Drug screening at NSU's College of Nursing
NSU lists two vendors for nursing drug screens, NMS Management Services and DISA CastleBranch. The College of Nursing has a zero tolerance policy that reaches medical marijuana and marijuana-derived CBD, and a result may be disclosed to the Intervention Project for Nurses (IPN) or the Board of Nursing. Time each screen so the result is back before your clinical site's deadline.
Get your site's screening window early
Tell us your NSU program, ZIP area and clinical start term.
Who runs NSU's drug screens
ACON's Health and Safety Requirements page names the vendors in one sentence: "drug-screening services are available through NMS Management Services, Inc., or CastleBranch." The page covers APRN, Accelerated BSN and Entry BSN students, the same groups whose immunization records go to DISA CastleBranch.
ACON's Office of Student Affairs handles drug-screen requirements along with health and background items, so it is the office to ask which vendor suits your program, when your screen is due and how the result reaches the college. NSU's public page gives no single screening date for every student, so get yours from your program or from Student Affairs.
Choosing CastleBranch keeps the screen with the vendor that already holds your immunization records and processes your background check, which means one account to watch. NSU's wording allows NMS just as well. Either way, keep your own copy of the result, since a clinical site may ask to see it during onboarding.
Zero tolerance, medical marijuana included
The policy sits in ACON's section of the Nursing Student Handbook (printed page 128), and it opens without qualification: "The ACON has a zero tolerance policy for drug use." It then closes the gap many students ask about, stating that "the ACON's prohibition on illegal drug use extends to medical marijuana," and it applies the same prohibition to marijuana-derived CBD.
Florida runs a medical marijuana program, and a student may hold a card lawfully under state law. ACON's policy does not turn on that. For a nursing student at NSU, a recommendation that is legal under Florida law still falls inside the college's prohibition, and the same reading applies to a card issued by another state.
Graduate students deserve a special word here. MSN and DNP students are licensed RNs, often with an employer's drug policy they know well. The college's policy is separate from the employer's and can be stricter, so read ACON's text against your own situation rather than assuming your workplace rules carry over.
CBD products and what a screen detects
Because the policy names marijuana-derived CBD, where a product comes from matters. Labels do not always show the source clearly, and some CBD products contain THC. A laboratory screen measures what is in the sample and has no way to read the label on the bottle.
The cautious reading of the policy is to avoid CBD products while you are enrolled, or at the very least to ask ACON's Office of Student Affairs before using anything whose source you cannot confirm. Asking takes one email. A positive result can reach well beyond one course, as the next section explains.
Prescribed medicines raise a different question from CBD. If you take a prescription that could appear on a screen, ask the vendor or Student Affairs how prescriptions are handled before you test, and keep the prescription details ready so any follow-up is quick.
What a positive result can lead to
The handbook says results may be disclosed to the "Intervention Project for Nurses (IPN) or the Board of Nursing." IPN is Florida's monitoring program for nurses with impairment concerns, and the Board of Nursing is the body that licenses you. For an APRN student who already holds an RN license, a drug-screen problem is a license matter as well as a school matter.
Inside the college, clinical conduct has its own rule. The handbook's client-safety language (printed page 114) removes a student from the clinical area when safe, consistent care is in doubt, and it allows a referral to NSU's Committee on Student Progress, the CSP. Our CSP and CWAC appeals page explains what a referral involves.
The handbook's drug policy page is the place to read the full testing and reporting steps, including any testing during the program beyond a scheduled screen. Read it once in full before your first clinical course instead of relying on a summary, this one included.
Planning screens around a site's deadline
A clinical site can list its own drug screen among its onboarding requirements, sometimes with a window that makes an older result unusable. NSU's rule on facility requirements applies here as it does to vaccines and background checks: a screen the site needs but does not have by the first scheduled day ends the placement. Plan each screen backward from the start date.
- Ask the site when you are matchedFind out whether it needs a screen of its own, which vendors it accepts and how recent the result must be.
- Count back from the first clinical dayMark the earliest date a result will count and the last date the site must have it.
- Collect early in that windowLaboratory results can take several days, longer when a sample needs review, so stay clear of the final week.
- Send the result where the site wants itUpload it to the site's portal or send it to the contact the site names, and keep your own copy.
- Keep NSU in the loopIf a site's timing affects your NSU screen, tell Student Affairs so both records line up.
For everything else a site may put on its onboarding list, see clinical site requirements; for the record NSU itself keeps, see DISA CastleBranch.
Why NSU students plan screens with us
Each site we match you with comes with its screening rules: whether it takes the screen on file with NSU, which vendor it wants and how recent the result has to be. You get those answers when the preceptor agrees, two semesters ahead of the course, instead of in its first week, when a late result can cost you clinical days.
Your placement advisor fits the collection date into one plan with the site's other onboarding items, so the screen, the immunization records and the background clearance all land before day one. Preceptor credentials and site details reach your clinical coordinator complete, and if a site falls through, we find the next one. The how it works page walks through each step, and the form below starts your plan.
Questions NSU students ask
Can NSU nursing students use medical marijuana with a card?
Not under ACON's policy. The Nursing Student Handbook states that the college's prohibition on illegal drug use extends to medical marijuana, so a Florida card, or one from another state, does not make use acceptable for an NSU nursing student. If you hold a card, read the drug policy on printed page 128 and speak with Student Affairs before any screen.
Is CBD allowed for NSU nursing students?
Marijuana-derived CBD is covered by ACON's zero tolerance policy, alongside medical marijuana. Because packaging often leaves the source and THC content unclear, the careful choice is to stop using CBD while enrolled and to put any question about a specific product to ACON's Office of Student Affairs before a screen, not after one.
Which drug screening company does NSU use for nursing students?
NSU's Health and Safety Requirements page names two: NMS Management Services, Inc., and CastleBranch. Ask ACON's Office of Student Affairs which one your program expects and when your screen is due. A clinical site may name its own vendor for a site-required screen, so ask the site as well.
Can a failed drug screen be reported to the Board of Nursing?
Yes. The handbook says results may be disclosed to the Intervention Project for Nurses (IPN) or the Board of Nursing. For graduate students who already hold an RN license, that makes a screen result a professional licensing matter as well as an academic one, which is why the policy deserves a careful read before your first screen.
How far ahead should I schedule a drug screen for a clinical site?
Work from the site's own rule. Ask how recent the result must be and when the site needs it, then book the collection early in that window so a delayed result still arrives in time. Under NSU's rule, a facility item still outstanding on the first scheduled day ends the placement, so leave a margin.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against NSU's own handbook, catalog and program pages. The graduate clinical guide, your course in Canvas, your clinical coordinator and your program director have the final word.
NSU lets you name your own preceptor. We make sure you have one, close to home and in time.
Tell us your NSU program, your home ZIP area and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors who fit the course and have everything ready for your clinical coordinator well before the two-semester notice.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP, acute care for AGACNP, psychiatric care for PMHNP, a practice site for DNP project hours
- Named early enough for NSU's two-semester notice, with license, credentials and site details ready for the coordinator
- Close to your home ZIP code, with clinic days we plan around your work schedule
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