Loyola University New Orleans PMHNP certificate: five psychiatric practicums near home
Loyola New Orleans runs its Post-Graduate Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate with practicums completed alongside preceptors where you live, and the student makes the first contact with each one. Five practicum courses fill five consecutive terms, and Loyola's own documents disagree on the hours in four of them. This page sets out the sequence, the conflict and how to bring forward psychiatric preceptors who clear Loyola's review.
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.
How practicums work in the PMHNP certificate
Loyola's 2026-27 graduate bulletin gives the certificate's clinical rule in a single line: your practicums happen with preceptors at practice settings near where you live. The Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement then puts the first contact with the facility preceptor on the student. So you identify a psychiatric preceptor and site close to home, and Loyola's placement office carries it from there.
The office side is substantial. On Loyola's end, the Clinical Practicum Coordinator keeps a record of who needs a placement, secures the site contracts, checks that you meet each facility's requirements and can help you load documents into Exxat Prism. Faculty and the office still have to approve each placement, and no hour counts until the request reads Placement Approved. The placement process page walks that path step by step.
The certificate has been offered since Fall 2025. Loyola calls it hybrid with campus intensives, and the same program page also calls it flexible online study that can be completed from any location. Both descriptions hold for placement purposes: you come to campus for intensives, while your practicum hours happen where you live.
Five practicums in five straight terms
After a gap analysis of your earlier graduate study, the certificate runs 28 to 37 credits, with at least 28 taken at Loyola, typically over five to seven semesters or less. The posted certificate plan puts the first practicum in term 3 and then schedules one every term through Fall III, summer included.
| Course | Term in the plan | Bulletin hours | Plan hours |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS G866 Advanced Psychiatric Assessment Practicum | Summer I (term 3) | 60 | 60 |
NURS G856 Mental Health Management I Practicum | Fall II | 180 | 200 |
NURS G857 Mental Health Management II Practicum | Spring II | 180 | 200 |
NURS G858 Mental Health Management III Practicum | Summer II | 180 | 200 |
NURS G859 Mental Health Management IV Practicum | Fall III | 150 | 200 |
| Total | 750 | 860 listed, 750 stated |
Back-to-back practicums change the timing of every search. Loyola's guidance is to begin at least three months before a practicum, so the hunt for your NURS G856 preceptor overlaps the assessment practicum, and each later search overlaps the course before it. If one preceptor can carry you through several terms, confirm that availability in the first conversation and ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator how later terms are requested in Exxat. Course-level detail is on the PMHNP practicums page.
The hour conflict: 750 or 860
Loyola publishes two sets of numbers for the certificate. The bulletin lists 180 hours each for NURS G856, NURS G857 and NURS G858, then 150 for NURS G859, which with the 60-hour assessment practicum makes 750. The 2026 certificate plan gives each of the four management practicums 200 hours; its lines therefore total 860, while its summary still reads 750.
The gap is 110 hours spread over four terms. For your preceptor, that is 20 extra hours in each of the first three management courses and 50 in the last, and it is far easier to settle before they commit than halfway through a term.
Get the PMH Program Director's ruling for your cohort by email so you can point to it later. Your own plan of study is the first document to check, and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator can tell you what Exxat expects you to log.
Before a preceptor signs on, confirm whether each management practicum is 180 hours (150 for the last) or 200 hours for your cohort: the bulletin and the certificate plan disagree.
Who can precept a psychiatric practicum
Loyola has not posted a PMHNP practicum guide on its graduate resources page, so there is no psychiatric-specific preceptor list to read. The criteria Loyola does publish for NP tracks sit in the FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide. Preceptors are licensed without encumbrance in the state where the site sits; NP preceptors hold board certification, and physicians are MDs or DOs certified in their specialty. They bring more than a year of practice, counted as 2,080 hours, are not related to you, and stay on site supervising every hour you log.
Treat those as the baseline and ask the PMH Program Director how they apply in psychiatric settings, for example whether a psychiatrist may supervise part of your hours. The full list, with the course-by-course rules for physician assistants, is on our preceptor requirements page.
Louisiana sites add the LSBN's layer. Under LAC 46:XLVII.3543, a Louisiana preceptor needs an active, unencumbered Louisiana RN or APRN license and takes on at most two graduate APRN students at a time, and the bulk of graduate clinical time should be spent with an APRN whose population focus matches yours. Louisiana's APRN and preceptor rules have their own page.
