Sacred Heart University's online NP programs from Minnesota

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Sacred Heart Preceptor placement team

Minnesota nurses can take Sacred Heart University's online FNP or PMHNP from home: both read "Yes" for the state on the disclosure table as of September 2026. Licensing is the catch. Because Minnesota stays outside the Nurse Licensure Compact, sort out your Minnesota RN license before the preceptor hunt begins.

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2,080collaborative hours before a new Minnesota NP practices alone (AANP)

Sacred Heart licensure disclosures for Minnesota: FNP programs meet requirements; PMHNP programs meet requirements; NP clinical hours allowed. RN license: not in the compact. NP practice: full. — Minnesota on Sacred Heart's licensure disclosures (September 2026): FNP yes, PMHNP yes; RN license not in the compact; NP practice full (AANP).

Minnesota on the disclosure table

Sacred Heart asks one question per state and program: does it meet the state's educational requirements for licensure? Every NP row answers yes for Minnesota, and distance study rests on Sacred Heart's NC-SARA membership, held since January 11, 2017. Since the catalog leaves checking to you, reconfirm before enrolling or relocating; our disclosures page explains the full table.

Minnesota rows on Sacred Heart's licensure disclosures (September 2026)
Program	Minnesota	Format	Clinical hours
MSN Family Nurse Practitioner	Yes	Online courses, in-person clinicals	540
Post-master's FNP certificate	Yes	Online	540
MSN Psychiatric-Mental Health NP	Yes	Online	540, at least 100 with patients under 18
Post-master's PMHNP certificate	Yes	Online	540
MSN Clinical Nurse Leader	Yes	Online	420 (guide) or 400/500 (catalog)

Plan on a Minnesota RN license

Sacred Heart's MSN guide wants an active, unencumbered nursing license for every state in which you practice clinically, and your Health Account holds the RN license for the clinical state. Minnesota is a non-compact state with no compact bill pending on the NCSBN map, which means a multistate credential from Iowa or anywhere else stops at the border.

You may see subdivision 6 of Minn. Stat. 148.271, under which a nurse holding another state's RN license may practice while enrolled in a structured course toward a higher degree. Treat that exemption as background: Sacred Heart points to the license where you train, and Mayo Clinic asks for more still.

What Mayo Clinic spells out for NP students

Mayo Clinic publishes the terms of its Minnesota nurse practitioner clinical education program. Your school must hold an affiliation agreement with Mayo. You must hold a Minnesota license that is unencumbered and currently registered, and you must clear a background study run by Minnesota's human services department (DHS). The faculty of record must carry RN or APRN licensure in the state where the rotation happens.

They sit on top of Sacred Heart's process, not in place of it: a first Mayo rotation would still start with the Contract Request Form and an affiliation agreement, which Sacred Heart says can take up to nine months at a new site.

Full practice, after a collaboration period

AANP classes Minnesota as full practice. Newly licensed NPs first log 2,080 hours under a collaborative agreement, with a physician or another APRN as the partner. Keep that in mind when screening NP preceptors, since Sacred Heart's FNP list expects board certification plus a year or more of primary care.

For PMHNP rotations, look for a PMHNP or a psychiatry-certified physician; the current inquiry form also lists licensed clinical social workers and licensed mental health counselors. Our preceptor requirements page has the complete criteria.

MERC funding follows Minnesota schools

MERC, short for Medical Education and Research Costs, is how the Minnesota Department of Health partly reimburses clinical training sites. The money goes to sites rather than individual preceptors, and APRN trainees count under Minn. Stat. 62J.692. Eligibility, though, requires the school and the clinic both to be in Minnesota.

So a clinic hosting a student from a Connecticut university earns no MERC credit for it. Say so early if a practice manager raises MERC on your first call.

Twin Cities, Rochester, Duluth and St. Cloud

About 3.8 million people live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro, roughly 3.65 million of them in Minnesota. Rochester has about 231,000 residents, St. Cloud about 206,000, and the Duluth metro about 281,000 split with Wisconsin, where a clinic across the line becomes a Wisconsin rotation. HealthPartners, Essentia Health, Allina Health, Mayo Clinic and M Health Fairview are among the large systems NP students approach; none is presented here as a Sacred Heart site.

Why Minnesota students choose us

Our Minnesota searches begin with your license status and the terms of the system you want. Your placement advisor then matches a preceptor to the Sacred Heart course ahead, from children in NU 606 to patients under 18 in NU 572, and gathers the CV, license and board certification Sacred Heart reviews. Read how it works, then send your course and town through our contact form.

Questions Sacred Heart students ask

Will a multistate license from another state cover Minnesota clinicals?

It will not. Minnesota never joined the Nurse Licensure Compact, so practice there, including a precepted rotation, calls for a Minnesota RN license. Sacred Heart, for its part, wants an active, unencumbered license from whichever state hosts your clinicals. Our RN license guide covers timing and the Health Account upload.

Does the Minnesota Board of Nursing approve out-of-state NP programs before clinicals?

Research found no Board filing aimed at programs based elsewhere. The Board approves programs conducted in Minnesota, and Minn. R. 6305.0300 reads the student exemption to include U.S. programs approved by their home state, provided the supervising instructor holds a currently registered Minnesota RN license. The MSN Online NP Programs Clinical Coordinator can say how Sacred Heart meets that.

What if I move to Minnesota partway through the program?

Raise the move with your academic advisor while it is still a plan. Sacred Heart's disclosures warn that missing the licensure check for a new state can leave you without clinical placements there, and Minnesota adds a state license plus a fresh site agreement to your list, so start early.

Could I take the hybrid BSN-to-DNP while living in Minnesota?

It reads Yes for Minnesota, yet the program meets on campus about six times a semester, per its program page, and coordinator-matched sites sit in Connecticut, New Jersey or other neighboring states. From Minnesota, the online MSN FNP or the post-master's FNP certificate is usually the practical route.

GuideSacred Heart clinicals by stateDoing Sacred Heart clinicals outside Connecticut? Fifty state guides: the licensure disclosures, New York's rule, RN license needs and where NP students look.StatesState licensure disclosuresSacred Heart University's state licensure disclosures: 44 Yes states for FNP, the No list, Washington for PMHNP, New York's condition, the CNL row and SARA.LicenseRN license for clinicalsSacred Heart requires an active, unencumbered RN license in each state where you do clinicals: the Health Account item, the compact, Connecticut and New York.PreceptorsPreceptor requirementsWho can precept a Sacred Heart University nursing student: FNP, PMHNP, CNL, NE, NMEL, RN-BSN and DNP mentor rules on licenses, experience and conflicts.Board approvalWisconsinWisconsin is Yes for Sacred Heart University's FNP and PMHNP. The N 1.06 approval rule for out-of-state schools, the new APRN license and non-compact neighbors.ARNP rulesIowaIowa says Yes to Sacred Heart University's FNP and PMHNP. Iowa's checklist for programs from other states, its ARNP preceptor rule and your license, explained.

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.

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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

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