The Loyola New Orleans clinical placement process, from first search to final evaluation
At Loyola University New Orleans, graduate NP and DNP students choose a preceptor and site, and the School of Nursing turns that choice into an approved placement inside Exxat Prism. Loyola says the whole path can take three months or more, so it pays to see every stage before you begin. This page lays the stages out in order and points to the detailed guide for each one.
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Who follows this path
This process belongs to Loyola's graduate nurse practitioner and DNP students. Loyola's FNP practicum letter frames practicum preparation as the student's choice of a preceptor and a site, and the graduate bulletin expects FNP, AGACNP and PMHNP certificate students to train with preceptors near where they live. For an online student, then, the work starts in their own town.
A few programs place students themselves. The nurse anesthesia programs, including the dual track that pairs anesthesia with AGACNP, assign students to program-affiliated sites, and the BSN and Accelerated BSN arrange clinicals through Ochsner Health and other Greater New Orleans partners. The Nurse-Midwifery handbook says that program provides clinical sites, though the bulletin's Nurse-Midwifery certificate entry uses the home-area wording instead, so midwifery students should confirm with their Program Director. Everyone else can read the fuller picture of choosing your own preceptor and site.
The stages at a glance
- Start the clock earlyLoyola's FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide warns that placement can run three months or longer, so count backward from your practicum term. A month-by-month plan makes that concrete.
- Activate ExxatBuy the Exxat access subscription for required documents and the STEPS subscription for placement processing, then sign in with your Loyola login.
- Clear complianceLoad each item into Required Documents for review, and sign Loyola's FERPA release for clinical sites.
- Search for a siteCombine the Explore Clinical Locations map with your own network to find a site and a clinician who fit the course.
- Settle the contractFind out whether Loyola already holds an affiliation agreement with the organization; if not, the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement goes to the site's authorized signer.
- File the WishlistEnter the agency, contact, signer and preceptor details, then attach the preceptor's CV, license and signed agreement.
- Reach Placement ApprovedWait until the entire request, not one piece of it, carries that status.
- Log hours and close outRecord time in Exxat, collect your preceptor's signatures and finish the course evaluations.
Stage one: Exxat access and compliance
A Loyola graduate placement runs through Exxat Prism from start to finish, and you reach it with the same single sign-on you use for Canvas. You purchase two subscriptions: one opens the required-documents area and the other, STEPS, covers placement processing. What each one does, and what Prism tracks after that, is on our Exxat Prism guide.
Compliance comes next and often takes longer than students expect. Immunizations, BLS, a recent physical, proof of health insurance, the background check and the drug screen all have to clear, and the Exxat APPROVE team reviews what you upload. Loyola also asks for a signed FERPA release so the School of Nursing can share those records with a site. The complete list, and the two different deadlines Loyola publishes for it, are on the compliance requirements page.
Staying current matters beyond the placement itself: a student who lets requirements lapse is kept off the practicum course roster until a compliance hold is cleared, the FNP guide explains.
Stage two: a site, a preceptor and a contract
The search itself is yours to run. Loyola keeps a list of hundreds of organizations with an active affiliation agreement, and requests for those sites are processed quickly. Any other site needs someone with authority to bind it to sign Loyola's standard agreement, whose 2026-27 version runs for three years.
The FNP guide cautions that agreements a site rewrites heavily, or replaces with its own form, can take several months to finish, so keep a second site moving. How that review works, and the extra agreement needed when the preceptor's employer differs from the site, is covered on affiliation agreements at Loyola.
None of that helps unless the clinician qualifies. Loyola sets standards for license, board certification, practice experience and family ties, plus course rules for FNP populations. Check a candidate against Loyola's preceptor requirements before you ask them to sign anything.
Stage three: the request and the approval
With a site and preceptor lined up, you file the request through the Exxat Wishlist. It records who and where the agency is, whom Loyola should contact, who can legally sign for the organization and who will precept you. Attached to it go the preceptor's CV, a license record (for NP preceptors, a PDF from Nursys) and their signed Preceptor Agreement. Field-by-field help is on the Wishlist guide.
Approval works as a single gate. One piece of a request may read approved while another is still pending, and the FNP guide allows hours to begin only once the request as a whole carries the Placement Approved status. Until then, treat any time at the site as orientation you cannot count.
