hours first.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Sacred Heart program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Colorado's line on the disclosure table
As of September 2026, Sacred Heart University reports that its FNP and PMHNP programs meet Colorado's educational requirements, and its Clinical Nurse Leader track reads "Yes" in every state. Those answers can change, and the catalog makes checking them your responsibility.
| Program | Colorado | How it runs | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | Yes | Online coursework, clinicals near home | 540 |
| BSN-to-DNP FNP | Yes | Hybrid, on-campus classes | 1,000 minimum post-baccalaureate (guide) |
| Post-master's FNP certificate | Yes | Online | 540 |
| MSN PMHNP | Yes | Online | 540 |
| Post-master's PMHNP certificate | Yes | Online | 540 |
Moving to Colorado mid-program? Sacred Heart's disclosures warn that skipping the licensure check for a new state "may lead to an inability to obtain clinical placements" there, so talk with your academic advisor before you sign a lease. Our disclosures guide explains the full table.
What Colorado's Board rules reach
Colorado's State Board of Nursing belongs to DORA's Division of Professions and Occupations. Its program rule (Rule 1.2 in chapter 3 CCR 716-1) limits "nursing education program" to a basic course of study toward a first RN or LPN license. Nothing there asks an RN-BSN, MSN or NP program from another state for approval or notice before a Colorado placement. Guidance the Board publishes beyond its rules is worth a direct look at dpo.colorado.gov.
You may hear of Colorado's student permit. It exists for people from nontraditional programs elsewhere that have no faculty-supervised clinicals and who need Colorado hours to get licensed, which does not describe Sacred Heart's precepted, faculty-overseen clinicals.
Full practice, with 750 mentored hours for prescribers
AANP rates Colorado full practice. Prescriptive authority carries one condition: the NP attests to 750 hours gained while in a mentoring agreement with a physician or an APRN. That rule governs licensed NPs rather than students, yet it previews your first Colorado job. Your clinical preceptor answers to Sacred Heart's criteria instead: for FNP rotations an APRN, PA, MD or DO with at least a year in primary care (board certified, if a physician or APRN), and for PMHNP rotations a PMHNP or a physician certified in psychiatry. See preceptor requirements.
Searching the Front Range
The Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro counts about 3.1 million people and the systems NP students ask about first: Denver Health, UCHealth and HCA HealthONE, plus CommonSpirit's Colorado hospitals and Intermountain Health, the Utah-based system behind Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver. Colorado Springs adds about 782,000 people, and Fort Collins-Loveland and Greeley hold roughly 377,000 and 378,000. Use them as search territory, not as sites already signed on with Sacred Heart. When a system partners with Sacred Heart, its own approval of the placement comes before Sacred Heart approves your preceptor.
The rural and frontier credit stays in-state
Colorado offers a state income tax credit to preceptors who teach without pay in rural and frontier areas short of providers. A 2022 law, HB22-1005, widened who can claim it (RNs and other outpatient licensees joined advanced practice nurses), set a ceiling of 300 preceptors per year and extended it to tax years that begin before 2033. It also narrowed whose students count: only those enrolled at accredited Colorado schools. By that wording, a Sacred Heart student's preceptor appears to fall outside it, so pitch a rural clinic on other grounds.
Licensing for a Colorado site
Colorado has honored multistate licenses since January 19, 2018, when its compact membership took effect. Hold one from any member state and a Colorado site is covered, meeting Sacred Heart's rule that your RN license be active and unencumbered wherever you train. Nurses licensed only in a non-member state need a Colorado license. Upload whichever applies to your Health Account. The RN license guide has details.
How we place Colorado students
Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley and the mountain towns all get the same treatment: a preceptor matched to your Sacred Heart course, verified credentials packaged for Sacred Heart's reviewers, and a start date planned around the affiliation agreement's lead time. If a rotation falls through, your placement advisor moves straight to a replacement. See how it works or write through the contact form.
Questions Sacred Heart students ask
Does Colorado require approval before Sacred Heart NP students train there?
Colorado's program-approval rule covers basic pre-licensure programs and says nothing requiring a graduate NP program from another state to ask permission or give notice first. Board guidance outside the rules deserves a direct look, and Sacred Heart's clinical coordinator has the final word if a Colorado site asks.
Will a rural Colorado preceptor earn the state tax credit for teaching me?
It appears not, based on the statute's wording. Since HB22-1005, the credit follows students of accredited Colorado schools only, and Sacred Heart University is in Connecticut. Tell the preceptor plainly, then share what Sacred Heart offers its preceptors, which our preceptor page describes.
Do my Sacred Heart clinical hours count toward Colorado's 750-hour mentorship?
They are separate things. The 750 hours are a condition Colorado attaches to prescriptive authority for licensed NPs, while your 540 Sacred Heart hours are a program requirement logged in E*Value. When you apply for prescriptive authority, the Colorado Board is the one to ask how it counts experience.
Is Sacred Heart's hybrid BSN-to-DNP realistic from Colorado?
The disclosures mark it "Yes" for Colorado, but the program is hybrid, with an average of six on-campus classes a semester, and its coordinator-arranged placements run through Connecticut, New Jersey and other neighboring states. For most Colorado nurses, the online MSN FNP or the post-master's certificate is the workable route.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Sacred Heart's own catalog, program pages and 2026-27 student guides. Your student guide, your academic advisor and your course faculty have the final word.
- Sacred Heart University: State Authorization, Disclosures & Student Complaints
- Colorado State Board of Nursing (DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations)
- 3 CCR 716-1, Rule 1.2 (Colorado nursing education programs)
- Colorado General Assembly: HB22-1005, rural and frontier preceptor tax credit
- AANP: State practice environment
Sacred Heart asks you to secure your clinical placement. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Sacred Heart program, your city and your next clinical course. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare what your advisor, the NP clinical coordinator and the Contract Request Form ask for, early enough for the affiliation agreement.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care of adults, women and children for FNP, psychiatric care across the lifespan for PMHNP
- Preceptor CV, license, board certification and the site's contract contact ready before your week-10 deadline
- Close to home in any state where Sacred Heart's program meets licensure requirements, with New York's rule planned around
Start your placement plan
Program, city and clinical start is all we need to begin.