Liberty practicum in Illinois starts with an Illinois license

Which Liberty tracks can do practicum in Illinois

The license column is the same on every row because Liberty's Illinois pages offer no multistate option. More on that below.

The Illinois rule for out-of-state programs

An out-of-state nursing education program that wants student nurse clinical placements in Illinois has to provide these items under 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1300.340(n):

• documents showing its home-state board of nursing approved or accredited the program
• forms for faculty qualifications and for preceptors
• the contract with the clinical facility, fully executed
• the syllabus for the course
• a letter of request stating the time frame and the clinical agencies and units involved

The approval runs for two years and can be renewed, with annual reports due along the way. Nursing faculty need Illinois RN licenses. The provision appears in the section on RN program approval, and it is silent on whether RN-to-BSN or graduate programs such as Liberty's DNP and MSN fall under it. That is Liberty's filing to make, not yours, so ask the practicum team how it applies to your track before you agree a start date with a site.

Preceptors and practice in Illinois

Subsection 1300.340(j) of the same rule covers programs that use facility staff as preceptors. Each preceptor needs approval from program faculty and an orientation. While the student provides care, the preceptor has to be present and available, and the preceptor's RN license must be current in the state where the student is practicing. It carries the same open question about graduate programs.

Illinois is reduced practice in AANP's ratings. In select settings an NP needs either a physician collaborative agreement or, instead, completed practice and CE requirements, along with a consultative relationship for prescribing select Schedule II drugs and benzodiazepines. Ask a prospective NP preceptor which of these applies to their practice. See preceptor requirements.

What precepting earns an Illinois APRN

Illinois gives APRNs license-renewal credit for teaching. An APRN earns 10 CE hours for each APRN student precepted through an academic semester or quarter, to a maximum of 30 hours per renewal period, as long as the student's school documents it. The rule as recorded doesn't limit this to Illinois schools, so it is worth mentioning when you ask. Confirm with the practicum team that Liberty will supply the paperwork. No Illinois preceptor tax credit or stipend program turned up in our research.

Licensing: no compact route into Illinois

Illinois has not joined the Nurse Licensure Compact, and no compact bill is pending there. A multistate license from elsewhere gives no practice privilege there, and Liberty's Illinois pages ask for an active Illinois RN license. Apply through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation well before your Gate course. Illinois hasn't enacted the APRN Compact either. Our RN license guide covers the wider rule.

Chicago and the rest of Illinois

About 8.7 million Illinois residents live in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro, where the big systems include UChicago Medicine, Advocate Health Care, Northwestern Medicine and Endeavor Health. OSF HealthCare is also a large system in the state. The St. Louis metro's Illinois portion holds roughly 672,000 residents, and Peoria and Rockford are the largest metros wholly inside the state after Chicago. We know of no Liberty agreement with any of these systems.

MSN Community Health students can look to the Illinois Department of Public Health and local health departments. NP students work with Liberty's practicum team and bring their own leads.

Why Illinois students choose us

We look for Illinois preceptors and sites that fit your Liberty track and get preceptor and site details ready for the Gate course. Liberty has the last word on every Illinois placement, and each one we bring has been checked against its rules first.