Can't find a preceptor for your Loyola University New Orleans practicum?

Updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Loyola Preceptor placement team

Loyola University New Orleans expects its nurse practitioner and DNP students to choose their own preceptor and practicum site, so a search that goes quiet halts the practicum before it begins. Most stalled searches restart once they aim at the right patient population, site and paperwork, with Loyola's own rules as the checklist.

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Tell us your Loyola program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Loyola course.

2,080hours of practice, more than a year, that Loyola asks of an NP-track preceptor

3months: the lead time Loyola gives for the placement process

Numbered steps. Restart from the course, not the contact list: 1 Name the population; 2 Look first at sites Loyola already knows; 3 Widen the circle; 4 Use every channel the guide lists; 5 Arrive prepared. — Restart from the course, not the contact list: 1 Name the population; 2 Look first at sites Loyola already knows; 3 Widen the circle; 4 Use every channel the guide lists; 5 Arrive prepared.

Why the search sits with you

Loyola's documents put the search in the student's hands. In the FNP practicum letter, getting ready for a practicum means choosing your own preceptor and site; the 2026-27 bulletin places practicums with preceptors in the areas where students live; and under the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement, reaching out to a facility preceptor is the student's job. Project students hear the same message, since the letter on DNP practicum requirements tells them to pick their own sites.

What Loyola supplies is the structure around your search. The Clinical Practicum Coordinator keeps track of placement needs, secures affiliation agreements, monitors compliance and assists with Exxat uploads. Sites are assigned in Nurse Anesthesia and in both bachelor's programs. For Nurse-Midwifery, the program's handbook describes placements as provided, while the bulletin's certificate entry points to home-area preceptors, a conflict worth raising with the midwifery Program Director. Each program's rule is on the finding your own preceptor guide.

Six reasons a Loyola search stalls

Waiting on one person. The FNP guide tells students to pursue several sites rather than one preceptor, and the DNP letter asks for more than one preceptor option.
A preceptor who misses Loyola's baseline. NP preceptors must be board certified, physicians need an MD or DO plus specialty board certification, and every preceptor needs over a year (2,080 hours) of practice, an active license in the site's state and no family tie to you.
A setting that does not fit the course. Every FNP practicum, FPCM I through IV, takes place in outpatient primary care. Urgent care, hospital wards, the ER, nursing homes and specialty clinics need the Graduate Program Director's approval first.
A population gap. For NURS G829 you owe 150 pediatric hours and 50 obstetric hours, a mix a single adult-focused family practice may not supply.
A contract that will not move. A site that rewrites the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement, or wants its own contract used, may need several months before the paperwork clears.
A system that wants the school to ask. In North Louisiana, Ochsner LSU Health accepts graduate requests only from a school's faculty or coordinator, through its InPlace platform, and asks students not to call providers.

Each has a fix, and most are easier to prevent than to repair. Loyola's full rules by program are on the preceptor requirements page.

Restart from the course, not the contact list

A fresh search moves faster when it starts with what the course needs and works outward to people.

Name the populationWrite down the course number and what it calls for. NURS G823 and NURS G827 want outpatient family primary care, NURS G829 pediatrics and obstetrics, NURS G902 acute care, NURS G856 psychiatric care and NURS G939 an organizational or leadership setting.
Look first at sites Loyola already knowsOpen Explore Clinical Locations in Exxat Prism. Loyola keeps hundreds of organizations under agreement, and those sites are processed quickly.
Widen the circleThe FNP practicum letter asks students to be ready to travel outside their own city. Add neighboring parishes and towns before deciding nobody is available.
Use every channel the guide listsThe FNP guide names your workplace network, classmates, AANP, your state NP organization and community contacts.
Arrive preparedTake a resume to practices in person, with a cover letter that states the course and the number of hours, and follow up afterward.
Keep a second option aliveHold a backup site in play until the first one shows Placement Approved in Exxat.

Tips for reading the map course by course are on the Explore Clinical Locations page.

Give a practice an easy yes

Busy clinicians often decline when precepting sounds like open-ended paperwork, so show the exact scope up front. Under Loyola's Preceptor Agreement, the preceptor orients you, offers varied learning experiences, gives regular feedback, signs your practicum log, evaluates you, talks with your Loyola faculty when the practicum opens and again when it closes, reports problems and coordinates your hours.

The site's part is one signature from its authorized signer on an affiliation agreement, and only when Loyola has none on file with that organization. The standard version runs three years, and neither party pays the other. Malpractice coverage for your practicum hours comes from the School of Nursing, and Loyola posts liability insurance certificates for sites to use, which settles a question practice managers often raise. The affiliation agreements page covers the contract in depth.

