West Virginia and UTA's online nursing programs
Two West Virginia agencies matter to UTA students: the RN board, which regulates only pre-licensure programs, and the Higher Education Policy Commission, which handles graduate clinical questions. From a West Virginia address you can take UTA's RN-to-BSN or its Education or Administration MSN online; its NP tracks and DNP are unavailable.
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Programs open to West Virginia residents
The deciding fact is the mailing address in your MyMav account. With a West Virginia address, UTA's state-authorization map gives you these choices:
| UTA program | West Virginia | Practicum or practice work |
|---|---|---|
| RN-to-BSN | Open | Applied assignments at work and in your community, capstone NURS 4685; no preceptor |
| MSN Nursing Education | Open | NURS 5362, 135 hours with a nursing education preceptor |
| MSN Nursing Administration | Open | Four courses from NURS 5339 to NURS 5342, 270 hours in all |
| NP tracks and NP certificates | Closed | Not offered to West Virginia residents |
| DNP | Closed | Not offered to West Virginia residents |
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky carry the same three programs. Virginia is the neighbor with a longer list, since it is one of UTA's seven NP and DNP states.
Where the open programs' work happens here
West Virginia's metros are small. Charleston has about 200,000 people, and the state's shares of Huntington-Ashland and Hagerstown-Martinsburg, plus Morgantown, are each smaller. Health systems include WVU Medicine, Marshall Health Network and Vandalia Health, whose members include Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC), Mon Health System and Davis Health System. These illustrate the settings; they are not sites known to take UTA students.
For the RN-to-BSN, your own employer is the usual setting for NURS 3315 and NURS 4455, and NURS 3325 and NURS 4465 look to your community. At state level, public health belongs to the West Virginia Department of Health's Bureau for Public Health. Education students add 45 hours each in NURS 5312 and NURS 5360, Simulation Application in Nursing, before the precepted teaching practicum. Administration hours run through facilities with senior nurse leaders on site.
West Virginia's rules for out-of-state programs
Two offices share this question. West Virginia's Board of Registered Nurses confines itself to pre-licensure education; a pre-licensure program based out of state files the board's out-of-state prelicensure program approval application before any West Virginia facility is used. Graduate and advanced-degree programs are sent elsewhere: to whichever national body accredits their nursing program, and to WVHEPC, the state's Higher Education Policy Commission.
Within WVHEPC, an Office of Nursing Education and Workforce Development sets two triggers for out-of-state APRN and graduate programs: they need WVHEPC approval for West Virginia clinicals when the institution is outside NC-SARA, or when 10 or more of its students go to one site, and otherwise they do not. The same office notes that post-licensure programs are not regulated by the RN board. Our research did not establish UTA's NC-SARA status, so let NursingSOA@uta.edu confirm how this applies before you settle on a site.
Your license for West Virginia clinicals
Compact licensing has been in force in West Virginia since January 19, 2018. WVHEPC's clinical rotation guide splits graduate and APRN students by home: those who live elsewhere use a multistate license, and those whose primary state of residence is West Virginia must hold a valid West Virginia RN license. That fits UTA's handbook rule that you hold a license in any state where you complete clinical work. UTA's own verification runs through NURSYS; the RN license for clinicals page has more.
If you're a UTA NP student moving to West Virginia
West Virginia is not an NP or DNP state for UTA, and the handbook says a program may be completed only where UTA's college can operate. Relocating here during an NP track could leave you without a placement, pulled out of a course or the program, told to complete clinicals in Texas or another approved state, or graduating late, if at all. Email NursingSOA@uta.edu before you relocate; out-of-state clinicals covers travel contracts too.
Should you stay to practice as an NP, AANP rates West Virginia reduced practice. For three years, prescribing requires a collaborative agreement with a physician, and no Schedule II narcotic prescription may exceed three days' supply.
Help from a placement advisor
Starting early helps when the nearest nurse educator or nurse leader may be some distance away. A placement advisor can begin that search well before your practicum, check each candidate against the UTA course, prepare the packet UTA reviews and step back in if a preceptor leaves. The approval decision stays with UTA.
Questions UTA students ask
I live in Ohio. Can I do my UTA practicum in the Huntington area?
The Huntington-Ashland metro spans West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, and West Virginia is listed for both of UTA's non-NP MSNs. Your Ohio multistate license reaches West Virginia. The handbook, though, asks you to email NursingSOA@uta.edu before looking for a preceptor outside your home state, so do that first.
Could my UTA Administration practicum be at a large West Virginia system?
Nothing public says whether WVU Medicine, Vandalia Health or Marshall Health Network hosts UTA students, so treat any system as a proposal, not a given. UTA wants a facility where senior nurse leaders work, prefers a NURS 5339 site other than your employer, and approves the site and any agreement it needs.
Does West Virginia offer incentives to nurses who precept students?
West Virginia has no preceptor tax credit or incentive program in our research. What UTA itself gives preceptors is non-monetary: access to library and electronic resources, continuing education courses and an honorary title, Graduate Nursing Clinical Education Specialist. It describes them as volunteers. Ask a prospective preceptor early whether their employer allows precepting.
I'm an LPN in West Virginia. Can I start UTA's RN-to-BSN?
Not as an LPN. UTA's RN-to-BSN requires a current, unencumbered RN license, verifiable through Nursys or a state board. West Virginia licenses LPNs through a separate body, the State Board of Examiners for Licensed Practical Nurses, while RNs go through the Board of Registered Nurses, so the RN license comes first.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-23
We check these pages against UTA's own sources. UTA's current handbook and your course faculty have the final word.
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