Delaware residents and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Living in Delaware still leaves one UL Lafayette door wide open: the post-MSN DNP, whose residency can be done in Delaware inside the specialty you practice. Delaware residents are not being accepted into the three nurse practitioner tracks (FNP, PMHNP, PMHNP certificate), since those keep all clinical work in Louisiana. Delaware also has an unusually detailed notice rule for outside schools, covered below.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UL Lafayette program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UL Lafayette course.
Delaware gets one yes from UL Lafayette, for the DNP
Each UL Lafayette online program keeps its own list on the state authorization page. Delaware's entries in September 2026:
| Program | Delaware status | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Post-MSN DNP | Accepted | Residency can take place in Delaware |
| MSN FNP and MSN PMHNP | Not accepting (no determination made) | Clinical rotations happen in Louisiana |
| PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate | Not accepting | Needs Louisiana RN and APRN licenses |
| MSN in Nursing Education | Not on its eight-state list | Delaware is not named |
Delaware's filing for schools based elsewhere
Delaware wants to hear from an out-of-state program before the first student walks into any clinical facility in the state. 24 Del. Admin. Code 1900 spells out that notice to the Board of Nursing and the packet that travels with it:
- approval evidence, whether a home-state board's or a national accreditor's
- the written contracts with clinical agencies, all of them, in copy
- the program's qualifications for clinical faculty and for preceptors
- a list pairing each faculty member and preceptor with the site assigned
- copies of those people's current licenses, Delaware or multistate
Facilities need their own green light too: the board approves each one from school-submitted forms before any student is placed, and its representatives may visit. The text applies to nursing education programs across the board, graduate ones included, so a post-MSN residency may be covered. Whether UL Lafayette has made a Delaware filing is outside what research checked; bring the question to the DNP Coordinator, and to the board, while you are still comparing sites.
Delaware's compacts, practice rules and preceptor standard
Delaware licenses nurses through its Division of Professional Regulation, where the Board of Nursing sits. Multistate RN licensing arrived there in January 2018. The APRN Compact came next: Delaware signed on in August 2021, and with five states enacted and seven required, the compact is still waiting to operate. AANP files Delaware under full practice.
Delaware's definition of preceptor is brief: a licensed nurse whose education reaches at least a BSN. When a faculty member from an online program precepts or instructs inside a Delaware facility, that person needs licensure or privileges at the student's intended level or higher.
Care from Wilmington to Dover and Seaford
Roughly 588,000 Delaware residents fall inside the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro, and most of the remainder lives in the Dover metro or around Seaford, a micropolitan area. Bayhealth, Beebe Healthcare and ChristianaCare rank among the larger systems, and Wilmington is where Nemours Children's Health keeps its Delaware hospital. We mention them to map the state, not as UL Lafayette clinical sites. Research found no Delaware preceptor incentive.
Four steps toward a Delaware-based residency
- Confirm and applyLook for Delaware on the live authorization page, then send your application in before May 1; cohorts start in the Fall.
- Match the site to your specialtyResidency I to III (
NURS 821toNURS 823) add up to 420 hours inside your own specialty area, a slice of the 1,000 post-baccalaureate practice hours. - Start the Delaware paperwork earlyIf the board's notice and facility approval apply, they come before your first residency hour, so bring them up with the DNP Coordinator as soon as a site is chosen.
- Plan the Lafayette visitsAttend the DNP Orientation Intensive on campus at the start and present the Synthesis Project there at the end.
More in the DNP guide and the residency guide.
The Delaware notice packet, assembled by our desk
However UL Lafayette handles residency arrangements, our desk secures a Delaware or Louisiana site, plus an agency mentor, that fit its rules. For a Delaware site we gather what the board's notice lists, including each mentor's Delaware or multistate license and site assignment, so what reaches UL Lafayette is complete. A backup site stays ready throughout. Ask about a Delaware residency.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
Could I start the PMHNP while still living in Delaware?
Not at present. Delaware is on UL Lafayette's not-accepting list for all three NP tracks, and each keeps its rotations inside Louisiana, where a Louisiana RN license is required. A nurse planning a move can read the Louisiana guide for how those tracks work there.
Can a Delaware APRN license be used in other states yet?
Not yet. Five states, Delaware among them since 2021, have enacted the APRN Compact, and nothing happens under it until a seventh does. Until then, APRN authority from Delaware stops at the state line. Your RN license is another matter: a Delaware multistate RN license already reaches other compact states, Louisiana included.
Who counts as a preceptor under Delaware's rules?
Delaware's standards call any licensed nurse with a BSN or more a preceptor, and an online program's faculty working in a Delaware facility need licensure or privileges at or beyond the student's target level. UL Lafayette adds its own piece: an approved mentor from your project agency on the Synthesis Project committee.
How often would I travel to Lafayette?
Twice. The DNP opens with the DNP Orientation Intensive on campus and closes with your Synthesis Project presentation there. Courses are online in Fall and Spring, and residency hours can stay in Delaware once your site and mentor are confirmed with the DNP Coordinator.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UL Lafayette's 2026-27 catalog, its online program and state authorization pages, the ICMSN student handbook and Louisiana's nursing rules. Your course faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
Whether UL Lafayette helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your UL Lafayette program, the practicum coming up and the Louisiana town you train near. We look for preceptors and sites that fit the course and gather the license, CV and agency details that must be on file before your first clinical day.
- Preceptors who meet Louisiana's rules: an active Louisiana license, most hours with an APRN in your population focus
- The preceptor's CV, the agency details and your letter of agreement items gathered early
- Across Acadiana and the rest of Louisiana, plus DNP residencies in your home state
Start your placement plan
Your program, your town and your next clinical semester is all we need to begin.