Clinical hours in every Loyola New Orleans nursing program
Loyola University New Orleans sets practicum hours course by course, from 800 in the MSN FNP to 3,440 in the dual AGACNP and Nurse Anesthesia DNP. Pick your route in the planner below, then use the full table for certificates, midwifery, anesthesia and the BSN, and the conflict list for the places where Loyola's own documents give different numbers.
Plan the hours ahead of you
Tell us your program and next practicum term.
Pick your Loyola program
Your practicum courses and hours, who can precept you, where, and when to start looking. From Loyola's own bulletin, practicum guides and plans of study.
- Who precepts
- An NP, MD, DO or PA for FPCM I and II; pediatric and obstetric preceptors for FPCM III; FNP Director approval for FPCM IV specialty sites
- Where
- Outpatient primary care in your own area, in a state where you hold a valid nursing license and Loyola approves the practicum
- Start looking
- The first practicum comes in term 4 of the posted plan; start the search and the Exxat Wishlist at least three months ahead
- Who precepts
- FNP preceptors for the four FPCM practicums and a project preceptor (not family, not your employer or supervisor) for the scholarly project
- Where
- Outpatient primary care plus a project site such as a health system, health department or policy setting
- Start looking
- The project practicum starts in term 6 and the first FPCM practicum in term 7 of the posted 4-year plan
- Who precepts
- Acute care preceptors whose schedules you work around, with invasive procedures only under the preceptor of record
- Where
- Hospitals and acute care settings in your local area; campus intensives once per semester
- Start looking
- The first acute care practicum comes in term 3 (Summer I) of the posted plan
- Who precepts
- Psychiatric preceptors for assessment, then four mental health management practicums
- Where
- Outpatient psychiatry, community mental health and integrated settings near you
- Start looking
- The assessment practicum comes in term 3 (Summer I) of the posted plan
- Who precepts
- A project preceptor such as a nursing administrator, director, chief officer or APRN, who is not your employer or direct supervisor
- Where
- A healthcare organization, health department, policy setting or professional association that fits your project
- Start looking
- Project practicums run over the last three terms; add NURS G965 if your verified MSN hours leave you short of 1,000
Every Loyola program's practicum hours in one table
The planner above covers the five routes where Loyola students most often select their own preceptor. This table adds the rest. Figures come from the 2026-27 graduate and undergraduate bulletins, Loyola's program pages and the 2026 plans of study posted under Curriculum Plans on the Graduate Nursing Student Resources page.
Totals are the totals Loyola states. Where a Loyola document calls a figure a minimum, the table says so.
| Program | Practicum courses and hours | Total |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP | NURS G823, NURS G827, NURS G829, NURS G833, 200 each | 800 |
| BSN-DNP FNP | The four FPCM practicums (200 each) plus NURS G939, NURS G942, NURS G944 (180 each) | 1,340 |
| Post-Graduate Certificate FNP | The four FPCM practicums, 200 each | 800 minimum |
| BSN-DNP AGACNP | NURS G902, NURS G904, NURS G907 (minimum 250 each) plus the three project practicums | 1,290 |
| Post-Graduate Certificate AGACNP | NURS G902 180, NURS G904 180, NURS G907 140 | 500 |
| MSN PMHNP | NURS G866 60; NURS G856, NURS G857, NURS G858 180 each; NURS G859 150 | 750 |
| Post-Graduate Certificate PMHNP | The same five courses (see the conflict below) | 750 minimum |
| MSN-DNP Executive Leader | The three project practicums (180 each) plus elective NURS G965 as needed | 540, toward 1,000 graduate hours counting verified MSN hours |
| Nurse-Midwifery, MSN and certificate | NURS G746 280, NURS G761 280, NURS G765 350 | 910 |
| BSN-DNP Nurse Anesthesia | NURS G916, NURS G922, NURS G926, NURS G931, NURS G932, NURS G934 plus the project practicums | 2,940 (2,400 anesthesia, 540 project) |
| Dual AGACNP and Nurse Anesthesia | AGACNP 180, 180 and 140; anesthesia 2,400; project 540 | 3,440 |
| Traditional BSN | Eight clinical courses; per-course hours are not published | Preceptorship: 180 |
| Accelerated BSN | Seven clinical courses; per-course hours are not published | Not stated |
Nurse-Midwifery, Nurse Anesthesia, the dual program and both bachelor's programs place students at sites the program assigns, so for those students the hours shape a work schedule more than a search. The programs hub has a page for each track.
Where Loyola's own hour figures disagree
Loyola publishes its hours in several places, and a few of them do not match. Each one below is a real difference between two Loyola documents, not a rounding issue. None of them should be settled by guessing.
- FNP courses, 200 or 180 hours. Loyola's 2026-27 bulletin, its FNP program pages and the 2025 FNP guide set every FPCM practicum at 200 hours. A separate practicum letter, addressed to cohorts that started before Fall 2024, lists 180-hour courses under older course numbers. The FNP hours page walks through it.
- PMHNP certificate. The bulletin lists 180, 180, 180 and 150 hours for
NURS G856toNURS G859. The 2026 certificate plan lists 200 for each of those four courses, which adds up to 860 withNURS G866, yet the plan's own stated total is 750. - Nurse Anesthesia per-course hours. The bulletin gives
NURS G922andNURS G926400 hours each. The 2026 plan givesNURS G922200 andNURS G926600. Both add to the same 2,400 anesthesia hours, and the dual plan repeats the difference.
