How Indiana's APRN practice rules shape who precepts you
Indiana nurse practitioners who prescribe still need a signed, written collaborative agreement with a licensed practitioner in 2026. Bills to remove the requirement were filed in 2025 and 2026 and stalled after referral to committee. For IWU students training in Indiana, that rule shapes which NPs can model full prescribing for you and why a preceptor's collaborator matters.
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The short answer for 2026
Collaboration is still the law. IC 25-23-1-19.4, last changed in 2020, gives an Indiana APRN three bases for practice: a practice agreement with a licensed practitioner, hospital privileges spelling out how the two cooperate, coordinate and consult, or privileges at a state-operated hospital. For this purpose, a practitioner excludes other APRNs, physician assistants and veterinarians.
As of 2026, Indiana's Professional Licensing Agency (PLA) keeps the written agreement as a condition of prescriptive authority. A few national NP websites claim Indiana moved to full practice authority this year, a claim that the PLA's own page and the bill records found in our research do not bear out.
There is no standalone NP license in Indiana. What the PLA issues is an APRN Prescriptive Authority license, which it describes as permission to prescribe rather than a license to practice as an NP; an APRN who never prescribes works on the RN license alone. The Indiana guide covers the wider state picture.
What the written agreement covers
The rule at 848 IAC 5-1-1 lists what a collaborative practice agreement must contain.
- Names of the APRN and the practitioner, with each one's Indiana license number and practice sites
- Each party's certifications and the way they will collaborate
- The method for reviewing the APRN's prescribing, with records going to the practitioner inside 7 days and a random sample covering no less than 5% of charts and medications
- Any other agreements each party holds
- The agreement's duration and both signatures
Agreements are filed and changed online in MyLicense One, and the PLA offers a standard agreement with e-signature. If no agreement is active, the PLA moves the APRN license and controlled substance registrations to Current/Not Practicing, and prescribing stops until a new agreement is on file. The PLA also audits between 1% and 10% of agreements every two years; its January 2026 audit covered the license period ending October 31, 2025. Under IC 25-23-1-19.6(c), prescribing is limited to the APRN's scope and the scope of the collaborating practitioner.
The bills that stalled
Four bills since 2025 have tried to move Indiana's collaboration rule, in both directions. Only the introduced version of each was found on the General Assembly's site, and a January 2026 update from the Indiana Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists listed co-author changes but no hearings.
| Bill | What it proposed | Status found |
|---|---|---|
| HB 1116 (2025) | Remove the collaborating-physician agreement and the audit provisions | Referred to Public Health, January 8, 2025 |
| SB 246 (2025) | Tighten collaboration: same-specialty collaborators and a cap of four APRNs per physician at a time | Referred to committee, January 9, 2025 |
| SB 60 (2026) | Remove the practice-agreement, hospital-privilege and audit requirements from July 1, 2026 | Referred to Health and Provider Services, December 8, 2025 |
| HB 1129 (2026) | Same as SB 60 | Referred to Public Health, January 5, 2026 |
How the rule shapes who precepts you
For an IWU NP student, the collaboration rule matters in three practical ways.
- Scope follows the collaborator. An Indiana NP's prescribing reaches only as far as their own scope and their collaborating practitioner's. An FNP student gains most from an NP whose collaborator practices primary care; a PMHNP student needs one whose collaboration covers psychiatric care.
- Active status matters. An NP whose agreement has lapsed shows as Current/Not Practicing for prescribing, which limits what you can learn about prescribing at that site.
- Physicians precept too. Indiana collaborators are licensed practitioners other than APRNs and PAs, and a collaborating physician can be a strong preceptor. Whether IWU accepts a given credential for your course is set in its NP Clinical Guidelines, not on its public pages.
The preceptor requirements page explains what IWU publishes about preceptor qualifications and where the rest lives.
Licenses: your preceptor's and yours
No Indiana rule requiring Indiana-licensed preceptors for NP students was found in our research, in statute or in the administrative code. Even so, a clinician seeing patients in Indiana has to be authorized there already, whether by a compact or Indiana RN license, by prescriptive authority tied to a collaborative agreement or by an Indiana medical license. That comes from the practice rules themselves rather than from any preceptor rule.
Nor did our research find any Indiana requirement for out-of-state graduate programs to seek approval before placing students in the state, which fits the Board of Nursing's statement that graduate nursing programs sit outside its review. Your own license requirement comes from IWU: an active, unencumbered RN license where each practicum site is located, which for Indiana means an Indiana RN or a multistate compact license.
Indiana's rule on qualifying education (848 IAC 4-1-6) calls for supervised clinical practice in the specialty role but sets no minimum hour count, so your hour targets come from IWU. The clinical hours page lists them by program.
How we use this when we match you
Every Indiana preceptor we propose is checked against these rules before you see the name. We confirm the preceptor's active license and, for NPs, prescriptive-authority status, and we look at whether the collaborating practitioner's field fits your course. That information goes into the file you submit, so IWU's review starts from a clear picture.
It is one more reason IWU students choose a service that knows both IWU's process and Indiana's practice law. Outside Indiana, we apply the same care to the rules of the state where you train. The Indiana preceptors page covers how health systems take students, and the form on this page starts your search.
Questions IWU students ask
Does Indiana have full practice authority for nurse practitioners in 2026?
No. Prescribing APRNs in Indiana must still file a written collaborative practice agreement with the PLA in 2026. Bills to remove the requirement, HB 1116 in 2025 and SB 60 and HB 1129 in 2026, were referred to committee, and only their introduced versions were found. Claims of full practice authority on some national sites are not supported by the PLA page.
Can an NP precept me if their collaborating physician works in a different specialty?
Possibly, but check the fit. An Indiana NP's prescribing is limited to their own scope and their collaborator's, so a mismatch can narrow what you see in clinic. IWU sets its preceptor and setting expectations in the NP Clinical Guidelines; confirm with your program faculty before submitting a preceptor whose collaboration sits outside your course's focus.
Must my Indiana preceptor hold an Indiana license?
No Indiana rule was found that says so for NP students' preceptors. Practicing there still takes Indiana authority of some kind: an RN license from Indiana or a compact state, prescriptive authority backed by a collaborator, or a physician license issued by Indiana. IWU may set its own credential expectations in its NP Clinical Guidelines.
What will I need to prescribe in Indiana after I finish at IWU?
The PLA's path is: hold an active Indiana RN or multistate compact RN license, earn national certification, apply for prescriptive authority in MyLicense One with transcripts, a background check and license verifications, file a written collaborative practice agreement with an Indiana-licensed practitioner, then apply for an Indiana Controlled Substance Registration.
Does Indiana set a minimum number of NP clinical hours?
No. Indiana's rule requires supervised clinical practice in the specialty role as part of qualifying education but names no hour count. IWU sets its own totals, such as 850 practicum hours for the MSN FNP and 820 for the MSN PMHNP in the 2026-27 catalog, and some IWU web pages show different figures.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-24
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