Liberty nursing students in California: where practicum can and can't happen

California at a glance

Liberty's state licensure lookup splits California by program. The four NP offerings are closed. Everything else in the online School of Nursing lists California as a place where practicum can go ahead, provided your license fits.

Liberty last updated its California NP pages on June 18, 2025. Read the lookup for your own program code before you plan a term.

Why the NP tracks stop at the state line

Liberty's California FNP page says the School of Nursing is "unable to place students in practicums in the state of California", citing the Board of Registered Nursing's educational and license regulations for nurse practitioners.

Those regulations sit in 16 CCR § 1486. Under them, any NP program based outside the state needs the Board's approval before any California clinical, must use preceptors who meet Board requirements, and must teach California NP law. Students need an active California RN license, and preceptors need an active California license in the student's NP category. Liberty doesn't say which requirement is the obstacle, and it doesn't change your plan: NP hours happen elsewhere.

If you're an FNP or PMHNP student living in California

Liberty's page adds that students "may be eligible to complete practicum in an approved state." In practice that means four moves.

1. Pick a practicum state from the lookupEvery state except California, New York and Washington is approved for Liberty NP practicum. Liberty's Nevada and Oregon pages ask for that state's own RN license, and its Arizona page adds a license sentence for PMHNP students.
2. Hold an RN license that works thereLiberty's DNP admission rule asks for an RN license in the state where practicum will occur. California isn't in the Nurse Licensure Compact, so your California license won't carry over. See the RN license guide.
3. Talk to the practicum team firstWrite to APRN.DNPPracticum@liberty.edu before you commit to anything. The team aims to match you, but a site may be far away, and declining one for distance leaves you to find the replacement.
4. Report a move properlyA myLU address change doesn't update your state licensure disclosure. Liberty asks students who move to file the State Change Notification form.

Licensing and rules for the tracks that stay open

California hasn't joined the Nurse Licensure Compact, and no bill is pending. Liberty's pages for the open programs ask for an active California RN license, so a multistate license from elsewhere won't do.

The one California rule we found that bears on RN-to-BSN students is Business and Professions Code § 2729 on students rendering nursing care incidental to their studies; the Board shows no separate out-of-state approval step. MSN students choose their own facility and obtain a preceptor site contract before the first practicum course, and post-master's DNP students get Liberty's support for a placement here like any approved state.

Practice rules and where people look

California is restricted in AANP's ratings. In select settings and procedures, an NP there works under a standardized protocol agreement. For Liberty students that is background, since the open tracks don't lead to NP practice.

For MSN and DNP students, obvious places to ask include the big systems: Cedars-Sinai, Stanford Health Care, University of California Health (UCSF, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UCI and UCR), Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente. The largest metros are Los Angeles, Riverside-San Bernardino, San Francisco-Oakland and San Diego. If a facility insists on its own contract, Liberty's 2022-23 MSN handbook warned that this may delay approval.

How we help California students plan

For NP students, we search for preceptors in the approved state you choose and where your license is valid, and plan the travel with you. For MSN, DNP and RN-to-BSN students staying in California, we look for sites that fit your track and handle the site contract with you. Every site and preceptor goes to Liberty for approval with its paperwork complete. Send your details through the form below.