Loyola New Orleans MSN PMHNP: five practicums in five straight terms
Loyola University New Orleans' MSN Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner is a hybrid, 49-credit program with 750 supervised clinical hours. Those hours are spread over five practicums that run without a break from Summer I to Fall III: a 60-hour assessment practicum, then four management practicums. With a placement due every term, the practicum schedule is the part of this program that needs the most planning.
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.
The MSN PMHNP at a glance
The bulletin lists 49 credits with a mix of in-person and online asynchronous study. At Loyola, hybrid means some courses are required in person and the rest are online; practicum hours are separate from both and take place at clinical sites. The program page describes seven semesters of continuous year-round enrollment, and the posted plan starts in Fall and runs Fall I through Fall III.
Graduates are prepared for PMHNP certification through ANCC or AANPCB. To be admitted you need an RN license (any US state will do) and a year of current, full-time nursing work, and by your second semester the license has to be Louisiana's or a multistate one. As with every Loyola graduate nursing program, you have five years from the start of coursework to finish.
Loyola also offers a post-graduate PMHNP certificate with the same five practicum courses; its plan lists different hours per course, and that conflict is explained on the PMHNP certificate page.
Five practicums, 750 hours
The practicum sequence begins in term 3 and then fills every term to the end of the program, with no term off between courses.
NURS G866 is small at 60 hours and 1 credit, but it is your first trip through Exxat, so treat it as the rehearsal for the four larger placements that follow. The Wishlist, the preceptor uploads and the approval stages will be the same each time.
| Term | Course | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Summer I (term 3) | NURS G866 Advanced Psychiatric Assessment Practicum | 60 |
| Fall II | NURS G856 Mental Health Management I Practicum | 180 |
| Spring II | NURS G857 Mental Health Management II Practicum | 180 |
| Summer II | NURS G858 Mental Health Management III Practicum | 180 |
| Fall III | NURS G859 Mental Health Management IV Practicum | 150 |
The PMHNP practicums page takes each course in turn. One quirk in the posted plan: the Summer I courses it itemizes come to 6 credits even though that row's total reads 9, and NURS G867, which the bulletin requires, is nowhere on the page. Confirm your Summer I registration with your academic advisor, since that is also the term of your first practicum.
Who arranges PMHNP sites
For the MSN, Loyola's program materials do not state in so many words who secures the practicum site. The bulletin's PMHNP certificate entry places practicums with preceptors near where the student lives, and the School of Nursing's graduate placement process runs through a Wishlist that the student submits in Exxat. Where the FNP and AGACNP tracks have practicum guides on the resources page, PMHNP students rely on their syllabi, the handbook and the PMH Program Director for practicum rules.
During your first year, put the sourcing question for NURS G866 to the PMH Program Director, then to the Clinical Practicum Coordinator. Either way, every placement moves through the same stages: compliance items approved, an affiliation agreement check, the Wishlist, the preceptor's documents, and a final status of Placement Approved, which has to be showing before hour one. The placement process page walks through each one.
What a psychiatric preceptor has to meet
Sites in Louisiana fall under LSBN's preceptor rule. It expects the bulk of your supervised time to come from an APRN whose license and certification match your program's population focus, with physicians and other clinicians rounding out the experience. Whoever precepts you in the state must carry a Louisiana RN or APRN license that is active and carries no encumbrance, and the rule caps each preceptor at two graduate APRN students per clinical experience. The state side is laid out on the Louisiana APRN rules page.
The preceptor standards Loyola publishes live in its FNP guide: a clean, current license where the site is located, board certification, upward of 2,080 hours in practice, no relatives, and physical presence for every supervised hour. Confirm with the PMH Program Director how they apply to psychiatric preceptors, and let your course faculty and syllabus define which settings fit each management practicum.
Close to campus, HRSA's data show seven FQHC facilities in Orleans Parish designated as mental health shortage areas, while the parish's low-income mental health population designation is proposed for withdrawal. If you live in the New Orleans area, those clinics are worth a look when you map possible settings, with your course faculty confirming the fit.
Keeping five placements on schedule
With no break from Summer I to Fall III, Loyola's three-month lead time means you are always searching one term ahead. A preceptor who leaves mid-sequence affects the next course too, so a backup matters more here than in tracks with gaps between practicums.
- Spring I: the assessment practicum
NURS G866begins in Summer I, which opens in mid-May, so start the placement process by mid-February. At 60 hours it is short, but it needs a fully approved placement like any other. - Summer I: Management I
NURS G856starts in Fall II, in mid-August. Its request should be moving by mid-May, the same weeks your assessment practicum begins. - Fall II: Management IISpring classes begin in mid-January, so the
NURS G857search runs by mid-October, while you log Management I hours. - Spring II and Summer II: Management III and IVKeep the pattern:
NURS G858in Summer II needs its request by mid-February, andNURS G859in Fall III by mid-May. If one preceptor can host you across terms, ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator what each new term needs in Exxat.
Why PMHNP students choose us
Five placements in five terms is a lot to carry while you work and study. We take the searches off your plate: psychiatric preceptors near you whose certification fits Loyola's PMHNP courses, sites checked early for an existing Loyola affiliation agreement, and every placement timed to its three-month window.
We also keep the calendar that is hard to see from inside one course: campus intensive dates, the mid-May summer start, and the stretches where a preceptor's time away would cost you hours. Each term's schedule then holds together before the term begins, not halfway through it.
Every course gets its own Exxat bundle from us: agency and signer fields, a current CV for your preceptor, the Nursys PDF that verifies an NP's license, and a Preceptor Agreement that is already signed. Reviewers at Loyola get the whole set at once and can decide without a round of follow-up requests. When a preceptor steps away between terms, the next option is already lined up. Start with the form below: your program, your city and the term of your next practicum.
Questions Loyola students ask
How many clinical hours is Loyola's MSN PMHNP?
The bulletin puts the MSN at 750. The assessment course, NURS G866, is the short one at 60; Management I through III are 180 apiece; and Management IV, NURS G859, closes the sequence at 150. Certificate students meet different numbers, since their plan gives every management course 200, a sum of 860 against a stated 750, so they should check with the program director.
How often do Loyola PMHNP students go to campus?
It depends on which Loyola source you read. The bulletin has PMHNP students on campus every semester; the program pages for both the MSN and the certificate call the intensives yearly. Your cohort's schedule comes from the PMH Program Director. Either way, campus dates are fixed, so share them with each preceptor when you set practicum shifts.
Can I do the MSN PMHNP from outside Louisiana?
The program is hybrid, so plan for campus visits in New Orleans. Practicums take place where Loyola approves them and where you hold an active RN license, and you need a Louisiana or multistate license from your second semester. Check the School of Nursing State Approvals Map and the licensure disclosures for your state, and talk to your program advisor before any move.
Can a psychiatrist precept Loyola PMHNP students?
Loyola's general preceptor standards accept physicians who hold an MD or DO and are board certified in their specialty. For a Louisiana site, LSBN wants the larger share of your clinical time under an APRN in your population focus, with physicians and others adding breadth. Confirm the mix for each course with your course faculty.
Can I do PMHNP practicum hours where I work?
Yes, with conditions. Loyola's workplace form, the Employed at Clinical Site Attestation, needs three signatures (yours, your work supervisor's and your preceptor's) and commits you to logging practicum time outside your paid shifts and away from the department that employs you. A nurse on an inpatient psychiatric unit, for example, would look to an outpatient service or another unit.
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.