Loyola University New Orleans Nurse-Midwifery: assigned sites, 910 hours and out-of-state requests
Under Loyola New Orleans' Nurse-Midwifery handbook, clinical sites come from the program itself, with the Program Director making assignments every semester. The bulletin's certificate entry reads differently, which is worth settling with the program early. Our part comes with the out-of-state rotation: Loyola will look at one only if a CNM or other approved clinician signs a written agreement to precept you, delivered six months or more before the course starts.
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.
Who arranges your midwifery sites
The Nurse-Midwifery supplemental handbook and practicum guide is direct: "Clinical site placements are provided by the Nurse-Midwifery Program." The Program Director assigns sites each semester. Most are in Louisiana, mainly in Greater New Orleans, and students should expect to travel to other cities for some rotations, with the handbook placing those travel costs on the student.
That is the reverse of Loyola's NP tracks, where students select their own preceptor and site. For midwifery, the default is that the program places you.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Nurse-Midwifery supplemental handbook and practicum guide | The program provides clinical site placements, and the Program Director assigns sites each semester |
| 2026-27 graduate bulletin, Nurse-Midwifery certificate entry | Practicums are completed with preceptors in practice settings in the geographic areas where the student resides |
The two statements do not match. The bulletin sentence is the one Loyola also uses for its NP certificates, where students bring their own preceptors. Certificate students in particular should ask the CNM Program Director which applies to them, and get the answer in writing before term 3.
The midwifery handbook and the bulletin's certificate entry disagree on who places certificate students; settle it with your Program Director before your first practicum.
Three practicums, 910 hours of direct care
The MSN is 50 credits over five semesters of continuous, year-round study, Fall I to Spring II in the full-time plan. The certificate is 29 to 41 credits in the bulletin and posted plan, and 32 to 50 on the program page. Both run the same three practicums, starting in term 3.
| Course | Term | Hours |
|---|---|---|
NURS G746 Practicum in Antepartum, Gynecological, and Primary Care | Summer I (term 3) | 280 |
NURS G761 Practicum in Intrapartum, Postpartum, and Neonatal Midwifery Care | Fall II | 280 |
NURS G765 Integration in Midwifery Care | Spring II | 350 |
| Total | 910 |
Only supervised direct patient care counts. The handbook states that on-call time with no patient contact adds nothing to the 910, which matters on a birth unit, where waiting is part of the job. The page and plan use longer midwifery titles for some of these course numbers than the bulletin does; the numbers are what to match. The clinical hours page sets this total beside Loyola's other programs.
Who can precept a Loyola midwifery student
Certified nurse-midwives, OB/GYNs, nurse practitioners and physician assistants may all teach Loyola midwifery students, but more than half of your clinical hours must be with a CNM. Every preceptor keeps current licensure and certification.
Two groups are excluded outright: a certified professional midwife cannot precept or supervise you, and neither can a senior midwifery student. For any birth or procedure, the preceptor must be in the room. When the program assigns your rotation, it applies these rules for you; when you propose a preceptor of your own for an out-of-state request, the same rules decide whether that person qualifies, so confirm their certification before asking for a letter.
Those rules put CNM time at the center of every plan. For context, the Louisiana Board of Regents' 2024 Health Works Commission report counted 63 certified nurse-midwives living in Louisiana in its 2023 data, beside 5,992 certified nurse practitioners.
Requesting a rotation outside Louisiana
The handbook allows a rotation outside Louisiana on one condition: a letter, signed by a CNM or approved clinician, in which that person agrees to precept you. It must reach the Program Director six months or more ahead of the course, and the Program Director decides whether to approve.
- Pick the courseDecide which practicum you want away from Louisiana: antepartum, gynecological and primary care in
NURS G746, intrapartum care inNURS G761, or integration inNURS G765. Count six months back from that course's first day. - Check the stateConfirm Loyola approves practicums there. The State Approvals Map shows Hawaii, Montana and Wyoming as not approved, rules out clinicals in New York, and limits California to FNP.
