Moving to another state during your Loyola University New Orleans nursing program
Loyola University New Orleans warns that relocating to another state mid-program may affect licensure requirements, practicum access and financial aid, and it asks you to talk to your program advisor before you go. The practicum is where a move hits hardest: a new state, a license that has to be active there, a new site and often a new affiliation agreement.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Loyola program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Loyola course.
Loyola's rule: your program advisor hears first
Loyola's professional licensure disclosures page lists three things a move to another state can change: the licensure requirements that apply to you, your access to practicums, and your financial aid. Its instruction is to speak with your program advisor before moving, which means before the lease is signed or the job accepted, not after.
The conversation matters because the answer depends on both your program and your destination. A move from New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi looks nothing like a move to New York, where Loyola's map says clinicals cannot be completed, or to Hawaii, Montana or Wyoming, which are red on that map.
Graduation shifts the frame again. Loyola says graduates who relocate are governed by the new state's licensing rules and need that state's license, so a planned move after the program still deserves a look at where you will practice.
Look up the new state on both Loyola sources
Before committing, find your destination on Loyola's advanced practice licensure table and on the July 15, 2026 State Approvals Map. Most states read the same on both. Nine do not, and the licensure disclosures page sets out each one with its dates.
Destinations to raise with your advisor before moving
- New York: no clinicals in the state, so every practicum sits across a state line.
- Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming: red on the map, yet listed as meeting requirements in the table.
- California: FNP only on the map, with no limit in the table.
- Arizona: FNP-only practicum in the table, green on the map.
- Alaska: a board registration and preceptorship application on the map.
- District of Columbia: clinicals outside DC in the table, green on the map.
If Loyola concludes your program falls short of a state's requirements, it sends you a written disclosure by email, and any change to a state determination reaches enrolled students within 14 calendar days. File those emails with your plan of study.
Your license after the move
Two license rules follow you. Loyola requires graduate students to keep a Louisiana or multistate RN license for their whole enrollment, and their RN license must be active in every state that hosts one of their practicums. Moving usually brings the second rule into play: a practicum in your new state needs your RN license active there before the site can be approved.
Loyola checks licenses through Nursys e-Notify, which sends the School of Nursing automatic alerts when a status changes for students whose boards participate. Keep each license current through the move, and report any encumbrance, restriction or discipline, since failing to report one is grounds for dismissal. The RN license page covers the full rule set.
What the move does to your placement
A Loyola placement is tied to one site, one preceptor and one affiliation agreement. If the move takes you away from that site, the new one starts the process from the top: a search, a check of Explore Clinical Locations for an agreement already in place, a Wishlist with the preceptor's CV, license and agreement attached, and a request that reads Placement Approved before any hours count.
Loyola's FNP guide says the process can take at least three months, and an edited or site-written affiliation agreement can take several months longer. Any hours done before the agreement is signed are lost, and the course may need repeating. Time the move so the new site's approval lands before the term begins, and see the three-month lead time plan for a working calendar.
Log no hours at a site in your new state until Exxat shows Placement Approved. Hours done before the affiliation agreement is signed are forfeited.
Moving in the middle of a practicum term
A mid-term move puts the term's hours at risk. Your faculty of record can sign off on a shifted start or end date through the Early Start/Extension Practicum approval form. If you cannot finish, an Incomplete is open only for circumstances beyond your control, with about 75% of the work done and passing; the remaining work is due six weeks into the following term, or the grade turns to F.
AGACNP students hit an earlier checkpoint: reaching midterm with less than half the hours logged means writing an action plan. When a move will disrupt a whole term, a formal nursing leave of absence assures a return within one year, and that year counts toward the five-year limit for finishing any graduate nursing program. The incompletes and leave page walks through each option.
Financial aid, campus trips and assigned sites
Loyola names financial aid among the things a move can change, so bring Student Financial Services into the plan alongside your advisor. Hybrid students also keep a tie to New Orleans after moving, because the AGACNP, PMHNP and Nurse-Midwifery tracks include campus intensives; the campus intensives page covers what Loyola publishes about them.
Some programs assign sites rather than asking you to find them. Nurse-Midwifery sites are mostly in Louisiana, mainly greater New Orleans, and a rotation elsewhere starts with a CNM's signed letter, which must reach the Program Director six months or more ahead of the course. Nurse Anesthesia students train at program-affiliated sites. ABSN applicants must be able to do clinicals in the Greater New Orleans area, and Loyola places BSN students through its partner Ochsner Health.
How we help when you move
A move is the moment a Loyola student most needs a fast, careful search. We check the new state against both Loyola sources, confirm your RN license will be active there, and look for preceptors near your new home whose patients fit your next course. We search Explore Clinical Locations for a site Loyola already has under agreement and, when a site needs a new one, get the signer details and the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement moving early.
If a preceptor or site falls through while you are between homes, we stay on the search and find a replacement. The final say on every placement belongs to Loyola's placement office and faculty, and we get your new-state request to them complete on the first submission. Tell us where you are moving and when.
Questions Loyola students ask
Can I move to another state while in Loyola's online FNP program?
Loyola's guidance is to talk to your program advisor before you move, because a move can affect licensure, practicum access and financial aid. Check the new state on the licensure table and the State Approvals Map, confirm your RN license will be active there, and allow at least three months to set up a new practicum site.
Do I need a new affiliation agreement if I move?
Only if the new site lacks one. Search Explore Clinical Locations in Exxat Prism first, since hundreds of organizations already have an agreement with Loyola, and those sites are processed quickly. A site without one signs the Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement, and a heavily edited agreement, or one the site writes itself, can add several months. No hours count until the agreement is signed by all parties.
Who do I tell at Loyola before I move?
Start with your program advisor, as Loyola's licensure disclosures page directs. Bring in the Clinical Practicum Coordinator for the placement side, since that office tracks placement needs and obtains affiliation agreements, and Student Financial Services for aid questions. If the move lands mid-term, your faculty of record handles any change to practicum start or end dates.
What if I move to a state that is red on Loyola's map?
Hawaii, Montana and Wyoming are red on the School of Nursing's map, though Loyola's licensure table marks each of them as meeting requirements. Before moving to one of them, ask your program director, in writing, how your practicums would work there. Loyola notifies enrolled students within 14 calendar days if a state determination changes.
Does moving change my Louisiana license requirement?
No. Loyola expects you to hold a Louisiana or multistate RN license in every term you are enrolled, wherever you live. A move adds a second rule on top of it: an RN license active in the state where each practicum happens. Loyola monitors licenses through Nursys e-Notify, so keep every license current through the transition.
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.