Specialty sites and non-primary-care settings in Loyola University New Orleans practicums
All four FNP practicums at Loyola are outpatient primary care by default. Hours in urgent care, on a hospital ward, in the ER, at a nursing home or in a specialty clinic go to the Graduate Program Director first, while a specialty placement in FPCM IV goes to the FNP Director.
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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.
The default setting: outpatient primary care
The 2025 FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide places all four Family Primary Care Management practicums in outpatient primary care. That rule reaches the whole sequence, from NURS G823 and NURS G827 through NURS G829 and NURS G833, each carrying 200 hours in the current curriculum.
The guide also asks for enough patient volume and, ideally, a diverse patient mix. A quiet practice with a narrow panel can pass every preceptor rule and still leave you short of the experience the course expects, so ask about daily visits and patient ages before you commit.
The hour structure itself is covered on the FNP 800-hour page; this page is about where those hours may happen and who says yes to anything outside the default.
Settings that need the Graduate Program Director
Five settings sit outside the default. The guide routes each one to the Graduate Program Director before hours there can count toward an FNP practicum.
- Urgent care centers
- Hospital wards
- Emergency rooms
- Nursing homes
- Specialty clinics
These settings are gated, not closed. A student with a strong urgent care preceptor can ask, but the approval comes first and the hours come after. Frame the request around the course: which primary care problems you will manage, roughly how many patients a day, and across which ages.
The request for specialty practicum hours goes on a form kept on the Nursing Resource Site. Use the current version and keep a copy of the decision with your course records.
FPCM III: fitting the pediatric and obstetric split
NURS G829 changes the population rather than the setting. Of its 200 hours, 150 go to pediatrics and 50 to obstetrics, and the preceptor's practice has to fit that population.
One way to cover it is with two preceptors: a pediatric or family practice with a steady pediatric panel, plus an obstetric or women's health practice for the 50 hours. A board-certified CNM can precept obstetric hours; a certified professional midwife cannot. Because the guide lists specialty clinics among gated settings, confirm with course faculty whether an OB/GYN practice needs added approval before you book it.
The FPCM III practicum page goes deeper on planning that term, including how to pace the pediatric hours across it.
FPCM IV specialty sites and the FNP Director
NURS G833 carries the final 200 hours, and it is the practicum where the guide makes room for a specialty site, such as dermatology or cardiology, if the FNP Director approves it. Ask early, because a specialty preceptor who waits weeks for an answer may fill the slot with someone else.
- Name the site and preceptorCheck the preceptor against the baseline: licensure where the site operates, board certification, over 2,080 hours in practice and no family tie.
- Describe the patientsEstimate daily volume, age range and the primary care problems you will manage, since the guide values volume and diversity.
- File the requestComplete the specialty practicum hours form on the Nursing Resource Site and send it through the route your course faculty name.
- Get the answer in writingAsk for the decision before you submit the Wishlist, so the request the Clinical Practicum Coordinator receives already carries it.
- Hold a primary care backupKeep an outpatient primary care option open until the specialty placement reads Placement Approved.
Acute care, DNP project and midwifery settings
Setting rules look different outside the FNP track.
- AGACNP: acute care is the home setting. Rotations with interventional radiology, general radiology and ultrasound are allowed, while invasive procedures stay with the preceptor of record, whose agreement must sit in Exxat Prism. See the AGACNP practicums page.
- DNP Scholarly Project: students pick sites matched to course outcomes and the DNP Essentials, for example a health system, a department of health, a health policy internship, an ethics committee, a CDC program or a professional nursing association.
- Nurse-Midwifery: sites come from the program, mostly in Louisiana. For a rotation in another state, the student secures a letter signed by a willing CNM or approved clinician and gets it to the Program Director six months or more ahead of the course; the director then approves or declines.
- MSN-DNP Executive Leader: the DNP Program Director looks at your Verification of MSN Specialty Hours to judge whether
NURS G965hours are needed to reach 1,000; the 1,000-hour page explains the count.
Who approves what, at a glance
| Situation | Who decides | Document |
|---|---|---|
| FNP hours in urgent care, a hospital ward, the ER, a nursing home or a specialty clinic | Graduate Program Director | FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide |
Specialty site for FPCM IV, NURS G833 | FNP Director | FNP Orientation and Practicum Guide |
| Specialty practicum hours | Reviewed through the request form | Form on the Nursing Resource Site |
| Nurse-Midwifery rotation outside Louisiana | Nurse-Midwifery Program Director | Signed preceptor letter, six months ahead |
| Added hours toward the DNP's 1,000 | DNP Program Director | Verification of MSN Specialty Hours |
| A changed practicum start or end date | Faculty of record | Early Start/Extension Practicum approval form |
Whatever the setting, the whole placement still has to read Placement Approved in Exxat before any hours start. The who does what page maps every role involved.
How we prepare a setting request
Loyola's placement office and faculty rule on the setting and the placement. We make the request they receive complete and rule-ready from the start. When you want a specialty or a non-primary-care site, we flag the approval at intake, gather the preceptor's credentials and the patient-mix details a director will ask about, and keep a primary care site warm in case the answer is no.
For FPCM III we search for pediatric volume and a separate obstetric option at the same time, so the 150 and 50 hours land in one term. When a director's answer comes back, we update your Wishlist packet the same day. Tell us your course and term through our contact page or the form below.
Questions Loyola students ask
Can Loyola FNP students do clinical hours in urgent care?
Only with approval. Urgent care falls outside the outpatient primary care setting the FNP guide sets for all four practicums, so the Graduate Program Director has to approve it first, as with hospital, ER, nursing home and specialty clinic hours. Get the answer before logging any time there.
Do emergency room hours count toward the Loyola FNP?
Only if the Graduate Program Director approves them for your practicum. The ER is on the guide's list of settings outside outpatient primary care, and without that approval the hours may not count toward the course. Ask early and keep a primary care site ready.
Who approves a specialty clinic for my last FNP practicum?
The FNP Director approves specialty sites for FPCM IV, NURS G833. Request specialty hours on the form on the Nursing Resource Site, describe the patient volume and mix, and keep an outpatient primary care site ready until the specialty placement reaches Placement Approved.
Can a nurse-midwife precept my FNP obstetric hours?
Yes, if the CNM is board certified; the FNP guide rules out certified professional midwives. FPCM III needs 150 pediatric plus 50 obstetric hours, and any preceptor for those hours must fit that population and meet the usual license, certification and experience rules.
Can AGACNP students rotate with radiology or ultrasound?
Yes. The AGACNP Practicum Guide allows time with interventional radiology, radiology and ultrasound providers. Any invasive procedure, though, is done only with your preceptor of record, whose agreement sits in Exxat Prism, so schedule those days together and log the time and cases in Prism before you leave the site.
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
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