California and Concordia University Wisconsin's nurse practitioner programs
Concordia University Wisconsin's current disclosure puts California in the "Does Not Meet Requirements" column of all five graduate NP tables, the MSN primary care NP and both CAGE certificates included. Only the online RN to BSN meets. Below: that answer, the Board of Registered Nursing's rule for NP programs from other states, and who can still use this page.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your CUW program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
CUW's California row, program by program
Read the graduate rows as a licensure answer. Completing one of these CUW programs is not presented as satisfying what California expects of an NP education, so a nurse who plans to hold California NP certification should treat every graduate row as a no. The PMHNP MSN and PMHNP DNP have no row at all; ask CUW admissions. All 50 answers sit side by side on our licensure disclosure page.
| CUW program | CUW's answer for California |
|---|---|
| Master of Science in Nursing - Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (FNP, AGPCNP, FNP dual degrees) | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice - Post BSN to DNP Program | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice - Post MSN to DNP Program | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| CAGE (FNP/AGPCNP) and CAGE (PMH NP) | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| MSN PMHNP and PMHNP DNP | Not in the table |
| RN to BSN Online Nursing Program (BSN Comp) | Meets Requirements |
What the BRN asks of NP programs from other states
The regulation, 16 CCR 1486, puts the Board of Registered Nursing between a non-California NP school and its first California placement: the BRN signs off first, students arrive second. Its California preceptors must satisfy Board criteria, its curriculum must track NONPF and AACN standards, and its courses must cover the state's own NP statutes and standardized procedure rules. Paperwork starts with the BRN's Verification of Clinical Practice Experience form, the decision is taken at a Board meeting, and afterward one NP Program Preceptor form per California preceptor stays in the school's files.
For the preceptor, section 1486 means a current California license in their own profession, a fit with the student's NP population, an orientation from the school, a faculty review no less often than every other year, and a three-way written agreement with the clinical agency and the program. The only state clinical approvals CUW publishes are Washington's, so a California site for a CUW NP course belongs with the Graduate Clinical Coordinator before anyone approaches a preceptor.
Licensing: California stands outside both compacts
No multistate RN license reaches California. The state sits outside the Nurse Licensure Compact, with no bill to join listed on NCSBN's map, so a Wisconsin compact license is simply a Wisconsin license once you cross the state line. Subsection (d) of the same rule adds a student-side condition: anyone from a non-California NP school who trains in California keeps a current California RN license while doing so. BRN NP certification also rests on a California RN license, and the state has no APRN Compact law.
AANP files California under restricted practice: for some settings and procedures, the NP needs a standardized protocol agreement in place, though the BRN spells out exemptions. CUW's own license expectations are on your RN license for clinicals.
California on CUW's earlier lists
The table is not the first CUW source to single out California. The archived 2022 MSN page named states whose residents CUW was not admitting as new students, California among them, and the 2024 capture kept it on a shorter list; the 2022 Post-MSN DNP page named it as well. Yet disclosure copies from March 2023 and May 2024 placed California under Meets for the MSN and both DNPs, and only the August 2024 copy moved it.
Where those sources disagree, rely on the current table and a written reply from CUW admissions.
Who we help from California
Three kinds of California nurses use this site well. RNs comparing bachelor's options can weigh CUW's online RN to BSN, whose California row reads Meets, unlike any of CUW's graduate programs. Nurses leaving for a state the table does list, such as Nevada, which meets in all five graduate tables, can plan CUW clinicals around the new address. Enrolled CUW students weighing a move west should talk with CUW first.
CUW leaves the preceptor search to its students, and when you are headed to a state where your row says meets, CUW students choose us for the thoroughness: primary care or psychiatric preceptors near the new home, a complete file for CUW's graduate faculty, and a start plan timed around the site's contract. Tell us your program and destination through the contact form.
Questions CUW students ask
Has CUW published a California clinical approval for any NP program?
No such approval appears on CUW's pages; every state clinical approval CUW posts is for Washington. California makes Board approval a precondition for an out-of-state NP program's clinical placements, and CUW's disclosure already marks California as not meeting for its NP tables. The Graduate Clinical Coordinator can tell you what, if anything, CUW holds.
Does a multistate license from Wisconsin let me train in California?
No. A multistate privilege only works among compact members, and California has never been one. On top of that, the BRN expects a student from a non-California NP school who trains in California to carry a current California RN license for the length of those clinicals.
Can a California RN enroll in CUW's online RN to BSN?
Yes, by CUW's table: California is a Meets state for the bachelor's completion program. Expect to stay employed as an RN throughout; CUW's program materials place the clinical hours at your current workplace, with NURS 4599 Seminar in Contemporary Nursing among the courses that carry them. Confirm details with CUW admissions.
Why did California move to Does Not Meet in 2024?
CUW gives no reason. Archived copies through May 2024 carried a third column, Undetermined, and had California in the Meets column for the MSN and both doctoral tables. California first appears under Does Not Meet in the copy captured on August 14, 2024. Ask CUW admissions for an explanation in writing.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against CUW's own academic catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and the Graduate Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
CUW asks you to secure your preceptors. We make the search the easy part.
Tell us your CUW track, your city and your next clinical course. We line up preceptors who fit the NURS course, gather the license, board certification and site details CUW's graduate faculty review, and flag early whether the site needs a new clinical contract.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP and AGPCNP, mental health settings for PMHNP, an agency mentor for DNP projects
- Preceptor license, certification, CV and site details ready for CUW's approval
- All three clinical courses planned together, close to home in a state CUW's disclosure lists for your program
Start your placement plan
Track, city and next clinical course is all we need to begin.