Malpractice coverage for Liberty nursing students on practicum

What Liberty covers

The clearest statement is in the 2022-23 MSN Student Handbook. Liberty "provides professional malpractice coverage for all students" enrolled in the BSN, MSN and DNP curriculum who are required to take part in practicum or clinicals. It's coverage the university arranges, not a policy you buy.

The same handbook limits it in one line: the "coverage is only for Liberty scheduled practicum/clinicals." Read alongside the handbook's other rules, that points to hours in your practicum course, at the site and with the preceptor Liberty has approved, during the course dates.

This handbook is from 2022-23. The current DNP and MSN handbooks are in Canvas behind Liberty's login, so check the current wording there, or ask the practicum team, before relying on the older text.

What the coverage leaves out

The 2022-23 handbook lists activities outside Liberty's coverage. Several of them can happen around a practicum without anyone noticing the line has been crossed.

• Shadowing a clinician outside your scheduled practicum
• Moonlighting, or your regular employment
• Volunteering, even in a clinical setting
• Carrying on a clinical relationship with the site or preceptor after your practicum hours end
• Global trips Liberty hasn't endorsed; Liberty-endorsed trips are covered

For these, the handbook says students "should consider purchasing" a personal policy. For non-endorsed global trips it goes further: you "will be required to purchase your own individual malpractice insurance." If you're unsure whether something counts as scheduled practicum, ask your course faculty before you do it, not afterward.

When a site asks for proof of coverage

Liberty's Risk Management FAQ notes that proof of coverage may be required, "particularly for programs that include practicum requirements." Its certificate page lists "Student off-campus placements (clinical, practicum, internships)" among the situations it issues Certificates of Insurance for, and asks for requests at least 3 business days ahead.

Public pages don't say whether you or the practicum team makes the request, and the policy limits aren't published. If a site's contract or onboarding form asks for limits, pass it to the practicum team rather than guessing. Three business days is the minimum notice, and the 2022-23 handbook warns that a facility's own contract "may delay the approval process," so raise it the day the site asks.

Insurance questions can also come up in a site's affiliation agreement. The preceptor site contract page explains how those agreements work at Liberty.

Who the statement names, and who it doesn't

The handbook sentence names BSN, MSN and DNP students. At Liberty, the FNP and both PMHNP tracks are DNP programs, so they fall inside that wording. The PMHNP post-graduate certificate isn't a DNP, and the sentence doesn't mention it.

That doesn't mean certificate students lack coverage. It means the public text doesn't answer the question. If you're in the PMHNP certificate, ask the practicum team to confirm coverage for your certificate practicum courses before your first day at a site.

RN-to-BSN students are completing a BSN, and the NURS 440 community observation is a Liberty course requirement. The handbook doesn't single it out, so the same advice applies: if a site asks about coverage, check with the course or the RN-BSN program office before you start.

Related coverage: health insurance and workers' compensation

Malpractice coverage deals with claims about the care you give. It isn't health insurance, and no public Liberty page lists health insurance as a nursing clinical requirement. Liberty's Student Accident Insurance applies to residential students on the Lynchburg campus, and Liberty says it is "not a substitute for the student's primary health insurance."

A site may still ask about your own health coverage or its injury procedures during onboarding. Find out what the site expects before your start date.

One state adds a rule of its own. Liberty's Colorado page says students in clinical practicum must be covered by a workers' compensation policy. If you're placing in Colorado, ask the practicum team how that's met; the Colorado page has more on practicum there.

Practicum at your workplace and the coverage line

Practicum where you work is where the coverage line blurs. The handbook excludes employment from Liberty's coverage, and the 2022-23 MSN rules allowed workplace practicum only if the hours were unpaid, in a different unit or department from your job, and covered by an affiliation agreement.

Those conditions keep practicum hours apart from paid work, and your records should show the same separation: distinct days or clearly distinct hours, logged in the practicum system, with your preceptor rather than your manager. No current rule on workplace sites for FNP or PMHNP students was found, so ask the practicum team before you plan around your employer. If a colleague offers to precept you, take that conversation to the practicum team first. See using your workplace for practicum.

Why students choose us for the placement itself

Insurance is between you and Liberty, and our focus is the placement itself. We search for a preceptor and site that fit your Liberty track and gather what the practicum team needs to review them. Liberty's approval of that site and preceptor is what brings the hours inside Liberty's practicum, so we make sure the file reaching the team is complete.

If a site we suggest asks for proof of coverage, that request goes through Liberty, and we'll point the site there. If a preceptor offers to let you start before Liberty's approval, hold off and check with the practicum team, since those hours would sit outside the coverage described here. To start a search, contact the placement desk or use the form below.