Moving during your Olivet nursing program

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Olivet Preceptor placement team

Online students at Olivet Nazarene University can move during a program, but a new address can change where practicum hours may happen. Tell the Online Advising Team, check the new state against Olivet's FNP list and its board of nursing, and line up an approved preceptor near the new home before the next clinical course opens.

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Moving before your next clinical?

Give us both addresses and your course start date.

Numbered steps. A moving checklist for Olivet students: 1 Check the destination; 2 Report the address; 3 Brief your faculty; 4 Secure the next preceptor; 5 Refresh compliance. — A moving checklist for Olivet students: 1 Check the destination; 2 Report the address; 3 Brief your faculty; 4 Secure the next preceptor; 5 Refresh compliance.

Tell the Online Advising Team first

Olivet asks one thing of every student who moves: tell the University when your permanent address changes. The licensure disclosures page states it for all students, and Olivet's FNP file names the Online Advising Team, at onlineadvising@olivet.edu, as the office to notify during the FNP track.

Write from your Olivet email, which the handbook treats as the official channel, and include your track, your next clinical course and your moving date. The same team handles leaves of absence and withdrawals, so it is also the place to ask how a move fits your course sequence.

The reason is practical. Your state of residence shapes the licensure disclosure that applies to you, and for FNP students the state where you train decides whether hours count. An old address on file can hide a problem until a preceptor is already waiting.

Check the new state before you sign a lease

Olivet's FNP file tells students to check the board rules of any state they may move to. Start with Olivet's own list, which the licensure disclosures guide explains, then work through the questions below.

Questions to answer about the new state

Is it approved for Olivet FNP hours, or one of the 13 Not Approved states? Kansas is approved but carries additional requirements handled through FNPpracticum@olivet.edu.
Does its board of nursing set its own clinical-hour, preceptor or documentation rules for APRN licensure? Olivet's file warns that some states do.
How does your RN license apply there, and does anything in your compliance record need updating? The RN license page sets out what Olivet expects of your license.
Which practices near the new address see the patients your next course calls for?
For NEL students: which approved-state list covers NRSG 604 or NRSG 620? The NEL pages require an approved state without publishing a list, so ask in writing.

Heading to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands? Olivet offers online programs there, but neither of its disclosure files lists a territory, so ask FNPpracticum@olivet.edu before you plan clinical hours.

Moving in the middle of a clinical course

A move during a clinical course is the hardest case, because your approved preceptor and site belong to the old area. Let your course faculty and the SON Clinical Coordinator know before the moving date, with the hours you have documented and the hours that remain. How the rest of the course is completed is their decision.

If the old practice is out of reach, a new preceptor near your new home needs Olivet's approval before any hours start there, and the new site may run its own onboarding. What that approval involves is set out under preceptor approval.

Know the limits on extra time. Olivet grants Incompletes only for serious illness or an unavoidable delay late in a course, requested at least 7 business days before the last day. In NRSG 620, unfinished hours earn an X grade and 8 more weeks, and a course still unfinished at 16 weeks has to be taken again. A move you can schedule belongs between clinical courses.

Between courses: the cleaner window

Moving in the gap between clinical courses gives you room to set up the next site properly. If the gap needs to be longer, Olivet allows a leave of absence for any reason and any length. Olivet needs the Return Form two weeks ahead of a clinical course, or one week ahead of a core or track course, and a late form can push your start back. The leave and delays page covers the rest.

Use the window for the steps with fixed timing. Olivet sets a window of 2 to 4 weeks before the practicum for a cleared drug screen, so time it to the new start date rather than the moving date. A new site may use MyClinicalExchange for onboarding and add charges of its own, such as parking, a badge or individual malpractice coverage, and every compliance item must be current on your first clinical day.

A moving checklist for Olivet students

Check the destinationLook up the new state on Olivet's FNP list and read its board of nursing rules before you commit to the move.
Report the addressEmail the Online Advising Team from your Olivet account with the new address and the moving date.
Brief your facultyIf you are mid-course, give your faculty and the coordinator a count of finished and remaining hours.
Secure the next preceptorFind a preceptor near the new home in an approved state, and send what Olivet's approval needs as early as you can.
Refresh complianceUpdate anything the move changes, such as a new RN license, in QualifiedFirst or CastleBranch, and finish the new site's onboarding.
Recheck before day oneLine up the drug screen, BLS card and TB result against the new clinical start date.

