NP preceptors in Louisiana: what health systems ask of schools
Louisiana's larger health systems send NP students one consistent message on their own pages: the school comes first. They call for a signed academic affiliation agreement and route requests through the school's coordinator instead of straight to a provider. For a Loyola University New Orleans student, that shapes how a hospital-based search runs and where an independent practice fits instead.
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The pattern across Louisiana systems
Three systems with Louisiana sites describe their student process in public, and they line up on the basics. Each wants a signed agreement between the school and the system in place before a student arrives, and each channels the request through the school rather than through a student calling a provider.
That matches how Loyola already works, with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator obtaining affiliation agreements and faculty approving each placement. It also means a verbal yes from a clinician inside a system is only an opening. Read each system's page as a description of its process, not as an offer of a spot to any school or student. Practices outside those systems answer for themselves, a difference this page returns to below.
Ochsner LSU Health in North Louisiana
Ochsner LSU Health publishes the most detailed rules. Since April 1, 2024, every graduate nursing request, placement and compliance step runs through a platform called InPlace, and only the school's faculty or coordinator enters requests; its page states, "Students will not have access to InPlace Network." The system wants requests a minimum of three months before the start, and emailed or PDF requests are not accepted.
The same page lists an active academic affiliation agreement, an RN license for the clinical's state or a compact license, and LSBN approval for APRN clinical experience in Louisiana. It asks students not to call providers, says its academics team confirms preceptors and that a preceptor's verbal commitment does not secure a spot, and says its own employees and highly rated graduate programs come first. Workday Learn training is assigned after placement, and the school attests to training and health items in InPlace.
CHRISTUS Health
CHRISTUS Health, which runs sites in Louisiana, lists advanced practice practitioners among the rotations it offers. Its clinical learning page requires a written, signed Clinical Education Affiliation Agreement for every academic affiliation, completed before the placement term begins.
For current students, CHRISTUS asks that the faculty advisor identify a CHRISTUS site and contact its academic office, and it says placements are not assured. For a Loyola student, a CHRISTUS request therefore starts with your course faculty and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, and the system's own agreement form becomes part of the timeline. A site-written agreement can take months to review at Loyola, so a CHRISTUS plan works best with a backup practice in motion from the first week.
LCMC Health in Greater New Orleans
LCMC Health operates University Medical Center New Orleans, Touro, East Jefferson General Hospital, West Jefferson and other hospitals, and Tulane Medical Center joined it through the LCMC-Tulane partnership. LCMC Health's learner page says a current academic affiliation agreement between the school and LCMC must cover every learner.
LCMC Health's learner page says its Academic Affairs office does not run preceptor matching for nursing or allied health students. Once the agreement is confirmed, learners work through their school's preceptorship coordinator and contact the facility's education office about capacity and preceptors. LCMC's East Jefferson General Hospital page adds an attestation form confirming the items the school-LCMC agreement requires, along with health screenings, background checks and immunizations. For an FNP or AGACNP student eyeing one of these hospitals, the agreement question comes before any talk of a preceptor.
Ochsner Health in New Orleans
Ochsner Health's New Orleans pages focus on undergraduate nursing clinicals with RN preceptors and on the Ochsner Scholars tuition program for students at schools in Louisiana or Mississippi. They describe no process for NP or APRN students, so a graduate student's natural first contact is the Clinical Practicum Coordinator rather than an Ochsner clinic.
Loyola's own connection to Ochsner sits on the undergraduate side. The Loyola Ochsner Nursing Simulation Lab carries both names, and Loyola states that its BSN students receive clinical placements through its partner Ochsner Health. That statement concerns the BSN only and says nothing about graduate practicums, so an NP search treats every Ochsner site like any other system site, with the school's request coming first.
What this means for your Loyola search
A hospital-based request in Louisiana depends on the school's agreement and coordinator and moves on the system's schedule. Independent practices decide for themselves: once a preceptor agrees, the practice's authorized signer can sign the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement, and your request goes into Exxat. The affiliation agreements page explains that step.
Louisiana's board adds rules of its own for any preceptor in the state, including an active, unencumbered Louisiana RN or APRN license and a cap of two graduate APRN students at a time; the Louisiana APRN rules page covers them. Demand is part of the picture too. The Board of Regents counted 5,992 certified NPs living in Louisiana in 2023, while the state's programs admitted 572 new NP students in the same report year.
Why Loyola students choose us for Louisiana searches
We know which Louisiana systems route requests through the school and which practices sign for themselves, so your search knocks on the right door first. Where a system asks students to leave its providers alone, we honor that and bring you options that move on your timeline. Every lead reaches you with its agreement status, so you know before you commit whether the site can move inside Loyola's three-month window.
From Greater New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Shreveport, your placement advisor looks for preceptors whose practice fits your Loyola course, confirms the license and the student load, and prepares the Wishlist packet. The New Orleans page covers the metro in detail, and the Louisiana state guide covers licensure and the board.
Questions Loyola students ask
Can I call a Louisiana hospital's NPs directly to ask them to precept me?
Check the system's own page first. Ochsner LSU Health asks students not to call its providers and takes requests only from the school's faculty or coordinator, and LCMC Health's learner page says learners work through their school's preceptorship coordinator. Independent practices set their own approach, and that is where direct outreach fits.
What is InPlace?
InPlace is the platform Ochsner LSU Health has used since April 1, 2024 for graduate nursing and physician assistant student requests, placement and compliance. Only the school's faculty or coordinator enters requests, so a Loyola student's request there would begin with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator. Loyola's own placement system is Exxat Prism.
Do Louisiana health systems accept NP students from every school?
Each system sets its own terms. Ochsner LSU Health puts its own employees and highly rated graduate programs first, CHRISTUS says placements are not assured, and LCMC ties every learner to a current school agreement. None of these pages commits a spot to a particular school or student, so plan a backup.
How far ahead should a Louisiana hospital request start?
Ochsner LSU Health wants requests at least three months ahead, the same lead time Loyola's FNP guide sets. CHRISTUS wants its signed agreement completed before the placement term. If a system site still needs a new agreement with Loyola, start earlier and keep an independent practice in reserve.
Why is competition for Louisiana NP preceptors so strong?
Louisiana's APRN programs admitted 726 new students in the 2023 report year, 572 of them NP students, a 34% rise, according to the Board of Regents' Health Works Commission report. Those students look for preceptors among the same clinicians, which is why an early, complete request carries weight.
Related pages
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.
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