Lining up a mentor, a site, and a project in Kansas
Excelsior does not assign you a mentor or a practice-experience site, so a Kansas student starts from a blank page. Here is how licensed RNs across the state put together a mentor, a host agency, and a project faculty will approve.
The three pieces you bring yourself
Excelsior states that no clinical instruction is provided in any School of Nursing program. The university teaches the coursework and approves your plan; everything outside the classroom is yours to arrange. Three pieces have to come together before a capstone term starts.
What you source, what faculty only approves
- A mentor. A volunteer holding a master's degree or higher with real expertise in your specialization. You nominate, faculty approves or declines. Faculty does not go find one. How the search works.
- A site. The Kansas hospital, school, clinic, or agency willing to host, plus the affiliation agreement its legal office wants on file with Excelsior.
- A project. An independent capstone the site will host and faculty will sign off on. How those get scoped.
Your RN license and the Kansas State Board of Nursing
You are already a licensed RN, so the regulator that matters here is the board holding your license. In Kansas that is the Kansas State Board of Nursing, based in the Landon State Office Building in Topeka, which publishes licensing, renewal, and verification at ksbn.kansas.gov.
Two board functions surface during placement. Verification: KSBN runs an online, real-time license lookup searchable by name or license number, and that is what a hospital education office or a school district will use before anyone signs. Renewal: Kansas RN licenses run on a two-year cycle tied to your birth month, with continuing education required for the period, handled through the board's online portal. If your license lapses mid-term, the site's compliance office will catch it.
Kansas implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact on July 1, 2019. A nurse whose primary residence is Kansas can hold a multistate license, and a nurse from another compact state can practice here without a second Kansas license. Hours are not employment, though, and a host can set a credentialing bar above what the compact requires, so get its requirements in writing. Doing hours across state lines? See out-of-state practice experience.
Where Kansas mentors actually work
A qualifying mentor is a master's-prepared person whose expertise matches your specialization, and that pool is wider than most students assume. A practice experience is not a clinical rotation and it is not direct patient care at the graduate level, which is exactly why doors open here that stay shut for a bedside request. If that is new, read mentor versus preceptor and how the two differ.
Where to look, by track
- Education. Clinical education and professional development departments at The University of Kansas Health System, Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Healthcare in Wichita, Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, Salina Regional Health Center, and LMH Health in Lawrence. Also faculty at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, Wichita State, Washburn, Fort Hays State, Pittsburg State, Newman University, and Johnson County Community College. More.
- Informatics. Clinical informatics and analytics teams inside the larger systems, plus health technology employers around the Kansas City metro, including Netsmart in Overland Park. Do not skip small hospitals: a rural facility often has one nurse who owns the record build, and that person can be the best mentor in the state for a focused project. More.
- Leadership. Nurse managers, directors, quality and accreditation coordinators, and chief nursing officers, including at critical access hospitals across western and central Kansas where one leader carries several portfolios and will make time. More.
The pool most students skip
Kansas keeps a deep bench of master's-prepared nurses outside hospitals. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka and county agencies including Sedgwick County, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, the Unified Government Public Health Department in Wyandotte County, Shawnee County, Lawrence-Douglas County, and Riley County run population health, program evaluation, and data work that maps cleanly onto any of the three tracks.
Federal options exist too, among them the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System in Topeka and Leavenworth and the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita, though their approval timelines run longer. School districts, community health centers, and long-term care organizations round out the list and are often quicker to say yes.
Agreements, compliance, and Kansas timelines
The mentor conversation and the site conversation are usually the same one, because the mentor's employer is normally the host. What differs is who signs. Your mentor agrees as a person; the organization agrees through a legal or education office that wants an affiliation agreement with Excelsior on file first.
Size drives timing. Large systems in Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka have standing placement processes, which is both a benefit and a queue. Independent hospitals, county health departments, and community clinics often move in weeks. Either way, open the paperwork a full term early and skim the agreement page so you can answer the site's first questions.
Expect a compliance packet. Excelsior uses CastleBranch, and a host may add its own layer: immunizations, tuberculosis screening, background check, drug screen, HIPAA modules, sometimes proof of coverage. Ask for the list in writing, then work it against CastleBranch compliance and student liability insurance.
Hours, remote work, and help
Each MSN capstone carries 135 practice-experience hours, whether your specialization is nursing education, nursing informatics, or nursing leadership and administration. The RN-to-BS in Nursing carries roughly 90 hours across two courses. Practice-experience hours breaks it down by course, and RN-to-BS students should also read the RN-to-BS page.
Fair question in a state this spread out: can any of it be remote. Much indirect-care work genuinely can be, including curriculum development, workflow analysis, and quality or policy projects. Whether your hours count that way is decided by the host site and your Excelsior faculty, and neither answer is ours to give. Confirm it in writing beforehand rather than asking permission afterward, especially if you are in Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, or Hays and the nearest large system is a two-hour drive.
If the search has stalled, this is what we do: source the mentor and the site, run the outreach, chase the agreement, and hand you a match instead of a list. Pricing is on cost, the process on how it works, and you can get matched in a few minutes. If a mentor just backed out, start at replacing a mentor.
Answered
Does Excelsior assign me a mentor in Kansas?
No. Excelsior states that no clinical instruction is provided in any School of Nursing program. You identify a master's-prepared person with expertise in your specialization and submit that nominee for approval. Faculty approves or declines. It keeps no Kansas placement list and does no outreach for you.
Can I do my practice experience where I already work?
Often yes, and in Kansas it is usually the fastest route because the organization already holds your file. Two questions decide it: whether your direct supervisor can serve as the approved mentor, and whether the project is genuinely distinct from your job duties. Both are faculty calls.
I hold a multistate license from another compact state. Do I need a Kansas license?
Kansas implemented the compact on July 1, 2019, so a multistate license from another compact state is generally recognized for practice here. Hours are not employment, though, and the host agency sets its own credentialing conditions. Confirm your status at nursecompact.com and the site's list in writing.
How many hours should I plan for?
135 for each MSN capstone in education, informatics, or leadership and administration, and roughly 90 for the RN-to-BS across two courses. Build in extra calendar time rather than extra hours. Agreements and compliance, not the hours themselves, are what usually push a start date.
How far ahead should a Kansas student start looking?
One full term is a sensible floor, two if you are targeting a large system in Kansas City, Wichita, or Topeka, or any federal facility, where review queues run long. County agencies and rural hospitals can move in weeks.
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