South Dakota and Troy University's online nursing clinicals
According to Troy University's 2020 online nursing table, clinicals in South Dakota are possible on one condition: a Troy faculty member holding a South Dakota license oversees the students there. That condition mirrors what South Dakota's own board expects from any program based outside the state. Everything else rests on your license, a preceptor who fits Troy's rules, and a fresh check that the 2020 line still stands.
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Tell us your Troy program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Troy course.
The oversight condition in Troy's table
Troy's Online Nursing Programs disclosure gives South Dakota a Yes covering all three online programs, then attaches a note: one faculty member licensed in South Dakota to oversee students in the state. Like every row in that file, it shows a last-updated date of 12/15/2020, and it is not a licensure determination.
The Board's own advice to outside schools, last revised in June 2020, lines up with Troy's note. Approving schools from elsewhere is not something that Board does. What it asks is a program faculty member holding South Dakota practice rights, through a license there or a compact privilege: RN level to supervise RN students, and South Dakota APRN authority to supervise students in APRN tracks. Filling that faculty role is Troy's job, so ask the Clinical Placements Specialist whether it is covered for your term.
| Troy item | South Dakota detail |
|---|---|
| 2020 clinical table | Yes, with a South Dakota licensed faculty member overseeing students |
| Authorization route | SARA authorized |
| License rule for graduate clinicals | An unencumbered RN license that is valid in South Dakota for the full semester |
| Who confirms it now | Clinical Placements Specialist and Coordinator of State Authorizations |
Agreements are made locally
South Dakota's board leaves placement contracts to the parties. For direct-care settings, it treats the arrangement as a matter for the visiting school and whoever hosts the student, preceptor or agency. At Troy that is the ordinary route: faculty approve the preceptor and the setting, then the School of Nursing sends a letter that opens the preceptor and agency agreements. A site with no formal contract on file needs more lead time, as agency agreements explains.
The administrative rules point the same way. ARSD 20:48:07:49, on distance education, requires South Dakota APRN authority, issued there or held as a privilege, of anyone who teaches APRN students while those students sit in South Dakota. The preceptor standard at 20:48:07:34, drafted for programs the Board itself approves, sets a floor: the preceptor's license must match or exceed the level the student will hold, and APRN learners need a preceptor in a comparable role or specialty.
Practice rules, licensure standards and the map
Full practice, in AANP's terms, but not on day one. South Dakota NPs spend their first 1,040 practice hours tied to a written collaborative agreement, whose other signer may be a physician or a certified NP or nurse midwife; after that, they practice on their own authority.
Three health systems loom large in the state: Avera, Monument Health and Sanford Health. The population centers are Sioux Falls in the east and Rapid City in the west, and Aberdeen is a smaller one. Outside them a preceptor may be a long drive away, so a South Dakota search pays to start early. Each system follows its own process for student requests; read them as landmarks, not as sites promised to Troy students.
Two compacts, one still waiting
South Dakota is a compact state, part of the group that went live on January 19, 2018, so it honors multistate RN licenses. Troy's manuals tie clinical eligibility to licensure in the state where you train and do not mention compact licenses, so get your faculty advisor's view before relying on one.
South Dakota's APRN Compact bill was signed on February 5, 2024. Five states have enacted that compact so far, two short of the seven it needs to begin operating. Troy parks a South Dakota preceptor request until your license evidence arrives; see the license rule.
How we handle distance in a South Dakota search
Distance is the hard part of a South Dakota search, and it is where we put our effort. We find preceptors within reach of your home who meet Troy's standard for your course and have not precepted you before, prepare every item the Preceptor Information Form and Biosketch ask for, and keep a replacement plan ready in case a preceptor leaves partway through a term. Start here.
Questions Troy students ask
Can Troy students do clinicals in South Dakota?
Troy's 2020 table answers yes, as long as a Troy faculty member licensed in South Dakota oversees students in the state. That entry has not changed since December 2020. Before recruiting, check it with the Coordinator of State Authorizations and with the Clinical Placements Specialist, who can speak to the faculty question.
Will South Dakota's nursing board sign off on Troy?
Approving outside programs is not part of the South Dakota Board's work, by its own account. Placement agreements for direct care are the program's business with its host, whether that is a preceptor or an agency, and the Board wants one program faculty member with South Dakota practice rights, APRN-level ones for APRN students.
Will a Troy FNP program meet South Dakota APRN licensure rules?
South Dakota's Board lists what an APRN applicant's education needs: a graduate program, a minimum of 500 clinical hours tied to role and population focus, and graduate courses in pharmacology, health and physical assessment, and pathophysiology or physiology. Troy's 2020 table does not rule on licensure in any state, so confirm with the South Dakota Board and with Troy before you rely on it.
Does the APRN Compact help me in South Dakota?
Not today. South Dakota's 2024 law changes nothing in practice until seven states have enacted the compact, and only five had as of 2026. Until then, plan on APRN licensure state by state, and on meeting Troy's separate RN license rule for your clinicals.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Troy's own 2026-27 MSN, DNP, AMSN and RN to BSN orientation manuals, program pages, degree maps and state authorization pages. Your faculty advisor, your course faculty and the School of Nursing have the final word.
Troy asks you to recruit your preceptor. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Troy program, where you live and which semester your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors who meet Troy's rules for the course, check the setting against Troy's limits, and prepare everything the Preceptor Information Form and biosketch ask for, well ahead of the form deadline.
- Preceptors matched to the course: a graduate-prepared NP or physician for
NSG 6619, pediatrics and women's health forNSG 6666, adults and older adults forNSG 6668 - Preceptor Information Form details, a biosketch and a copy of the preceptor's license, ready for your faculty advisor
- In your own area, in Alabama or a state where Troy can offer clinicals, never in your own work setting
Start your placement plan
Program, city and semester is all we need to begin.