Finding a Drexel NP preceptor in Iowa

Iowa is left off every Drexel exclusion list, which puts it in contrast with Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri next door. An Iowa resident can pursue a Drexel NP master's or post-master's certificate, the DNP or the RN-to-BSN from home.

If a move is possible, check Drexel's state authorization lists and moving during Drexel clinicals first.

Iowa's Board of Nursing, which sits inside the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing, leaves out-of-state programs unapproved but spells out what it expects of them. A school from elsewhere needs the Bureau of Iowa College Aid to clear it to operate, keeps to Iowa law and its own state's rules, hands the Board data on request, and sees that its faculty and preceptors working in Iowa carry an Iowa or compact license. Its clinical contracts must set out who does what, keep faculty in charge of learning, and provide for yearly review and termination.

Those items belong to Drexel and move through its contracting process, but knowing them helps if a site's education office raises them. Licensure is the piece that's yours. A licensed nurse doing clinical work in Iowa as a post-licensure student needs a current Iowa or multistate license and follows Iowa Code, and the state's student exemption leaves out anyone already holding an RN, LPN or ARNP license.

Under 481 IAC 616.16, Iowa's preceptorship rule for ARNP programs, most precepted hours should go to an ARNP or physician whose role and population focus match the student's. The preceptor is licensed in their own state of practice and works under a written agreement reviewed every year, and both the school and the facility sign off on who precepts. Drexel's list is compatible with that rule, since it takes only NPs, nurse midwives and physicians from approved specialties who hold board certification and have practiced a year or longer.

AANP rates Iowa full practice. Iowa has no cash incentive, though a nurse who precepts for 60 or more hours in an organized preceptorship earns 6 contact hours for the next renewal, backed by the school's paperwork. Precepting Drexel students covers what Drexel adds.

Iowa nurses have held multistate licenses since the compact took effect on January 19, 2018. Drexel's certifications page counts an Iowa multistate license as sufficient, yet its program pages keep Pennsylvania licensure as a step before clinicals, so confirm with Clinical Compliance and see the Pennsylvania RN license page.

The Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro straddles the Illinois line, and Illinois isn't a compact state, so its side of the metro needs an Illinois license. Wisconsin is a compact state. For sites in the four closed neighbors, ask Drexel before you plan anything.

Iowa's main systems are MercyOne, University of Iowa Health Care and UnityPoint Health, and Des Moines-West Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are its largest metros. Drexel lists no agreement with any of them, so approach each as you would any site, and add independent clinics in smaller towns to the list.

We match Iowa preceptors to your exact role and population focus, which Iowa's rule asks for and Drexel's approved-specialty list supports. A placement advisor searches Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport and the towns between, verifies each clinician against Drexel's list and lines up the paperwork Drexel's contracting and compliance teams look for. The approval is Drexel's to give, and our job is to make that review quick and clean. Start your Iowa search.