Loyola New Orleans nursing compliance, every item in one place
Before a single practicum hour counts, Loyola University New Orleans needs a complete compliance file from you: a background check and drug screen through the School of Nursing's contracted company, a recent physical, BLS, health insurance, immunizations and TB screening, a signed FERPA release and the right RN license. Most of the file is uploaded to Exxat Prism for review by the APPROVE team. Loyola publishes two different deadlines for getting started, and a missing record blocks practicum registration.
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Everything Loyola checks before a practicum
Compliance works as a gate at Loyola New Orleans. Until your file is complete and current, the School of Nursing does not register you for a practicum course. The list below draws on the 2026-27 graduate bulletin, the Nursing Student Handbook and the forms Loyola posts for graduate nursing students, and it applies to every graduate track.
| Item | What Loyola asks for | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Background check | Ordered through the School of Nursing's contracted company, at your expense | Within 60 or thirty days of enrollment (sources differ) |
| Drug screen | Taken at a designated facility; random or repeat tests also at your expense | Before your first clinical rotation |
| Physical exam | Physical Examination Attestation Form signed by a licensed primary care provider | Within the past 12 months |
| BLS | Healthcare Provider course (American Heart Association or American Red Cross) | Current before practicum registration |
| Health insurance | Proof of coverage | Current before practicum registration |
| Immunizations | MMR (two doses), Tdap, polio, varicella, hepatitis B, COVID-19 per CDC guidance | Influenza every year |
| TB screening | Testing, or the HCP Baseline Individual TB Risk Assessment per CDC and site rules | Yearly |
| FERPA consent | Consent to Release Student Information, signed and uploaded to Exxat | Early in the placement process |
| RN license | Current and unencumbered; active in each practicum state; Louisiana or multistate while enrolled | At acceptance and all through the program |
Four of these items have their own guides: the background check and drug screen, immunizations, TB and the physical, the FERPA release and the RN license rules. This page shows how the pieces fit together and where they tend to slip.
The 60-day and thirty-day deadlines disagree
Loyola publishes two windows for starting compliance, and you should plan with both in view. The 2026-27 graduate bulletin gives students 60 days from enrollment to order the background check and drug screen through a third-party vendor under contract to the School of Nursing. The graduate program pages, from the MSN FNP to the BSN-DNP tracks, say the requirements are due within thirty days of enrollment.
Loyola's pages leave the two figures side by side, so treat the question as open until someone at the School of Nursing answers it for your cohort. Ask your program director or the Clinical Practicum Coordinator which date applies to you and keep the reply. Until then, finishing inside thirty days satisfies both versions and leaves the widest margin before your first practicum term.
The contracted vendor sends each student an invitation to begin, so watch for it in the first weeks after you enroll and start as soon as it arrives.
Two Loyola sources, two deadlines: 60 days in the bulletin, thirty days on the program pages. Confirm yours with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator and work toward the earlier date.
Where your compliance file lives
Nearly everything ends up in Exxat Prism. Each record goes under My Profile, in Required Documents, where the Exxat APPROVE team looks it over. Access to Required Documents comes with the annual Exxat subscription students buy; placement processing through STEPS is a separate subscription. The Exxat Prism guide explains both.
Two items start outside Exxat. The background check begins with the contracted company's invitation, and you give the drug screen sample at a facility Loyola designates. The physical attestation, BLS card, insurance proof, immunization records, TB form and signed FERPA consent are uploads you handle yourself.
An approved document is progress, not permission to start. Individual parts of your record can show approved while the placement request as a whole is still pending. Hours begin only when the full request reaches Placement Approved, and that also depends on the site's affiliation agreement and your preceptor's paperwork.
How a compliance hold stops registration
The FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide spells out the result: a student who falls behind on requirements is left off the practicum course roster and gets a compliance hold. Registration blocks appear in LORA, Loyola's records system, where the Holds tab shows the reason. The handbook's own illustration of such a block is an immunization record that never arrived.
