The Georgia Board of Nursing and your Augusta University clinicals

What the Board regulates, and what it does not

The Georgia Board of Nursing operates within the Georgia Secretary of State's office. Its nursing education page says the Board approves and regulates every prelicensure nursing program in Georgia while post-licensure programs, APRN programs among them, fall outside its approval and oversight.

For Augusta University that splits the College of Nursing in two. The BSN and the MSN Clinical Nurse Leader are prelicensure programs that Augusta University describes as Board-approved. The four DNP nurse practitioner tracks and the post-graduate certificates are post-licensure, so their outside review comes from CCNE accreditation rather than the Board; the accreditation guide lists the dates.

None of this means the Board is absent from your NP clinicals. It licenses every nurse involved, grants APRN authorization, and publishes three sentences on post-licensure clinicals that apply directly to you and your preceptor.

Faculty and preceptors: the same license test, in person or online

The second sentence turns the same test on the people teaching you. Anyone serving as your faculty member or preceptor in the state is held to the identical standard, a Georgia license or a compact multistate license, and the Board says this applies whether the person is physically in Georgia or teaching by electronic means.

That has two practical effects. Someone licensed solely in a non-compact state has to add a Georgia license before teaching your Georgia hours. And a telehealth arrangement in which someone outside Georgia supervises you with Georgia patients falls under the same rule.

Augusta University's NP students reside in Georgia or South Carolina partly so instructors can come see you, your preceptor and the practice where you train. The residence rule guide explains what that means if you move.

Board rules written for prelicensure programs

Chapter 410-8 carries the Board's preceptor rules for the programs it approves, which at Augusta University means the BSN and the MSN Clinical Nurse Leader. Under Rule 410-8-.06, the designated faculty member and the RN responsible for nursing care at the site select the preceptor together; the preceptor holds a current RN license, plus APRN authorization where relevant, and takes on two students at most at any one time.

Clinical Nurse Leader students meet these rules in NURS 7801, the 420-hour immersion in which they work with nurse preceptors; see the Clinical Nurse Leader guide. Because the Board does not regulate APRN programs, the joint selection and the two-student cap do not bind the DNP nurse practitioner courses, though an individual site may set limits of its own.

How these rules shape your preceptor search

Whichever way your clinical site comes together, the Board's three sentences give a fixed test for any Georgia preceptor. We confirm Georgia APRN authorization and a Georgia or multistate RN license before a name ever reaches you, check that the practice sits in the state where your hours will be logged, and flag telehealth or cross-border arrangements that need a second look.

The Board's rules are the floor, not the whole picture. We also match the practice's patients to your course, whether that is older adults and families in NURS 8318 or pediatric primary care in NURS 8322, and read the health system's own student rules before anyone is contacted.

From there the documents your instructors and the practice will want are assembled early, and we stay reachable if anything shifts mid-term. The steps are in how it works; share your course details when you are ready.