North Dakota practicum for Liberty students: recognition and notice

Liberty's North Dakota answer, program by program

Liberty's state licensure lookup marks North Dakota approved for practicum in each online nursing program. The last column shows where the board's distance-education guidelines plainly reach.

Recognition, then a notice every semester

Under NDCC 43-12.1-04(12), a student practicing nursing within an out-of-state program the board recognizes is exempt, provided the board gets written notification and a clinical site is available. Section 43-12.1-17(1) also requires the program to hold approval from the board of nursing in its home state, which for Liberty is Virginia. The board's guidelines add three layers:

1. RecognitionA distance program placing students on a path to LPN, RN or APRN licensure asks NDBON for recognition at least 60 days before planned student activity, pays an annual fee, and shows either North Dakota higher-education authorization or NC-SARA approval.
2. Semester rosterEach term, ahead of any student activity, the program submits the students' names and license information, the courses and facilities, the names of preceptors and faculty along with their resumes and North Dakota or compact licenses, the affiliation agreements, and confirmation from each facility that clinical space is available.
3. Liberty's noticeLiberty's North Dakota page says the School of Nursing notifies the board before APRN clinicals, after it approves your practicum paperwork.

NDBON posts its 2026-2027 list of Recognized Distance Nursing Education Programs. Liberty's entry is Liberty's to confirm, so check with the practicum team that its recognition covers your program and term. Our page on state board notices explains how filings like this move a start date.

Full practice and your preceptor

North Dakota is a full practice state in AANP's listing, and our research records no transition-to-practice period there. The NP you approach answers to the board of nursing for their practice, not to a supervising physician.

Liberty's FNP preceptor rules aren't public. For PMHNP students, an older Liberty FAQ names PMHNPs and psychiatrists and puts half of the hours with a prescriber. Check the current picture on our preceptor requirements page before you ask anyone.

Fargo, Bismarck and long drives between

North Dakota's metros are small. By 2025 Census estimates, the North Dakota side of the Fargo metro holds about 202,000 people, with 140,000 around Bismarck, 76,000 around Minot and 75,000 on the North Dakota side of Grand Forks. Beyond them the state is rural, so Liberty's warning about longer travel bites here; read what declining a far site means before you answer an offer.

In Fargo, Sanford Health runs Sanford Broadway Medical Center and Essentia Health has a hospital. Sanford also runs Sanford Medical Center Bismarck. Grand Forks is home base for Altru Health System, Minot has Trinity Health, and Bismarck has CHI St. Alexius Health, which belongs to CommonSpirit. Community Health students can add the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services. We know of no Liberty agreement with any of them, and we found no state preceptor incentive.

Your license, and the Minnesota side

North Dakota's implementation of the Nurse Licensure Compact dates to January 19, 2018, so a North Dakota or multistate RN license meets Liberty's rule here. The Fargo and Grand Forks metros cross into Minnesota, where Liberty's pages ask for a Minnesota RN license, so check which side of the state line a lead sits on. The RN license for practicum page has the detail.

North Dakota enacted the APRN Compact in 2021, one of five states to do so. It needs seven before it operates, so nothing changes for your practicum yet.

Why North Dakota students choose us

We look for North Dakota preceptors and sites that suit your Liberty track and gather the preceptor resume, license details and site information that Liberty's review and the board's roster both depend on. Liberty approves every site and preceptor and handles the board filings, and we get those details to Liberty early.