Doing your Liberty practicum in Ohio

Liberty programs and Ohio practicum

Liberty's state licensure lookup lists Ohio as approved for practicum for each online nursing program below.

Approved means Liberty can place or approve you in Ohio, not that a clinic has room. The practicum placement process page sets out Liberty's order of steps.

What Ohio law asks of an out-of-state program

Very little, on paper. Nothing in the Ohio Revised Code requires a nursing program based in another state to get Ohio Board of Nursing approval or to notify the board. Section 4723.32 instead exempts students from Ohio licensure while they practice within their program, on set conditions.

For NP students the relevant piece is 4723.32(F). It applies to an APRN student in a program that makes them eligible for an approved national certification exam. The student works under the program's auspices, with supervision from an advanced practice registered nurse who serves the program as a preceptor, teaching assistant or faculty member. Whether the Ohio Department of Higher Education asks anything of Liberty was not checked; that question belongs to the practicum team.

Standard care arrangements and your preceptor

Ohio is reduced practice in AANP's ratings. For their whole career, an Ohio NP practices under a standard care arrangement with a collaborating podiatrist or physician, and there are setting limits on Schedule II prescribing.

That arrangement governs the NP's own practice, not their teaching. When you ask an Ohio NP to precept you, it still does no harm to ask whether the practice wants its collaborating physician told that a student is joining. PMHNP students should check Liberty's current rule on prescriber hours; the preceptor requirements page covers what is and isn't public.

Where Liberty students in Ohio can look

Ohio's largest metros are Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati (whose metro area reaches into Kentucky and Indiana) and Dayton. Large systems include Bon Secours Mercy Health, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, OhioHealth, University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic.

Treat those names as a map, not a promise. We have no record of a Liberty agreement with any of them, and each sets its own terms for students. If the practicum team offers a site you think is too far, read what happens when you decline for distance before you answer.

MSN students choose their own facility and secure a preceptor site contract. A Community Health student might start with the Ohio Department of Health or a local health department.

Licensing: an Ohio or multistate RN license

The Nurse Licensure Compact went into effect in Ohio on January 1, 2023. Liberty requires an active RN license valid where the practicum happens, so an Ohio license or a multistate license from another compact state both work. The Ohio Board of Nursing describes the multistate license as held in your primary state of residence and usable across the other compact states.

The separate APRN Compact hasn't reached the seven states it needs to operate, and Ohio hasn't enacted it. A site across the line in Indiana works on the same compact license; one in Michigan needs a Michigan RN license. See the RN license for practicum guide.

Why Ohio students choose us

We're an independent placement service working alongside Liberty's practicum team. We look for an Ohio preceptor and site that fit your track, gather what your Gate course asks for, and stay on call if a preceptor pulls out. Liberty approves every site and preceptor, and our job is to put a finished Ohio file in front of it.