Per the 2026-27 bulletin, clinical time logged before every party has signed the affiliation agreement is lost, and a student can end up retaking the course.
Stage four: hours, logs and evaluations
After approval, Exxat becomes your record of time. Loyola uses it to document and verify practicum hours, and acute care students, under the AGACNP Practicum Guide, enter each shift's time and cases, with ICD-10 and CPT codes, before walking out of the site.
Your preceptor has work across the term as well. Under the Preceptor Agreement they sign the practicum log regularly, speak with Loyola faculty at the beginning and the end, and submit the Practicum Evaluation Form when you finish. In the acute care track, Prism sends the preceptor an evaluation at the midpoint and again with two weeks left, and a student who reaches midterm short of half the hours writes an action plan.
If your dates move, your faculty of record signs Loyola's EARLY START/EXTENSION PRACTICUM approval form to document the new start or end.
Forms that apply to some students
Some settings need a director's sign-off before you file. Every FNP practicum is meant to be outpatient primary care, so time in an urgent care center, on a hospital ward, in an emergency department, at a nursing home or in a specialty clinic goes to the Graduate Program Director first. A specialty site for FPCM IV is the FNP Director's call.
| Form | Who needs it |
|---|---|
| Employed at Clinical Site Attestation | Students training at their own workplace, in a different department and at different hours from their job |
| EARLY START/EXTENSION PRACTICUM approval | Students whose practicum starts early or runs past the term |
| DNP Scholarly Project Preceptor-Student Agreement | DNP students in NURS G939, NURS G942 and NURS G944 |
| Verification of MSN Specialty Hours | MSN-DNP students whose earlier hours may count toward the DNP's 1,000 |
| Specialty practicum hours request | FNP students seeking hours in a specialty setting |
| FNP Practicum Guide acknowledgment | FNP students, signed and emailed to the School of Nursing |
Why Loyola students choose us for the whole path
We are specialists in Loyola's clinical process, and we take on the stage that eats the most time: finding a clinician who fits your course, sees patients near you and practices in a state where Loyola is approved. Then we assemble the Wishlist package, so every field and upload is ready the day you file.
We check early whether your site already holds a Loyola affiliation agreement, keep the three-month window and your compliance dates in view, and stay on call through the term; if a preceptor steps away, the search for a replacement begins that day. Every approval decision stays with Loyola's placement office and faculty, and our work is to hand them a request that is complete and matches Loyola's rules on the first pass. Share your program and term through the form below.
Questions Loyola students ask
How long does the Loyola New Orleans placement process take?
Loyola's FNP guide says to begin at least three months before your practicum, since Loyola expects the process to need about that much time. A site already under a Loyola agreement usually moves faster, while a new or heavily edited contract can take several months. Beyond that lead time Loyola posts no fixed request deadline, so settle your target date with your course faculty and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator.
Can I start clinical hours as soon as my preceptor agrees?
No. A preceptor's yes only opens the process. The whole Exxat request has to show Placement Approved, your compliance items must be current, and the affiliation agreement must carry every party's signature. Loyola's bulletin says hours logged before the agreement is in place are forfeited, which can mean repeating the course.
Does Loyola find NP preceptors for students?
For FNP students, Loyola's practicum letter describes the student selecting the preceptor and site, and the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement leaves contacting the facility preceptor to the student. Once a site is chosen, the Clinical Practicum Coordinator takes on the agreement, the compliance tracking and help with Exxat. Nurse-Midwifery, Nurse Anesthesia and the bachelor's programs work differently.
Is the process the same for DNP project practicums?
The frame is similar: Exxat, compliance, a site and a signed agreement. The difference lies in the preceptor and the paperwork. DNP students pick project settings matched to course outcomes, and the preceptor signs a project version of the agreement that spans all three project practicums and adds a meeting with the scholarly project advisor each semester.
What happens if my practicum dates need to change?
Talk to your faculty of record first. Loyola's EARLY START/EXTENSION PRACTICUM approval form records a modified start or end date and needs that faculty member's signature. For AGACNP courses, the practicum guide adds that any hours left over when the term ends require an Incomplete grade, so raise a shortfall well before the last week.
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
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