If two Loyola documents give you different hour targets, put the question to your program director or the School of Nursing's practicum coordinator, and save their reply alongside your plan of study.
What turns time at a site into a counted hour
An hour counts at Loyola only when the paperwork behind it is finished. The whole placement request in Exxat has to show Placement Approved before your first hour, and the site's affiliation agreement must carry every signature before you begin. The bulletin spells out the penalty: time logged ahead of that signature is lost, and a student can end up retaking the course. The affiliation agreements page covers how long those reviews can take.
The person beside you matters too. The FNP guide requires the preceptor to be on site and directly supervising every hour. The Nurse-Midwifery handbook counts only supervised direct patient care, so call time without patient contact adds nothing to the 910.
Hours are documented and verified in Exxat. AGACNP students record their time and cases in Prism while still at the site, down to patient visits, procedures and the diagnosis and billing codes for each. The Exxat Prism guide explains the logs and evaluations.
Weekly hours: what Loyola states and what your syllabus sets
Loyola states a weekly pace for one kind of course. The DNP practicum requirements letter counts 60 hours per credit, so each 3-credit, 180-hour scholarly project practicum works out to roughly 12 hours a week.
For the 200-hour FPCM courses and the PMHNP practicums, no weekly figure is published. Loyola's registrar runs both full-semester calendars and 8-week online sessions, and which one graduate nursing courses follow is not stated, so the dates in your syllabus decide how many weeks you have. The Fall 2026 semester runs from August 17 through December 4, and Spring 2027 from January 19 through May 7, with the Mardi Gras holiday February 8-12. The academic calendar page lists the rest.
Some tracks describe the shape of a clinical week. The AGACNP guide lets students build 4-, 6-, 8- or 12-hour shifts around the preceptor's schedule, weekends and holidays included. The 2023 Nurse Anesthesia handbook limits students to 40 assigned hours or four clinical days in a week, and no single assignment runs past 16 hours.
When hours fall behind or spill past the term
Loyola gives you tools for timing problems, and each has a condition attached. With the Early Start/Extension Practicum approval form, the faculty of record can move a practicum's start or end date. An Incomplete is open only to a student who has finished roughly three quarters of the work at a passing level; the rest must be turned in within the first six weeks of the following term, or the I converts to an F. Practicum-type courses that run longer than a term can carry an In Progress grade, normally finished within a year.
The AGACNP guide adds a checkpoint: a student who has logged less than half the hours by midterm files an action plan. Every one of these options still has to fit within Loyola's five-year window for completing a graduate nursing program. See Incompletes, leave and time limits for the details, and behind on clinical hours for the practical recovery.
MSN-DNP Executive Leader students face a different kind of shortfall. If the verified master's hours and the 540 project hours together come to less than 1,000, the elective NURS G965 makes up the difference.
Why Loyola students choose us to fill their hours
Hours are only as secure as the placement behind them, and that is where we come in. We match you with preceptors whose patients fit the hours your course demands: outpatient primary care for the FPCM courses, 150 pediatric and 50 obstetric hours for FPCM III, acute care shifts for the AGACNP practicums, psychiatric care for the PMHNP sequence, and a project preceptor outside your chain of command for the DNP.
We work backward from Loyola's three-month lead time for each practicum in your plan of study, flag at the outset whether a site is already covered by a Loyola affiliation agreement, and assemble the preceptor documents the Wishlist asks for: CV, license, Nursys PDF and the signed Preceptor Agreement. Loyola's placement office and your faculty make the approval decision, and the file we help you send is built around Loyola's rules so it arrives complete. When a preceptor pulls out partway through a term, the replacement search begins that same day. See how it works or tell us your program.
Questions Loyola students ask
Do my paid RN work hours count toward Loyola practicum hours?
No. Practicum hours come only from an approved placement with a preceptor supervising you. Practicum at your own workplace is possible under Loyola's Employed at Clinical Site Attestation, which keeps student hours apart from paid hours: another department, another schedule, and signatures from you, your work supervisor and the preceptor.
Does the Loyola MSN-DNP count the clinical hours from my master's program?
It can. The DNP Program Director reviews your master's hours, documented on Loyola's form for verifying MSN specialty hours, and decides whether you need more to reach the 1,000 supervised graduate hours the program requires. Students who come up short add the elective NURS G965 practicum, with hours tied to the credits taken.
Are Loyola's clinical hour totals minimums or exact targets?
Several Loyola documents use the word minimum: the AGACNP practicums (at least 250 hours each in the BSN-DNP), the FNP certificate (800 minimum) and the midwifery and PMHNP certificates. Treat every figure as the floor, and use the course syllabus for how hours are logged and signed off.
Do on-call hours count in Loyola's Nurse-Midwifery program?
Only when you are caring for patients. The Nurse-Midwifery handbook counts supervised hours in direct patient care toward the 910 total, so on-call time spent without patients adds nothing. A certified nurse-midwife must also supervise more than half of all clinical hours.
Where do I find the hours for my own cohort?
Start with your plan of study, posted under Curriculum Plans on the Graduate Nursing Student Resources page, then the course syllabus and your program's practicum guide. If those disagree with the bulletin, ask your program director, or the coordinator who handles practicum placements, to confirm which figure applies to you.
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.
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 forNURS G829, acute care forNURS G902, psychiatric care forNURS 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
Start your placement plan
Program, city and term is all we need to begin.