Liberty nursing clinicals in Colorado

Colorado and the Liberty programs

Workers' compensation: Liberty's Colorado condition

Liberty's Colorado licensure page states that students in clinical practicum must be covered by a worker's compensation policy. It doesn't say who provides the policy, and our research found nothing more, so ask Liberty's practicum team how coverage works for your placement before site onboarding begins.

MSN students thinking of their own workplace have a second reason to ask. Liberty's dated MSN handbook allows an employer site only if the hours are unpaid and in a different unit, and how a workers' compensation policy applies there is a question for Liberty. Our employer practicum site page covers the rest of that rule.

Colorado's rules for programs based elsewhere

We found no Colorado rule requiring approval or notice from an out-of-state graduate or RN-to-BSN program. The board's approval rule, 3 CCR 716-1 Rule 1.2, applies to nursing education programs, which it defines as basic courses of study leading to initial licensure as an RN or LPN. Colorado's student permit is narrow too. It is for students or graduates of out-of-state nontraditional programs, and only when their program had no faculty-supervised clinical component and they need in-state hours to get licensed.

Any guidance the board posts outside its rules is a question for Liberty's practicum team, so ask them before relying on that silence.

Full practice, with a mentorship period for prescribing

Colorado is a full practice state in AANP's ratings. To gain prescriptive authority, though, an NP first attests to 750 hours of experience with a physician or APRN mentor, under an agreement between them. If a prospective FNP preceptor is newly licensed, ask whether those hours are behind them, since prescribing is part of NURS 772. Liberty decides who qualifies; see preceptor requirements.

Where students look, and the credit that won't help

The 2025 Census estimates put the Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro at about 3.09 million people, Colorado Springs at about 782,000, Greeley at about 378,000 and Fort Collins-Loveland at about 377,000. The large systems are Denver Health, Intermountain Health (Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver is one of its hospitals), CommonSpirit Health's Colorado hospitals, HCA HealthONE and UCHealth. Community Health students can start with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

A state credit, the Rural and Frontier Health Care Preceptor Tax Credit, goes to preceptors who work without pay in rural and frontier shortage areas. Eligible preceptors include advanced practice nurses, and HB22-1005 extended eligibility to registered nurses working in outpatient settings. The same bill restricted the credit to students of an accredited Colorado college or university, so hosting a Liberty student doesn't earn it. Leave it out of your outreach to rural preceptors.

Licensing, and why Colorado students choose us

Colorado's membership in the Nurse Licensure Compact took effect January 19, 2018. As a result, Liberty accepts a Colorado or multistate RN license for practicum. Colorado is not among the states that have enacted the APRN Compact. More on licenses is on the RN license for practicum page.

We look for Colorado preceptors and sites that fit your Liberty track and gather what the Gate course needs, including the coverage answers a Colorado site may ask for, before the file goes to Liberty for approval.