Credentialing in NUR 303 for WilmU RN to BSN students
In Wilmington University's RN to BSN, credentialing happens inside NUR 303 Transition to Baccalaureate Nursing Practice. During the course you complete three credentialing items (background check, drug screen, immunization record), pay a one-time outside vendor fee, and start fresh, because earlier results are not accepted. It is the step that opens the way to NUR 363 and the NUR 430 community learning experience.
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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 NUR 303 asks you to complete
The catalog entry for NUR 303 makes credentialing mandatory, and WilmU's RN to BSN curriculum page spells out what it covers. Everything is due during the course itself, so the credentialing work shares its weeks with your first upper-division assignments.
Due during NUR 303
- A background check.
- A drug screen.
- An immunization record.
- A one-time fee to the outside vendor that handles the credentialing, paid by you.
The step-by-step directions are posted to the Canvas site WilmU runs for BSN students rather than on its public pages. The College's wider policy puts the background check and drug screen in the first core course for every undergraduate, and our guide to that College policy explains how it works for graduate students too.
Why earlier results do not carry over
WilmU says plainly that previous results are not accepted. A pre-employment check from your hospital, a drug screen from your associate degree program, or anything run for a job change stays where it is; NUR 303 starts a new set.
The College policy behind the requirement explains the reason in general terms. The checks answer to the requirements of clinical facilities and the agreements the College holds with them, and doing them early keeps those requirements from delaying clinical experiences. A fresh result, run through one College process, is what those requirements are measured against.
The immunization record is often the slowest piece to assemble. WilmU does not publish the RN to BSN list on its public pages; the Canvas instructions carry it. Pull what you have from your employer's occupational health office, your prior nursing program and your own provider before the course opens, so a missing titer or booster is found early rather than in week five.
Where NUR 303 sits in the RN to BSN
WilmU's RN to BSN runs 120 credits, 31 of them in the upper-division nursing core. According to WilmU, associate-degree RNs typically complete it in about 18 months, taking 15 courses at two per block, with classes starting every 8 weeks at New Castle, online or in a hybrid format. NUR 303 is a 4-credit course and sets up the practice-focused courses later in the plan.
The RN to BSN Pathway, built for RNs with a non-nursing bachelor's degree, is online, takes up to 90 transfer credits and runs the same eight NUR courses, NUR 303 among them. WilmU lists its nursing core as 28 credits against 31 in the standard RN to BSN for those same courses, so ask your advisor which figure applies to your plan.
At two courses per block, a credentialing item that stalls has little room. In Fall 2026 the first block covers August 31 through October 18 and the second October 26 through December 13, with a reading week after each.
What credentialing opens: NUR 363 and NUR 430
Two later courses carry practice elements. NUR 363 Chronic and Palliative Care, a 3-credit course, includes a practice-focused learning opportunity. NUR 430, the 6-credit Senior Capstone in Community and Population Health, builds in community learning at a community-based care setting and is offered only in semester format; NUR 413 may be taken alongside it.
WilmU's RN to BSN page says that for this community learning you volunteer at "a site of your choosing." The RN to BSN Pathway page does not repeat that line. WilmU does not publish hour counts for NUR 363 or NUR 430, so course faculty are the source for those.
Because NUR 430 is semester-only, it follows the 15-week calendar: Spring 2027 runs January 11 to May 2, and Summer 2027 runs May 10 to August 23. The RN to BSN program guide lays out the rest of the course sequence.
Choosing a community site for NUR 430
The RN to BSN page leaves the community site to your choice, so pick one that matches the catalog's description: a setting whose daily work is population health. Community health centers, public health programs, school-based care and community organizations with a health mission all fit that description better than an inpatient unit does.
Before you settle on a site, check three things. Can it host a volunteer student for the part of the semester your course needs? Will it take your NUR 303 credentialing as it stands, or run screening of its own? Will its contact person speak with your course faculty if asked?
Credentialing finished early makes those conversations shorter. When a site asks for a background check or proof of immunization, you answer with records already in hand rather than starting a new request in the middle of the term.
Findings, state status and whom to ask
If the background check or drug screen shows a finding, it goes to the same College review every CONHS student faces. The findings review guide explains who looks at it and how to respond without losing a term.
On WilmU's licensure-by-state table, the RN-BSN row reads Does not meet for Washington and Not Determined Yet for Idaho and Wyoming, with every other state and DC shown as meeting. If you live in one of those three states, read the state licensure guide before you enroll.
For questions about the credentialing steps themselves, work in order: the Canvas instructions first, then your NUR 303 faculty, then the Chair or Assistant Chair for RN to BSN and MSN Leadership.
How we help RN to BSN students
For RN to BSN students, the community site for NUR 430 is where our help is most direct. We find a community-based setting near you that fits the course, confirm it can host you for the semester, and hand you the contact details and intake steps with your NUR 303 credentialing set against them.
The choice stays yours, and we narrow it for you: a shortlist of community settings that match the catalog's description, each checked for timing and requirements. The final say on any site rests with WilmU faculty, and what reaches them from us is ready to approve. Choose RN to BSN in the form below and tell us your target semester.
Questions WilmU students ask
Can I use the background check my employer ran when I was hired?
No. WilmU's RN to BSN pages say previous results are not accepted for NUR 303 credentialing. The background check, the drug screen and the immunization record are all completed during the course through the College's process, even if an employer checked the same things recently.
How much is the NUR 303 credentialing fee?
WilmU describes it as a one-time outside vendor fee that the student pays, and its public pages leave out the amount. The Canvas directions for BSN students cover the process, and your NUR 303 faculty can point you to the current figure. The placement costs guide lists the other costs WilmU students carry.
Which immunizations does WilmU's RN to BSN ask for?
WilmU's public pages say an immunization record is part of NUR 303 credentialing but do not name the vaccines. The list comes with the credentialing directions in Canvas. Collect your records from occupational health, past programs and your provider before the course starts.
Do RN to BSN Pathway students complete NUR 303 credentialing too?
The Pathway uses the same eight NUR courses as the standard RN to BSN, so NUR 303 is part of the plan. The Pathway page itself does not describe credentialing, so confirm the steps in the Canvas instructions or with the Chair for RN to BSN and MSN Leadership.
How many hours is the NUR 430 community learning experience?
WilmU does not publish hours for NUR 430 or NUR 363. The catalog describes NUR 430 as a 6-credit, semester-format capstone that includes community learning in a community-based care setting. Ask your course faculty for the expected hours before you agree to a community site's schedule.
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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