A hold rarely arrives at a convenient moment. Late registration can shrink the weeks you have to reach your course hours, and your preceptor may already have blocked out a schedule for you. Clearing it usually means uploading the missing record and waiting for the APPROVE team's review, so a gap spotted two months before term is far easier to fix than the same gap spotted the week classes begin.
Check both systems at each milestone. Exxat shows the status of every document; LORA shows whether anything is holding your registration.
The items with a clock on them
Some records are one-time uploads; others expire while you are enrolled. Loyola asks for a physical within the past 12 months, an influenza vaccine every year, and yearly TB testing or the risk assessment. The School of Nursing monitors RN licenses through Nursys e-Notify, and BLS cards and insurance policies carry their own end dates.
Dates worth putting on your calendar
- The day your physical attestation was signed, plus 12 months
- Your yearly flu vaccine
- The anniversary of your TB test or risk assessment
- The expiration printed on your BLS card
- Your health insurance renewal
- Your RN license renewal in every state where you hold one
Set those dates against your practicum terms. A record that lapses halfway through NURS G827 or NURS G904 can leave you out of compliance mid-rotation, so renew early and upload the new document before the old one runs out.
What sites and states can add
Loyola's list is the floor, not the ceiling. According to the FNP guide and the handbook, a site can layer on HIPAA training, its own background or drug screening, a CPR card, license and insurance proof, or a fresh physical and immunization review. Some states may require more, and you cover any added site fee.
Liability proof is usually the easiest of these, because Loyola's School of Nursing carries malpractice coverage for practicum hours and posts certificates for sites; the liability insurance guide covers the details. The handbook also notes that practicums happen in and outside Louisiana depending on the program, with extra compliance items in some states. If your site is across a state line, read clinicals outside Louisiana.
Program certifications sit on top of the shared list. AGACNP and Nurse Anesthesia students need BLS, ACLS and CCRN at admission, Nurse Anesthesia adds PALS before clinicals, and Nurse-Midwifery students complete NRP and the AWHONN fetal monitoring courses before the intrapartum practicum.
Why Loyola students hand us the compliance calendar
We treat compliance as part of the placement, running alongside the preceptor search from day one. When we shortlist a site for you, we ask for its onboarding list up front, so you see any added training, screening or fee before you commit. We build your compliance calendar backward from your practicum term using Loyola's three-month lead time, and we flag each record before it expires.
The result is a clean handoff. Approval of every placement rests with Loyola's placement office and your faculty, and our job is to hand them a request in which the site, the preceptor paperwork and your compliance dates already line up with Loyola's rules. Send your program and the term of your next practicum through the contact form, and your calendar is where we begin.
Questions Loyola students ask
Is Loyola's nursing compliance deadline 30 days or 60 days after enrollment?
Loyola publishes both. The 2026-27 graduate bulletin gives 60 days for ordering the background check and drug screen, while the graduate program pages give thirty days for the requirements. Ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator or your program director which one governs your cohort. Completing everything inside thirty days meets either reading.
Does Loyola accept a military BLS card?
Loyola's sources differ here. The Nursing Student Handbook accepts BLS Healthcare Provider courses from the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross or the military, while the graduate bulletin and the BSN pages name only the first two. If your card comes from a military course, confirm with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator before you upload it, and check your site's CPR rule as well.
Do online students outside Louisiana follow the same compliance list?
Yes. The School of Nursing list applies to every graduate student, wherever you live. What changes is the layer on top: the handbook notes that some states add compliance items, and your site may set its own training, screening or paperwork. You must also hold an active RN license wherever the practicum itself takes place.
Who pays for the background check, drug screens and Exxat?
The student does. Loyola places the background check, drug screens (random or repeat tests included), both Exxat subscriptions and any site fees on the student, and Nurse-Midwifery students also cover practicum travel. The vendor invitation and Exxat's checkout show current amounts. The placement costs guide sorts out the rest.
Can I start practicum hours once my compliance items show approved?
Not on compliance alone. Approved documents are one part of the placement request; the site's affiliation agreement, your preceptor's CV, license and signed agreement also have to clear, and the request as a whole needs Placement Approved status. The bulletin also forfeits any hours logged ahead of a signed affiliation agreement.
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
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