Virginia and your Wilmington University nursing program
Across all seven nursing programs, Wilmington University's State Licensures by Program page gives Virginia a Meets. Virginia's nursing board leaves programs from other states alone, and a Virginia statute gives graduate students licensed elsewhere room for their required clinicals, so the license question to settle first is WilmU's own.
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Tell us your WilmU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your WilmU course.
What WilmU's table says about Virginia
Meets, on WilmU's table, is a statement about licensure: the program's education is judged enough for a Virginia license. It does not approve any clinic, and the table has no visible update date. Our page on the licensure table explains the other two statuses.
Before building a Virginia search, talk with the NP Program Chair and WilmU's Online Learning team, and look Virginia up in the licensure directory NC-SARA maintains, the tool WilmU's NP pages recommend.
| WilmU program | Status in Virginia |
|---|---|
| MSN-FNP | Meets |
| Post-master's FNP | Meets |
| Post-master's PMHNP | Meets |
| BSN to DNP | Meets |
| DNP | Meets |
| MSN Leadership | Meets |
| RN to BSN | Meets |
Virginia's rules for programs based elsewhere
The Virginia Board of Nursing's education page is short on this point: the Board regulates neither visiting programs nor post-licensure ones, wherever they are based. Its clinical-site rules in 18VAC90-27, the 80 percent in-state clinical requirement among them, are written for the pre-licensure schools it approves. A WilmU MSN-FNP or DNP student therefore meets no Virginia program approval step.
The Code of Virginia, section 54.1-3001, goes a step further for students. A nurse holding a current, unrestricted RN license issued outside Virginia (by another state, DC or a territory) may complete in Virginia the clinical practice an advanced nursing curriculum demands, with no Virginia license, as long as it stays within that enrolled coursework.
WilmU's condition is worded on its own terms: the RN license belongs to the state hosting the clinical experience. When a state's exemption and WilmU's wording point different ways, WilmU's answer is the one to get in writing. Our RN license guide and the NC-SARA page cover the rest.
Virginia's exemption answers Virginia's question. WilmU's license condition is a separate one, so settle it with WilmU before your first Virginia hours.
Practice agreements and Virginia's preceptor payments
AANP rates Virginia as restricted. Newer Virginia NPs practice inside a patient care team led by a physician, and the agreement ends when an NP attests to clinical experience equal to three years of full-time work. Whether a given NP has crossed that line or still works under an agreement, the preceptor test WilmU students carry is the same.
That test is the Delaware Board's, which takes physicians, APRNs, pharmacists and PAs whose licenses are active and unencumbered and whose focus resembles the course, applied course by course in our FNP and PMHNP guides.
Virginia pays some preceptors directly. Its Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program rewards Virginia-licensed clinicians each semester on a sliding scale, and since SB 405 it sits with the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, taking hours logged from July 1, 2026 onward. Eligibility follows the student, who must be enrolled in one of Virginia's own nursing schools, so time spent teaching a WilmU student earns nothing from it. Tell a clinician this before they agree.
Where NP students look in Virginia
Five large systems anchor a Virginia search: Inova, Sentara Health, Carilion Clinic, UVA Health and VCU Health. Read a system's student pages before contacting anyone there.
The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro counts more than 3.1 million Virginia residents and takes in parts of Maryland, DC and West Virginia as well. Around 1.74 million live on the Virginia side of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro, near 1.39 million in greater Richmond and close to 317,000 around Roanoke. Near Washington, a practice a short drive away may be in Maryland or DC, a different licensing state.
Licensing in Virginia, and why students choose us
Virginia's RNs have been part of the Nurse Licensure Compact from its January 2018 start. The APRN Compact is not Virginia law, so NP licensure there is a separate application once you graduate.
For a Virginia preceptor, WilmU students choose us for thoroughness. Our search starts from your WilmU course and your address, weighs each clinician against Delaware's preceptor standard, collects license and credential details before the practicum, and keeps the license question in front of WilmU from the start. Your WilmU faculty sign off on each preceptor and site, and each file we hand over is finished. Tell us about your course.
Questions WilmU students ask
Must Virginia sign off on WilmU before my practicum starts?
The Board of Nursing's education page puts visiting and post-licensure programs beyond its oversight, and its clinical-site rules are aimed at Virginia's pre-licensure schools. WilmU commits to follow each state's field experience rules, so confirm your site with WilmU's Online Learning office.
Is a Virginia RN license part of the plan for WilmU clinicals there?
Virginia law may not demand one: section 54.1-3001 allows a nurse with another state's RN license to finish an advanced nursing program's required clinicals in Virginia, and Virginia is a compact state too. WilmU's own wording ties the RN license to the clinical's state, so ask WilmU which license it wants.
Can my Virginia preceptor get paid through the Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program?
Not for a WilmU rotation. Only preceptors whose students attend Virginia's own public or private nonprofit nursing schools qualify, and it now runs through the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center. WilmU publishes nothing on preceptor benefits. If a Virginia clinician asks, answer it in the first conversation so expectations are clear.
Can my WilmU DNP project happen at a Virginia employer?
Virginia's DNP row reads Meets. WilmU describes the DNP Project as usually based at the student's own job, guided by a preceptor with a doctorate. Our DNP preceptor page covers that role. Raise a Virginia workplace with the DNP Program Chair early.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Wilmington University's own program and curriculum pages, the 2026-27 graduate catalog, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences policies and the State Licensures by Program page. Your NP Program Chair, your course faculty and the College have the final word.
A WilmU practicum coming up? Your preceptor search starts here.
Tell us your WilmU program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. Whether WilmU's faculty help with your placement or you are starting the search yourself, we find preceptors who fit the course, check the health system's own intake steps, and organize the preceptor's license and credentials well before the first day.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice across the lifespan for
GRN 7121toGRN 7124, psychiatric mental health forGRN 7221toGRN 7224, doctorally prepared for the DNP - Clinicians who meet Delaware's rule for APRN program preceptors: an active APRN, PA, pharmacist or physician license in a comparable focus
- Close to home, in a state where you hold an RN license, with each system's onboarding mapped out early
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