Moving within Illinois or next door

Plenty of Olivet's online students live in Kankakee County, the south suburbs or greater Chicago. A move within Illinois, or to Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri or Wisconsin, keeps you inside Olivet's approved states, so the work is finding a preceptor near the new home rather than rethinking the program. Each of those neighbors still has its own board of nursing, so the licensure question from the list above applies even one state over.

Moving closer to Bourbonnais does not change how placement works for graduate students: you still lead your own search, and the school-assigned placements belong to the Traditional BSN alone. Health systems around the campus publish their own rules for student requests, and the Kankakee and Chicagoland guide gathers them in one place.

Why students who move choose us

A move compresses everything: a new area, a new board, a new site and a clinical start date that stays put. We begin the search in your new area before the moving truck arrives, confirm each practice sits in an approved state, and match its patients to your next course. Still weighing the move? We can compare preceptor options in both places before you decide, so the choice is made with the clinical picture in view.

You receive preceptor and site details prepared for Olivet's approval, the drug screen window marked against your new start date, and a replacement plan if a preceptor falls through. If a move has already broken a placement, the preceptor dropped out page shows how we step in. Tell us both addresses on the contact form.

Questions Olivet students ask

Can I keep my current preceptor after I move?

Olivet's published rules tie practicum hours to the state where the site is, not to your address. If the practice stays in an approved state and the drive still works, ask your course faculty about keeping the preceptor you already have. It spares you a fresh approval and a second site onboarding.

What if I move to a Not Approved state partway through the FNP?

You can keep taking online coursework, but the hours still left must be logged at practices located in approved states. Plan the rest of your clinicals around a practice across a nearby state line or time spent in an approved state, and read the licensure note on our not approved states page before you settle there.

I'm moving to Kansas. What changes for my FNP clinicals?

Kansas is on Olivet's approved list but comes with additional state requirements, and Olivet sends Kansas questions to FNPpracticum@olivet.edu. Email that mailbox before you ask a Kansas practice to precept you, so the extra steps are settled before hours begin. Our Kansas guide has more on the state.

Does a move mean a new background check?

Olivet's handbooks do not tie a new background check to a move itself. What changes is the site: a new practice may ask for more than Olivet does, and Olivet shares flagged background results with sites, which make their own decision. Ask the new site what its onboarding needs and check your Canvas requirements course.

Will moving push back my Olivet graduation?

Only if it delays a clinical course. A leave of absence or a retaken practicum moves your completion date, and MSN commencement is held only in May. Moving between courses, with the next preceptor approved before you pack, is the surest way to hold your original timeline.

FNPFNP not approved statesThe 13 states where Olivet does not permit FNP practicum hours, what Olivet's wording means, and what to do if you live in one or plan to apply.LicensureLicensure disclosuresHow to read Olivet's FNP and BSN licensure disclosures: what Approved and Not Approved mean for practicum hours, and which Olivet programs are not listed.LeaveLeave, Incompletes and delaysPausing Olivet's nursing program: the leave of absence Return Form, Incompletes, the X grade, withdrawals, and what happens to your preceptor and compliance.ApprovalPreceptor approvalOlivet approves every preceptor its graduate students select. What approval covers, what to prepare, what Olivet keeps in Canvas and who to ask about timing.Mid-coursePreceptor dropped outYour preceptor quit partway through an Olivet clinical course. What to do first, what happens to logged hours and your grade, and how a replacement is approved.

Last checked 2026-09-25

We check these pages against Olivet's own handbooks, program pages, fee sheet and licensure disclosures. Your handbook version, your Canvas clinical requirements course, your faculty and the SON Clinical Coordinator have the final word.

Olivet asks you to start with your own network. We make the search the easy part of your program.

Tell us your Olivet track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, inside Olivet's approved states, and prepare everything Olivet's approval and the site's onboarding need.

Preceptors matched to the course: adults and older adults for NRSG 636C, women's health for NRSG 637C, children for NRSG 638C, education and leadership for NRSG 620
Credentials, license and site details ready before your clinical course opens, with the drug screen timing on your calendar
In your own community, in Illinois or any state Olivet approves for your clinicals

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