When time is already short

Loyola publishes one timing rule: begin at least three months ahead, because the process can take that long. Inside that window, favor sites already under agreement, file the Wishlist the day a preceptor agrees, and keep your compliance file current, since Loyola does not register a student with lapsed requirements for the practicum and places a compliance hold instead.

Two rules stay fixed however late the search runs. Hours count only after the whole request reaches Placement Approved, and any hour worked ahead of a fully signed affiliation agreement is lost, with the bulletin warning that the course may need repeating. A compressed plan is laid out on the need a preceptor fast page.

A preceptor's verbal yes is the beginning, not the finish. Your hours start counting once Exxat shows Placement Approved for the whole request.

Why Loyola students choose us when a search stalls

Loyola Preceptor is built for this moment. We search for preceptors whose patients fit your Loyola course, in your own area and inside the states where Loyola approves your program, and we screen each candidate before you wait a week on a reply: licensed where the site is, board certified, past the 2,080-hour experience mark, unrelated to you and on site whenever you log time.

We learn at the first call if Loyola already has a contract with the site, and we pull together what the Wishlist needs, including the preceptor's CV and Nursys license PDF, the signed Preceptor Agreement and the name of the site's authorized signer. Approval rests with Loyola's placement office and faculty; what we deliver is a request with no gaps. Send your program, city and term using the form on this page, or read how it works first.

Questions Loyola students ask

Can a physician assistant precept my Loyola FNP practicum?

Yes for the first two FNP practicums. The 2025 FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide accepts a PA, NP, MD or DO as supervisor in FPCM I and II. In FPCM III the supervisor has to suit the pediatric and obstetric patient mix, and FPCM IV specialty sites need the FNP Director's approval. Cohorts from before Fall 2024 had an older letter limiting PAs to one primary care course.

Do I have to find a preceptor in Louisiana?

No. Loyola places practicums near where students live, and the MSN FNP page requires practicum hours in a state where your nursing license is valid. The state must also be open to your program: the State Approvals Map places limits on Alaska, California and New York and shows Hawaii, Montana and Wyoming as not approved, though Loyola's licensure table differs, so confirm with the School of Nursing.

Can a coworker be my preceptor?

A coworker can, if they meet Loyola's rules. Practicum at your own workplace is allowed with the Employed at Clinical Site Attestation, which requires a different department and different hours from your job. DNP project preceptors may not be your employer or direct supervisor, and no preceptor may be a relative. See working where you work.

What if a preceptor agrees but the site won't sign Loyola's agreement?

Ask the site if it will accept the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement without changes. Contracts that are heavily edited or written by the site can run several months, so work a second site in parallel. When the preceptor's employer is a separate organization from the site, Loyola's Preceptor Agreement calls for a second agreement with that employer.

SearchFinding your own preceptorWhat Loyola New Orleans asks when NP and DNP students select their own preceptor and site, where the FNP guide says to look, and how to run a search that works.Urgent helpNeed a preceptor fastLoyola New Orleans practicum starting soon with no preceptor? Where the time goes, which sites clear quickest, and what Exxat needs so your hours can begin.ExxatExplore Clinical Locations mapHow Loyola New Orleans students use Exxat's Explore Clinical Locations map of sites under agreement to shortlist practicum sites and reach preceptors sooner.PreceptorsPreceptor requirementsWho can precept a Loyola University New Orleans NP or DNP student: license, board certification, 2,080 hours, family limits, PA rules and Louisiana's rule.Decision guideYour options comparedSearch alone, start from Loyola's Explore Clinical Locations map, or use a placement service: how each route works for a Loyola New Orleans practicum.Our processHow it worksFrom your first message to Placement Approved: how we find a preceptor for your Loyola New Orleans practicum and prepare every Exxat Wishlist item.

Last checked 2026-09-25

We check these pages against Loyola's own bulletin, program pages, practicum guides, forms and licensure disclosures. Your plan of study, your practicum guide, your program director and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.

Loyola asks you to select your own preceptor and site. We make that the easy part.

Tell us your Loyola program, where you live and which term your next practicum starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, check whether the site already has a Loyola affiliation agreement, and prepare everything your Exxat Wishlist needs.

Preceptors matched to the course: outpatient primary care for NURS G823, pediatrics and obstetrics for NURS G829, acute care for NURS G902, psychiatric care for NURS G856
Preceptor CV, license and Nursys PDF, the Preceptor Agreement and the site's signer details ready for the Wishlist
In your own community, in Louisiana or any state where Loyola approves your practicum

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Program, city and term is all we need to begin.