UC nursing clinicals in Colorado

Colorado on UC's program list

UC's state-authorization data leaves Colorado fully open. The only students who can't train there are those in tracks UC reserves for tri-state residents. Colorado also avoids the extra paperwork one neighbor triggers: a site across the northern line in Wyoming would bring in UC's Faculty Qualification Sheet, which goes to constateauth@uc.edu no later than a week before term.

Full practice with a mentorship condition

AANP counts Colorado as full practice, with one string attached: prescriptive authority requires an NP to attest to 750 hours of practice in a mentoring arrangement with a physician or an APRN. That condition is Colorado's. UC's requirements sit beside it rather than depending on it: a graduate degree, current certification, twelve months or more in the role and an unencumbered Colorado license, plus, on NP tracks, a fifth of your hours or more with a certified NP in your population.

PAs are in play here. UC's Clinical Planning page names Colorado among the states where it will review a physician assistant preceptor individually, with the PA's share of your hours kept limited. Midwifery students have a hard ceiling: 20 PA hours, only in ANW8006, and only once the program director agrees. PA preceptors at UC explains the review.

What the Colorado Board regulates

Rule 1.2 of 3 CCR 716-1, which governs program approval, defines a nursing education program as the basic course of study that prepares someone for initial RN or LPN licensure. It contains no step requiring an out-of-state graduate or post-licensure program to get the Colorado State Board of Nursing's approval, or even to tell the Board, before students start there. Check the Board's own website for newer guidance before you start.

You may also hear about Colorado's student permit. It's for people from out-of-state nontraditional pre-licensure programs without faculty-supervised clinicals, not RNs in NP programs.

Why the rural tax credit skips UC preceptors

Colorado's Rural and Frontier Health Care Preceptor Tax Credit goes to uncompensated preceptors working in rural and frontier shortage areas. HB22-1005 widened who can claim it to include RNs and other licensed clinicians in outpatient settings, raised the yearly cap on preceptors and extended it to tax years beginning before January 1, 2033. The same bill restricted the students involved to those enrolled in an accredited Colorado college or university, which leaves out anyone precepting a UC student.

UC doesn't pay preceptors. It offers continuing education webinars and recognition, including an APRN Preceptor Award for one out-of-region preceptor each year; precepting UC students has the details.

The Front Range, and a name to double-check

Denver-Aurora-Centennial is the state's giant, with roughly 3.09 million people in the 2025 Census estimates, far ahead of Colorado Springs (about 782,000), Greeley (about 378,000) and Fort Collins-Loveland (about 377,000). Denver Health, HCA HealthONE, Intermountain Health (which runs Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver), CommonSpirit Health's Colorado hospitals and UCHealth are the large systems: examples, not sites known to take UC students.

Don't mix up Colorado's UCHealth (uchealth.org) with UC Health in Cincinnati (uchealth.com). Nothing in our research connects them, and a Colorado site needs its own Educational Affiliation Agreement with UC before your hours count.

Your license, and why UC students choose us for Colorado

The current compact has been in effect in Colorado since January 19, 2018, so either a Colorado RN license or a multistate one lets you practice there, which is what UC's rule asks. The APRN Compact isn't in force. More at RN license for clinicals.

Colorado is a state where knowing UC's rules pays off. We search the Front Range and beyond for NPs and physicians, add PAs where UC might approve one, and keep your NP hours above UC's one-fifth line. A Colorado UCHealth clinic gets flagged as the out-of-state site it is, and we pitch preceptors on what UC does offer, CE webinars and awards. Your CSC gives the final approval, and the packet reaches them complete. Our process is on how it works.