If you already practice as an APRN
The Nursing Student Handbook asks certificate students who already hold APRN licensure to keep their APRN certification current while enrolled. Every graduate student also needs an active RN license in each state where practicum hours happen and a Louisiana or multistate RN license while enrolled, and Loyola monitors licenses through Nursys e-Notify.
Practicum hours inside your own organization are possible with the Employed at Clinical Site Attestation. It requires the practicum hours to sit outside your own department and outside your paid hours, with signatures from you, your supervisor and your preceptor. A behavioral health unit elsewhere in your health system can fit that rule; your own clinic during paid shifts cannot. The working where you work page explains the form.
One scheduling point for working APRNs: a 180- or 200-hour psychiatric practicum every term needs a steady weekly block. Agree that block with your employer before your preceptor builds a clinic schedule around you.
From a preceptor's yes to Placement Approved
- Start three months outLoyola advises starting at least three months before each practicum because the whole process can take that long.
- Check for an existing agreementSearch the Explore Clinical Locations map in Exxat Prism. A site already under a Loyola affiliation agreement moves fastest. Otherwise the site signs Loyola's standard agreement, and a site that rewrites it or insists on its own contract can add months.
- Submit the WishlistThe Wishlist form asks for the agency's name and address, a contact person, whoever can legally sign for the site, and your preceptor's details. Attach the preceptor's CV, their license (NP preceptors supply a Nursys PDF) and the signed Preceptor Agreement.
- Keep compliance currentEvery Required Documents item in Exxat must stay up to date. A lapse brings a compliance hold, and you are not registered for the practicum course.
- Begin only at Placement ApprovedIndividual items may show approved before the whole request does. Clinical time logged ahead of a fully signed affiliation agreement does not count, and Loyola may require you to take the course again.
Why PMHNP certificate students choose us
We are built around Loyola's process, and the certificate's nonstop pace is where that pays off. We look for psychiatric preceptors in your own area whose caseload fits the course in front of you: psychiatric assessment for NURS G866, then ongoing mental health management for NURS G856 through NURS G859. We ask about availability across several terms at the first conversation, so one yes can cover more than one course.
Before your request reaches the placement office, we assemble the Wishlist file: the site's legal signer and contact, your preceptor's CV, license verification and Nursys printout, and a signed Preceptor Agreement. We look the site up among Loyola's affiliated locations and flag early when a new agreement is needed, so the three-month clock works in your favor. If a preceptor pulls out mid-term, finding the replacement becomes our first job.
Approval rests with Loyola's faculty and placement office. Our part is putting a request in front of them that is complete and fits Loyola's rules on the first pass. Send us your city and the term your next practicum begins through the form below, or reach the placement desk through contact.
Questions Loyola students ask
Does Loyola find preceptors for PMHNP certificate students?
The bulletin's certificate entry sets your practicums near home, and Loyola's standard site contract expects the student to reach out to the facility preceptor. Once you bring a site forward, the Clinical Practicum Coordinator handles agreements, compliance tracking and Exxat help. If your circumstances are unusual, raise them with the PMH Program Director early.
How many clinical hours is Loyola's PMHNP certificate?
Loyola states 750. The bulletin gets there with 60, 180, 180, 180 and 150 hours across the five practicums. The 2026 certificate plan instead lists 200 hours for each of the last four, which adds to 860 even though the plan still says 750. Your plan of study and the PMH Program Director settle which figure applies to you.
Can I complete PMHNP certificate practicums outside Louisiana?
Yes, in states where Loyola approves your practicum. Hold an active RN license for each state where you log hours, plus a Louisiana or multistate license for as long as you are enrolled. Loyola's two state documents, the licensure table and the approvals map, conflict for Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming and a few others, so check the state approvals map and confirm with the School of Nursing.
How often do PMHNP certificate students come to campus?
The bulletin says campus intensives happen once per semester, while the certificate and MSN program pages describe them as annual. Until your program confirms the schedule, plan for the more frequent version, and keep intensive dates clear when you agree practicum days with a preceptor.
How is the PMHNP certificate different from Loyola's MSN PMHNP?
Both use the same five practicum courses, NURS G866 and NURS G856 to NURS G859, and both prepare you for PMHNP certification. The certificate sets your credits through a gap analysis of earlier graduate study, while the MSN is a fixed 49-credit plan over seven semesters. The MSN PMHNP page covers that track.
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.