South Dakota and Drexel: what's open, and how the state handles NP students

Drexel's State Regulations page carries the lists, and the rule belongs to Drexel. For a South Dakota address they read this way, and sara@drexel.edu takes questions about any of them.

The RN-to-BSN has no on-campus requirement. Its 36 planned clinical practice hours fall in NURS 342, NURS 347 and NURS 348 in the quarter catalog, and the program keeps the same 36-hour total after the Fall 2027 move to semesters. The split by course is on Drexel RN-to-BSN clinical hours.

South Dakota's Board spelled out its stance in a June 2020 revision of its guidance for programs based elsewhere: it grants them no approval. A school from another state that wants students in a South Dakota direct-care setting settles that directly with the local preceptor or agency.

What the Board does expect is a licensed faculty member. The out-of-state school should have at least one person holding South Dakota licensure or the privilege to practice there, at the RN level for RN students and the APRN level for APRN students. ARSD 20:48:07:49 says much the same for anyone teaching students physically located in South Dakota.

For programs it approves itself, the Board sets preceptor standards in ARSD 20:48:07:34. A preceptor must be licensed at the level the student is working toward, or higher, and an APRN preceptor's role, focus or specialty should match the student's area of study.

South Dakota grants APRN licenses to graduates whose programs included at least 500 clinical hours in their role and population, along with graduate courses in pathophysiology or physiology, pharmacology, and physical and health assessment. Drexel's track totals are on Drexel clinical hours. After licensure, AANP's full-practice rating applies once a new NP completes 1,040 hours in a written collaborative agreement; the collaborator can be a certified NP, a physician or a certified nurse midwife.

South Dakota RN licenses have been multistate since January 19, 2018. The APRN Compact became state law with a signature on February 5, 2024, but it needs seven enacting states before it takes effect.

Monument Health, Sanford Health and Avera Health are the large systems where South Dakota clinicians practice, spread across the Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Aberdeen areas. They show where to look, not where Drexel students train. Sioux Falls's metro area crosses into Minnesota, another state on Drexel's NP list. Our research found no South Dakota preceptor incentive.

For the RN-to-BSN, we find a clinical setting and a supervising nurse for each course with practice hours, sized to the 24, 8 and 4 hours those courses carry, and we give your Drexel faculty a clear plan to sign off on.

If you're a Drexel NP student weighing a move to South Dakota, or a South Dakota nurse relocating to a state Drexel admits, talk to Drexel first. Then we build the preceptor search around your new state and Drexel's standard, with everything Drexel reviews assembled in advance. Moving during Drexel clinicals lists the steps.