Virginia clinicals for Drexel NP students

Where Virginia stands on Drexel's lists

• NP MSN tracks: open for all nine, with clinicals allowed at Virginia sites.
• NP post-master's certificates: open; an AGPCNP certificate student living here completes the 640 hours in Virginia or Pennsylvania.
• Post-master's DNP: open.
• RN-to-BSN: open.

With four sizable metros, most Virginia students can search near home, though Drexel cautions that site access varies from one state to the next and some driving may be needed.

The Virginia Board of Nursing says its approval reaches neither programs based in other states nor post-licensure programs. Its site-approval rules in 18VAC90-27, including the requirement that 80 percent of clinical hours happen inside Virginia, are aimed at pre-licensure programs the Board itself approves.

For a Drexel NP student, the gate is therefore Drexel's own: a clinical affiliation agreement with the site and clearance from CNHP Clinical Compliance, as laid out in the Drexel clinical placement process.

Virginia's licensing statute, Va. Code § 54.1-3001, lets an RN who holds an unrestricted license from elsewhere in the U.S. skip a Virginia license during the clinical practice an advanced nursing program requires, and only for that practice. Virginia's compact membership also began January 19, 2018, so any multistate license covers RN work in the state.

Drexel's requirement is narrower. Clinical Compliance takes either a Pennsylvania license or a compact license tied to the state you live in, plus a separate license wherever you train outside the compact, while the NP program pages want Pennsylvania licensure up front. A Virginia resident with a multistate Virginia license fits the first route; a student holding only another state's single-state license should ask Clinical Compliance before leaning on the Virginia exemption. See the Pennsylvania RN license page.

AANP puts Virginia in its restricted tier. Most Virginia NPs work under an agreement with a physician on their patient care team; the exception is an NP who has attested to roughly three years' worth of full-time clinical work.

Drexel's standard applies to both groups alike: a nurse practitioner, certified midwife or physician whose specialty Drexel has approved, holding board certification and a Virginia license, with at least one year in practice. A patient care team physician can precept you as well if their specialty matches your track, which helps when one NP can host only part of your hours.

Virginia pays some preceptors through its Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program. The money goes to Virginia-licensed clinicians, from LPNs through physicians, who teach students of the state's own public and private nonprofit nursing schools, scaled to the hours they log each semester. Drexel is a Pennsylvania school, so its rotations fall outside NPIP. SB 405, signed March 31, 2026, handed the program from VDH to the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, where hours from July 1, 2026 onward are claimed.

Mention it early to preceptors used to NPIP. Drexel offers recognition rather than pay: a Clinical Faculty title while precepting, a term-end certificate of supervised hours and a continuing education discount. Tips for the ask are on asking a preceptor.

About 3.2 million Virginians live in the Washington metro, about 1.7 million in the Virginia Beach and Norfolk area, and about 1.4 million around Richmond, with Roanoke anchoring the southwest. Systems students approach include VCU Health, Carilion Clinic, Inova, UVA Health and Sentara Health. Each sets its own terms for outside schools; research confirmed no Drexel-specific arrangement at any of them.

Virginia has a deep bench of NPs and physicians, and we turn that supply into a placement Drexel can approve. We search your metro for preceptors who meet Drexel's rules, set expectations about Drexel's recognition from the first conversation, and assemble the preceptor's credentials with the site's agreement contact for Drexel's review. Drexel makes the final call; we see that the file is complete when it gets there, and when a preceptor drops out we are already lining up the next one.