South Carolina NP practice: agreements, the student exemption and your preceptor

The practice agreement behind every South Carolina NP

Section 40-33-34(C) of South Carolina's Nurse Practice Act requires each licensed NP, certified nurse-midwife or clinical nurse specialist to show evidence of a practice agreement. Section 40-33-20 describes that agreement as a written document the NP develops with a physician, or with medical staff, who commits to working alongside and supporting the NP.

The agreement is where the medical side of the NP's work is set out, and the definition names prescribing as part of it. So when you train with a South Carolina NP, the boundaries of what your preceptor orders and prescribes trace back to a signed document with a physician partner.

Georgia reaches a similar result by another path, delegated acts under a nurse protocol, and both states land in AANP's restricted group. The Georgia practice guide covers the Georgia side of the river.

The student exemption in 40-33-30(D)(4)

South Carolina's act lists activities it may not be read to prohibit, and one of them covers students practicing nursing while enrolled in a nurse education program the state treats as approved. That clause is what lets a student carry out clinical work that would otherwise call for a license the student does not yet hold.

The statute is silent on whether a post-licensure program based in another state, an Augusta University DNP track for instance, qualifies as approved here. South Carolina law as checked in September 2026 also has no provision on students working under a preceptor's practice agreement. Those are open questions, not settled answers, and your course faculty are the right people to confirm how the College of Nursing handles them.

Your RN license still matters. At entry, Augusta University requires an RN license from Georgia or a multistate license, and South Carolina put the Nurse Licensure Compact into effect alongside Georgia in January 2018. The RN license guide covers which license works where.

What it means for South Carolina preceptors

For an NP in North Augusta, Aiken, Columbia or Greenville weighing an Augusta University student, the state adds no separate precepting credential: no South Carolina rule specific to NP preceptor licensure was found. The preceptor keeps practicing under their own license and practice agreement, and the practice's own policies shape what a student does from day to day.

Augusta University adds its own layer. Because instructors travel to see each NP student along with the preceptor and the practice, the program limits residence to Georgia and South Carolina, and a South Carolina preceptor should expect a faculty visit; the site visits guide explains how to prepare. Augusta University does not publish NP preceptor qualifications, so course faculty confirm them.

Health systems add a third. Prisma Health's graduate nursing page, seen in an archived copy from August 2025, names as acceptable NP preceptors Prisma NPs who have held an APRN license for at least two years with supervisor approval, or physicians, with PAs used for pediatrics only; the same page limits eligibility to Prisma team members with at least a year of employment and Clemson or University of South Carolina graduate nursing students, and says new school agreements are considered only for a specific workforce need.

AnMed's NP placement page, in an archived copy, considers only AnMed employees and students of Anderson University and Clemson University. Preceptors can read more on our page for preceptors.