South Dakota and Sacred Heart University's online NP clinicals
On Sacred Heart University's FNP and PMHNP disclosures, South Dakota is marked "Yes" (September 2026). Its Board of Nursing leaves programs from other states to arrange placements directly with South Dakota preceptors and agencies, asking only that the school keep one appropriately licensed faculty member in the picture.
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Tell us your Sacred Heart program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
A Board that leaves placements to the parties
The South Dakota Board of Nursing's sheet for out-of-state programs, last revised in mid-2020, is brief. Programs from other states receive no Board approval, because the Board does not grant it. Placing a student in a South Dakota clinic or hospital is a deal the school strikes with the South Dakota preceptor, the agency, or both. The Board's single expectation of the school: someone on its faculty with South Dakota licensure at the student's level, or a privilege to practice in the state; for NP students, that means APRN licensure.
The same point appears in ARSD 20:48:07:49, South Dakota's distance-education rule, for faculty whose APRN students are physically in the state. Covering that is Sacred Heart's job. Yours is the preceptor, the site and the Contract Request Form that opens Sacred Heart's affiliation agreement.
South Dakota's light touch is no shortcut: Sacred Heart still contracts with every site, and a first-time site's agreement may need nine months.
What the disclosure page says for South Dakota
Sacred Heart's State Authorization page marks South Dakota "Yes" for both NP families (September 2026). NC-SARA admitted Sacred Heart on January 11, 2017. Because the catalog makes you responsible for confirming state status, recheck the page before enrolling or moving.
| Track | South Dakota | Delivery | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | Yes | Online with residencies | 540 |
| MSN PMHNP | Yes | Online with residencies | 540 (at least 100 in NU 572 with patients under 18) |
| Post-master's FNP certificate | Yes | Online | 540 |
| Post-master's PMHNP certificate | Yes | Online | 540 |
For the other 49 states, open the licensure disclosures guide.
South Dakota's 500-hour floor and Sacred Heart's 540
For an APRN license, the Board wants to see 500 clinical hours or more, logged in the role and population you will be licensed for, inside a graduate APRN program. It also looks for graduate courses covering pharmacology, health and physical assessment, and physiology or pathophysiology. Sacred Heart's FNP and PMHNP each set a 540-hour minimum, and both curricula include NU 551 Advanced Pharmacology, NU 552 Advanced Health Assessment and NU 566 Advanced Pathophysiology for Nurse Practitioners. Treat Sacred Heart's own "Yes" as the formal word, and confirm it.
Full practice after 1,040 collaborative hours
AANP calls South Dakota full practice, with one prelude: a new NP first completes 1,040 hours in a written collaboration, and the partner may be a physician, a certified nurse midwife or another certified NP. One more yardstick comes from ARSD 20:48:07:34, written for programs the South Dakota Board itself approves, so it binds them rather than Sacred Heart. It asks for a preceptor licensed at or beyond the level the student seeks, and for an APRN preceptor whose role, focus or specialty resembles the student's. Sacred Heart's criteria govern you (see who can precept), and an FNP for FNP hours or a psychiatric NP for PMHNP hours satisfies both.
Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Aberdeen
The Sioux Falls metro, the state's largest, holds roughly 305,000 South Dakotans (2025 Census estimates); about 157,000 live around Rapid City and close to 42,000 in the Aberdeen micropolitan area. The systems students name are Avera Health, Monument Health and Sanford Health. Approach them as inquiries rather than promised sites; Sacred Heart waits for a partnering system's own approval whenever the preceptor works there. Part of greater Sioux Falls sits across the Minnesota line, and a site there answers to Minnesota rules.
Licenses, compacts and our South Dakota search
South Dakota's RN compact participation began January 19, 2018, and on February 5, 2024 the state signed the APRN Compact, which cannot operate until a seventh state enacts it. For clinical hours, your multistate RN license, if you hold one, covers a South Dakota site and meets Sacred Heart's rule on an unencumbered license in each clinical state.
With few large metros, thoroughness matters, and it is how we work. We look from Sioux Falls to Rapid City and the towns between for a preceptor suited to your Sacred Heart course, and hand you a ready file: the preceptor's CV, license and certification, with the name of the person who signs contracts at the site. We track week 10 and keep a replacement search ready should a preceptor bow out. Start with the contact form.
Questions Sacred Heart students ask
Does South Dakota's Board of Nursing approve Sacred Heart's NP program?
No. The Board grants no approval to programs based outside South Dakota; the school arranges each placement with the local preceptor or agency. The Board does expect one faculty member whose APRN licensure is recognized in South Dakota to be available for the school's APRN students there.
Do Sacred Heart's clinical hours clear South Dakota's 500-hour APRN requirement?
Sacred Heart's FNP and PMHNP each call for 540 clinical hours, above South Dakota's 500-hour threshold. The disclosure page shows Yes for South Dakota (September 2026); still confirm with Sacred Heart and the South Dakota Board before counting on it for licensure.
Could a certified nurse midwife precept my women's health hours in South Dakota?
Possibly. Sacred Heart's FNP preceptor inquiry form offers CNM as a credential, while the preceptor portal lists MD, DO, PA and APRN preceptors. Before you commit, confirm with the MSN Online NP Programs Clinical Coordinator that a CNM suits NU 607, the women's primary care course.
Is the APRN Compact active in South Dakota?
Enacted, not active. South Dakota signed it on February 5, 2024, joining Delaware, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, and it stays switched off until state number seven signs. Meanwhile each state licenses its own NPs, and your student hours ride on your RN license.
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 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
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