Studying with ETSU from Colorado
Colorado is absent from every East Tennessee State University (ETSU) list of states where its graduate nursing programs qualify. The College of Nursing has made no Colorado determination, and the university's consumer tables go further, judging the MSN and DNP short of what Colorado requires for licensure. This page is for Coloradans checking before they apply, and for enrolled students who relocate to Colorado or train there with ETSU's approval.
Headed to Colorado?
Tell us your city, your ETSU program and your next practicum. We check Colorado's rules and your license first.
What ETSU says about Colorado
| ETSU page | Program | Result for Colorado |
|---|---|---|
| College of Nursing MSN page (September 2025) | BSN and MSN | Not yet determined |
| College of Nursing DNP page (April 2026) | ETSU DNP and joint DNP | Not yet determined |
| University consumer information (June 2025) | MSN and DNP | Does not meet |
| University consumer information (July 2024) | Joint DNP | Not determined |
| University consumer information (June 2025) | BSN | Meets |
For graduate programs the two offices point the same way without matching: one has made no finding, the other has found the MSN and DNP short of Colorado's licensure requirements. The joint DNP stays open on both pages. The BSN is the odd one out, meets on the university table and undetermined on the College page. See how every state compares on ETSU's licensure disclosures.
Colorado's board and graduate students from other states
Colorado's nursing board is part of the state's regulatory agency, DORA. When its rules (3 CCR 716-1, Rule 1.2) talk about approving a nursing education program, they mean the basic prelicensure kind that prepares someone for a first RN or LPN license.
That rule contains no step for graduate or RN to BSN programs based elsewhere, neither an approval nor a notice, before their students train in Colorado. Our research could read the rule but not the board's site, so any extra board guidance is unverified. Ask the board by email and keep the reply with your placement file.
ETSU applies its own test regardless: a placement outside Tennessee depends on approval by the appropriate regulators and is reviewed case by case after admission, as described on clinicals outside Tennessee.
Practice, preceptors and Front Range searches
Colorado earns a full practice rating from AANP, with one prescribing condition: an NP must attest to 750 hours of mentored experience, under an agreement with a physician or APRN mentor, before gaining prescriptive authority. Seasoned Colorado NPs can precept ETSU NP courses on their own, and physicians are an option too.
Most students search along the Front Range, where the Denver metro passes three million residents and the Springs, Fort Collins and Greeley add more. Along the Front Range, UCHealth, Denver Health and HealthONE are familiar names, as are Intermountain's Saint Joseph Hospital and the CommonSpirit hospitals found on centura.org. These describe the landscape rather than sites that accept ETSU students.
Colorado also offers a state income tax credit to unpaid preceptors working in rural and frontier shortage areas. A 2022 law, HB22-1005, widened the preceptor side to outpatient RNs and others but narrowed the student side to learners at accredited Colorado schools, which puts an ETSU rotation outside it.
Your license for Colorado clinicals
Colorado belongs to the Nurse Licensure Compact, implemented there in January 2018. That lets a multistate license from Tennessee or another compact state carry an RN practice privilege into Colorado, which satisfies ETSU's MSN rule and the DNP's requirement of a Tennessee or compact-state license.
If you move to Colorado for good, check with the Colorado board on when your license must move with you. The APRN Compact is not enacted in Colorado. More on the RN license ETSU requires.
Applying from Colorado, or moving there mid-program
Coloradans considering ETSU should raise the does-not-meet finding with the College and the Colorado board before applying, since it bears on the Colorado NP license you would want later. Enrolled students relocating to Denver, Colorado Springs or Fort Collins may continue only if the Colorado board allows it, and must inform the College and the records office. The full checklist is on moving during your program.
Why ETSU students in Colorado choose us
A Colorado placement for an ETSU student is built on the details, and details are where we excel. We verify your license path, look across your part of Colorado for a clinician whose caseload suits your ETSU course, pull together the credentials, license numbers and expiry dates ETSU's forms ask about, and name the contract step to the College at the start.
ETSU's faculty and its student services office each make their call on a file we have already checked against ETSU's rules. Share your plans through the contact form.
Questions ETSU students ask
Would an ETSU MSN lead to NP licensure in Colorado?
ETSU itself doubts it. Its university MSN disclosure, with a June 2025 table, puts Colorado in the does-not-meet column, and the College's MSN page from September 2025 has not ruled either way. Take both to the Colorado State Board of Nursing before enrolling, since the board, not ETSU, decides licensure.
Does Colorado require ETSU to get board approval before my clinicals?
The board's rule on program approval covers only basic prelicensure programs and says nothing about graduate programs from other states. Board guidance beyond that rule could not be checked, so confirm with the board. ETSU's own case-by-case approval of out-of-state placements applies either way.
Would precepting me qualify a Colorado clinician for the rural preceptor credit?
No. Under HB22-1005, a qualifying rotation must serve a student of an accredited Colorado college or university. An ETSU student is enrolled in Tennessee, so precepting you does not count toward it, even in a rural or frontier area.
What about the ETSU-TTU joint DNP in Colorado?
Neither ETSU source has decided. Colorado is on the College's not-yet-determined list for both DNPs, and the joint program's own consumer disclosure, dated July 2024, is equally undecided. Ask the College of Nursing, which offers the joint DNP together with TTU, before you plan a Colorado residency.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against ETSU's own catalog, College of Nursing pages, plans of study and ProjectConcert guides. Your plan of study, your syllabus, your course faculty and the graduate clinical coordinator have the final word.
ETSU asks you to lead the preceptor search. We make it the fastest part of your program.
Tell us your ETSU concentration, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who fit the course's patient population and prepare everything your Preceptor Intent Form and ProjectConcert entry need.
- Preceptors matched to the course: young and middle adults for
NRSE 5012, older adults forNRSE 5014, women forNRSE 5022, children forNRSE 5024, psychiatric care forNRSE 5405 - Credentials, license numbers, certification dates and the site's patient mix ready for faculty approval
- In your own community, in Northeast Tennessee or wherever ETSU approves your clinicals
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