- Secure the preceptorFind a CNM or clinician who meets Loyola's rules and will sign the letter, keeping in mind that most of your hours need a CNM.
- Hold the right licenseLoyola requires graduate students to hold an active RN license wherever their practicum hours happen; see the RN license page for the rest.
- Send and planGet the signed letter to the Program Director inside the six-month window, then build the rest of your year around the decision.
A site that has never worked with Loyola also needs an affiliation agreement signed by all parties before hours begin; under the bulletin, hours done before signature are forfeited.
Before your intrapartum practicum
Several requirements are specific to midwifery. You hold BLS, complete NRP before Fall II, and finish AWHONN basic and intermediate fetal monitoring courses before the intrapartum practicum. Within the first seven days of the program you sign the Attestation of Work Hours Statement: no outside work within 8 hours of a clinical shift, and no clinical shift over 16 hours without 4 hours of rest.
Two timing questions have conflicting answers. The program page expects one year of full-time labor and delivery or birth-related RN work at application, while the bulletin ties it to the first clinical course. For the Louisiana or multistate license, the bulletin's deadline is the start of your second semester, and the midwifery handbook's is the first Nurse-Midwifery course. Ask the Program Director which date applies; meeting the earlier one satisfies both readings.
The program is hybrid: online courses, an in-person skills course (NURS G756) and campus intensives once a semester. The MSN page calls the courses synchronous in one place and asynchronous in another, and the bulletin says asynchronous. Loyola posts a CNM professional liability certificate for sites, and the MSN and certificate hold ACME preaccreditation.
Where we help midwifery students
For Louisiana rotations, your Program Director makes the assignment. Our work starts at the point where Loyola asks you to bring someone forward.
The first is the out-of-state request. If you live outside Louisiana or want a rotation near family, we look for a CNM in your area who meets Loyola's rules, explain the course and its hours, and secure the signed letter with time to spare before the six-month mark. We gather the preceptor's license and certification details and flag early whether the site will need a new Loyola affiliation agreement, so the approval can move once the Program Director says yes.
The second is the bulletin question. If your Program Director confirms that you, as a certificate student, should bring a preceptor from your home area, we run that search the same way, with more than half of the hours planned around a CNM from the start.
The Program Director and Loyola's placement office decide every placement; we make sure the letter and details in front of them are complete and match the handbook. Use the form below or contact the placement desk.
Questions Loyola students ask
Does Loyola place Nurse-Midwifery students in clinical sites?
Yes, according to the Nurse-Midwifery handbook: placements are the program's job, and each semester the Program Director assigns sites, most of them in Louisiana and chiefly around New Orleans. The bulletin's certificate entry uses a home-area sentence instead, so certificate students should confirm their situation with the Program Director.
Can Loyola midwifery students do clinicals in their home state?
Only through a request. A CNM or approved clinician has to sign a letter agreeing to take you, the Program Director has to receive it at least half a year before the course, and the Program Director has to say yes. Loyola must also approve practicums in that state.
How many clinical hours are in Loyola's Nurse-Midwifery program?
The total is 910 supervised hours of direct patient care: 280 in NURS G746, 280 in NURS G761 and 350 in NURS G765. The MSN and the Post-Graduate Certificate share the same three practicums, and on-call time without patient contact is excluded from the count.
Who pays for travel to Loyola midwifery clinical sites?
The handbook places travel costs on the student. Most sites are in Louisiana, mainly Greater New Orleans, but rotations can require travel to other cities. Budget for it across all three practicum terms, and see our cost page for what shapes a quote for our own help.
Is Loyola's Nurse-Midwifery program accredited?
Both the MSN and the Post-Graduate Certificate in Nurse-Midwifery hold preaccreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME). On top of that, Loyola says every School of Nursing program has Louisiana State Board of Nursing approval. The accreditation page explains what each body covers.
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.