Hawaii nurses and Concordia University Wisconsin's online programs
In Concordia University Wisconsin's current disclosure, Hawaii reads "Does Not Meet Requirements" across all five graduate NP tables and "Meets Requirements" for the online RN to BSN. For an RN in Honolulu, Kahului or Hilo, that leaves bachelor's completion as CUW's table-backed option, while the NP, DNP and certificate programs are not presented as a route to Hawaii licensure.
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Graduate programs no, RN to BSN yes
The graduate rows answer a licensure question, and for Hawaii the answer is no: finishing CUW's FNP, AGPCNP, DNP or CAGE programs is not presented as meeting what Hawaii requires. The RN to BSN row points the opposite way. The PMHNP MSN and PMHNP DNP are simply missing, and a missing row is no substitute for a yes. The full set is on our licensure disclosure page.
| CUW program | Hawaii |
|---|---|
| Master of Science in Nursing - Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (FNP, AGPCNP) | 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 | Absent from the page |
| RN to BSN Online Nursing Program (BSN Comp) | Meets Requirements |
Hawaii's Board and schools without a Hawaii campus
Nursing oversight in Hawaii runs through the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, whose licensing division houses the Board of Nursing. The Board draws its lines by program level. State law, HRS 457-13(2), lets a student practice nursing unlicensed only as part of a program this Board has accredited. Its Education Committee took that literally in September 2016, when it agreed that a North Dakota BSN program had no route to Hawaii clinicals for a pre-license student.
Post-licensure study gets a lighter touch. In the Board's FAQ on distance post-licensure programs, which cites LPN-to-RN and RN-to-BSN study, a program lacking any Hawaii campus sits outside Board approval: nothing to apply for, nobody to notify. Its faculty must be licensed in Hawaii only while physically teaching or precepting on the islands. Graduate and APRN programs are never named in any of it, so ask CUW, in writing, about any Hawaii clinical for an NP course.
Full practice, island systems and a credit with limits
AANP rates Hawaii full practice. Close to a million people live in Urban Honolulu. The next population centers, far smaller, are the Kahului-Wailuku area of Maui and Hawaii Island's Hilo-Kailua area. For NP students the big names are Kaiser Permanente's Hawaii region, The Queen's Health Systems, Hawaii Pacific Health (Straub, Wilcox, Kapiolani and Pali Momi) and the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, known as HHSC.
Act 43 of 2018 created a state income tax credit for preceptors, and the Department of Health certifies each qualifying rotation. It is open to Hawaii residents in primary care practice: physicians, APRNs, pharmacists. The catch is on the student side, since the student's school needs Hawaii accreditation or a physical Hawaii presence, plus a student body that is majority Hawaii resident. A Wisconsin school fails that test, so CUW rotations earn no credit.
A Hawaii license, with no compact route
The Nurse Licensure Compact has no Hawaii membership, and NCSBN's map shows no bill pending to add it. A Wisconsin multistate license therefore stops at the Pacific; in Hawaii, only a license Hawaii issued lets you practice. No APRN Compact statute exists in Hawaii. What CUW itself expects of your RN license through the program, and how that meets the state where you train, is on CUW's license page.
What we do for nurses with Hawaii ties
Two groups get the most from this page. Hawaii RNs weighing a bachelor's can look closely at CUW's online RN to BSN, the one CUW program for working nurses whose table lists Hawaii as meeting, and the Board's FAQ describes no filing for post-licensure programs based elsewhere. Nurses leaving the islands for a state where their CUW NP program's row reads meets, such as Colorado or Nevada, both listed as meeting across every graduate table, can plan clinicals around the new address.
CUW has students secure their own preceptors, so for that second group, CUW students choose us because the search begins before the move: preceptors who suit your CUW courses, close to the new address, a complete, well-organized file for CUW's graduate faculty, and early notice of any contract a site needs. Send the details, program and timing, through the contact form.
Questions CUW students ask
Can a Hawaii RN take CUW's RN to BSN from home?
Hawaii is a Meets state for CUW's online bachelor's completion program. New students can start every eight weeks, and CUW expects you to keep working as an RN, since the program's clinical experience happens at your own job. Confirm current details with CUW admissions before applying.
Why does Hawaii meet for CUW's RN to BSN but not its NP programs?
CUW gives no reason for any row, and its nursing tables have no footnotes. Archived copies of the disclosure up to May 2024 showed Hawaii as meeting for the MSN and both DNP tables, beside an Undetermined column that has since disappeared. If the difference matters to your plans, ask CUW admissions for a written explanation.
Is a Hawaii RN license needed for clinical work on the islands?
Yes. Because Hawaii sits outside the compact, a multistate privilege from another state gives no standing there, and clinical practice calls for a license Hawaii issued. With CUW's NP answer already Does Not Meet, raise any Hawaii plan with the Graduate Clinical Coordinator first.
Can precepting a CUW student count toward Hawaii's preceptor credit?
Not under the published terms. The credit is reserved for rotations serving students of a program accredited in Hawaii or physically there, with a mostly Hawaii-resident student body. CUW is based in Wisconsin, so its rotations fall outside the credit even when the preceptor meets the residency and primary care conditions.
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
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