The RN license your Loyola New Orleans practicum needs
Loyola University New Orleans asks graduate nursing students for a current, unencumbered RN license at acceptance, an RN license that is active wherever their practicum hours happen, and, for as long as they are enrolled, a Louisiana or multistate license. The School of Nursing watches licenses through Nursys e-Notify. An encumbrance can keep you out of practicum courses, and keeping one quiet can cost you your place in the program.
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Tell us your Loyola program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Loyola course.
Three license rules behind every Loyola practicum
Loyola New Orleans layers three license requirements, and a practicum needs all three at once. The Nursing Student Handbook and the 2026-27 graduate bulletin set them out, and the MSN FNP page ties practicum requirements to states where your nursing license is valid.
What Loyola asks of your license
- At acceptance: a current, unencumbered RN license, plus your APRN license if you hold one, in the state where your clinical practicums will happen
- While enrolled: a Louisiana RN license or a multistate license, kept current
- For each practicum: an RN license that is active in the state where the hours happen
- Post-graduate certificate students who are already APRNs: current APRN certification throughout
These rules sit on top of Loyola's state approvals. A valid license in a state does not by itself make that state available for your program; the State Approvals Map guide covers where Loyola restricts or does not approve practicums.
Louisiana or multistate: when each program wants it
The Louisiana-or-multistate rule applies to every graduate student, but the bulletin and program handbooks set different trigger points. Check the row for your program, then confirm the date with your program director.
| Program | What Loyola's sources say |
|---|---|
| MSN FNP and BSN-DNP FNP | RN license in any US state to apply; Louisiana or multistate before the second semester |
| MSN PMHNP | RN license in any US state to apply; Louisiana or multistate before the second semester |
| Nurse-Midwifery | Before the second semester (bulletin) versus before any Nurse-Midwifery course (midwifery handbook) |
| Nurse Anesthesia and dual AGACNP/Nurse Anesthesia | RN license in a US state or territory and eligibility for Louisiana licensure; a Louisiana license before any specialty track course |
| FNP certificate | RN license, and APRN license if held, in the practicum state |
| All graduate students (handbook) | A Louisiana or multistate license while enrolled |
The Nurse-Midwifery row is a genuine conflict between two Loyola documents. Ask the Nurse-Midwifery Program Director which deadline applies to you, and meet the earlier one if you cannot get an answer in time.
A license in every state where you practice
Wherever your practicum site sits, your license must be active there. The handbook asks for an active RN license wherever you plan practicum hours and, if you already hold one, an APRN license where practicums occur. Online students living outside Louisiana usually meet this with their home-state license, but a site across a state line changes the picture.
Health systems check this independently. Ochsner LSU Health's graduate student page, for example, asks for an RN license for the state of the clinical or a compact license, along with an active affiliation agreement. For Nurse Anesthesia and the dual program, Loyola notes that an RN license in the states of program-affiliated sites may be required.
If a promising preceptor practices in a state where you are not licensed, sort out the license before the Wishlist, not after. Start with the state board and Loyola's approvals for that state, and read clinicals outside Louisiana for the compliance items some states add.
Licensed in one state, preceptor in another? Get the license for the site's state, and confirm Loyola approves that state for your program, before you submit the Wishlist.
Nursys e-Notify and how Loyola monitors licenses
Loyola's School of Nursing checks your RN license in NCSBN's Nursys database and uses e-Notify, which pushes an alert to the school whenever a license from a participating board changes status. In practice, Loyola can learn of a lapse, a restriction or a disciplinary action soon after your board records it.
That monitoring makes renewals worth watching. A license that lapses between renewal cycles can put you out of compliance even if every other document in Exxat is current, and a lapsed license in the practicum state stops the rotation. Put each license's renewal date on the same calendar as your practicum terms.
Nursys also appears on the preceptor side. When you submit the Exxat Wishlist, an NP preceptor's license goes in as a Nursys PDF, and Loyola's preceptor requirements call for the preceptor to hold a current license without encumbrances in the site's state. For sites in Louisiana, the LSBN preceptor rule adds that each preceptor must hold a Louisiana RN or APRN license that is active and unencumbered.
Encumbrances, restrictions and reporting
An encumbered license changes what you can register for. The graduate bulletin says a student with an encumbered license cannot enroll in a practicum course without the School of Nursing Director's permission, given after a review. Your practicum progress waits on that decision.
Reporting is not optional. The handbook lists an unreported encumbrance, restriction or discipline on an RN or APRN license as grounds for dismissal. The School of Nursing already receives Nursys alerts from participating boards, so the safest course is to report any change yourself, promptly and in writing.
If anything changes on a license you hold, in any state, tell your program director and ask how the review works before your next practicum registration. Early disclosure gives the School of Nursing Director time to review your situation before a practicum term begins.
Moving mid-program, and licensure after you graduate
Loyola's licensure disclosures say relocating during a program to another state may affect licensure requirements, access to practicums and financial aid, and they ask students to talk with their program advisor before moving. A move usually means a new license for the new state's practicum sites. The moving guide walks through the order of steps.
Your RN license also anchors your future APRN license. LSBN's APRN rule (LAC 46:XLVII.4507) builds the APRN license on top of your RN license: you need a Louisiana or multistate RN license in good standing, and the APRN license lapses when the RN license does. Graduates who move away are governed by the new state's rules and need that state's license, according to Loyola's disclosures. Loyola also sends a personal email notice when it concludes a program falls short of a state's requirements, and alerts enrolled students within 14 calendar days of any change in that finding; the licensure disclosures guide explains both.
How we build your search around your licenses
Your license map is the first thing we ask for. Every site on your shortlist is located where your RN license is already valid and inside Loyola's approvals for your program, and we check each preceptor's license in the site's state against Loyola's rules before we bring them to you. When a strong preceptor sits across a state line, we tell you what licensing step it needs so you can decide with the timeline in view. If you hold licenses in more than one state, we widen the search to every one of them that Loyola's approvals allow for your program.
Loyola's placement office and faculty hold the approval; we bring them a site and preceptor whose licenses already match Loyola's rules, the first time through. List the states where you hold a license on the contact form.
Questions Loyola students ask
Can I do my Loyola practicum in a state where I am not licensed?
Not until you are. Loyola expects your RN license to be active in each state that hosts your hours, and its MSN FNP page places practicum work only in states where your nursing license is valid. Obtain the license first, and confirm Loyola approves that state for your program before you commit to a site.
Does a multistate compact license meet Loyola's Louisiana license rule?
Yes. For the enrollment-period rule, Loyola's handbook and bulletin accept either a Louisiana license or a multistate one. Whether a multistate license also covers a particular practicum state depends on that state's rules, so check with the state board and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator before relying on it for a site outside Louisiana.
What happens if my nursing license is disciplined during the program?
Report it. Under the handbook, leaving an encumbrance, restriction or disciplinary action unreported can lead to dismissal, and the School of Nursing receives Nursys e-Notify alerts. Under the bulletin, a student with an encumbered license cannot enroll in a practicum course without the School of Nursing Director's permission after review.
Do BSN and ABSN students need a license for clinicals?
Yes, in the form of an LSBN student nursing license. Loyola's handbook has undergraduates secure that LSBN student license ahead of their first Louisiana clinical course, and the undergraduate bulletin counts the application, with its background check, among the items due before clinical work. The undergraduate resources page links LSBN's clinical enrollment instructions.
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.