Who does what in a Loyola University New Orleans practicum
You find the preceptor and site, and a small set of Loyola roles turns that into an approved placement: the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, the Exxat APPROVE team, your program director and your faculty of record. Knowing who owns which decision saves days of emails sent to the wrong inbox.
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 short map
A graduate practicum at Loyola has four sides: you, the School of Nursing, the clinical site and the preceptor. The Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement puts the first call to a facility preceptor on the student, and has Loyola name a faculty member to coordinate with that preceptor.
| Role | What it handles | Go here when |
|---|---|---|
| You, the student | Selecting preceptor and site, Exxat subscriptions, compliance uploads, the Wishlist, hour logs | Always first: the search starts with you |
| Clinical Practicum Coordinator | Tracks placement needs, obtains affiliation agreements, tracks compliance, advises on Exxat | Agreement status, site contracts, upload trouble |
| Exxat APPROVE team | Reviews compliance items in Required Documents | An item is rejected or pending |
| Program Directors (FNP/DNP, CNM, AGAC, PMH) | Lead each specialty; FNP Director approves FPCM IV specialty sites; CNM director assigns midwifery sites | Course fit and program questions |
| Graduate Program Director | Approves FNP hours outside outpatient primary care | Urgent care, hospital, ER, nursing home or specialty clinic hours |
| DNP Program Director | Reviews verified MSN hours toward 1,000 | MSN-DNP hour questions |
| Faculty of record | Approves logs and changed practicum dates | Dates, hours, evaluations |
| Scholarly project advisor | Guides the DNP project and meets the project preceptor | Project site or preceptor questions |
| Academic Advisor | Registration support; registers some students automatically | Registration and plan-of-study timing |
| Director of the School of Nursing | Reviews encumbered-license cases, receives positive drug screen results, hears dismissal appeals | License issues and formal appeals |
Your part as the student
Loyola's FNP practicum letter says preparing for the practicum involves selecting a practicum preceptor and site, and the bulletin's certificate entries place those practicums in the area where you live. Everything downstream hangs on that choice, so the student's list is long.
- Buy the two Exxat subscriptions and keep Required Documents current.
- Sign and upload the FERPA Consent to Release Student Information.
- Contact sites and preceptors, and confirm each one meets Loyola's rules.
- Submit the Wishlist, uploading your preceptor's CV, license and signed agreement.
- Keep hours and logs in Exxat, and, in the FNP track, sign the FNP Practicum Guide acknowledgment.
Nurse Anesthesia and the BSN programs work differently, because the program places students. Nurse-Midwifery does too under its handbook, though one bulletin entry points midwifery certificate students to their home area instead, so confirm with the Nurse-Midwifery Program Director.
The Clinical Practicum Coordinator and the APPROVE team
The Clinical Practicum Coordinator is the office you will deal with most. For your practicum, it keeps track of who needs a placement, secures affiliation agreements, monitors compliance with each facility's requirements and serves as Loyola's technical advisor on Exxat Prism; the coordinator page covers how to work with that office.
The Exxat APPROVE team is a separate reviewer. It checks the compliance items you upload to Required Documents under My Profile. When an item comes back rejected, fix it and upload it again there; when the question is about a site's contract, go to the coordinator instead. Sending each question to the right reviewer is the simplest way to keep a request moving.
Directors: who rules on fit and exceptions
Loyola spreads approval decisions across several directors, and the right one depends on the question in front of you.
- FNP Program Director: approves specialty sites for FPCM IV and answers FNP curriculum questions, such as which physician assistant rule applies to your cohort.
- Graduate Program Director: signs off when an FNP student wants hours outside outpatient primary care, whether in urgent care, a hospital, an ER, a nursing home or a specialty clinic.
- DNP Program Director: reads an MSN-DNP student's Verification of MSN Specialty Hours and sets how many more hours, if any, are needed toward 1,000.
- Nurse-Midwifery Program Director: assigns CNM sites each semester and approves any request for a rotation outside Louisiana.
- AGAC and PMH Program Directors: lead the acute care and psychiatric tracks and are where to confirm preceptor fit for those courses.
- Director of the School of Nursing: decides, after review, whether a student with an encumbered license may enroll in a practicum.
Each approval route is laid out on the specialty and setting approvals page.
Faculty: the people who judge your practicum
Your faculty of record owns the course. That person approves logs and signs any Early Start/Extension Practicum form, and Loyola faculty talk with your preceptor as the practicum begins and again as it ends. Loyola faculty may visit any site under the affiliation agreement, and AGACNP sites are visited each year, with Zoom standing in for sites farther than 90 minutes from New Orleans.
Louisiana sites add the state board's expectations: faculty choose the learning experiences and check in weekly with every preceptor and student. The preceptor requirements page sets that rule beside Loyola's own.
DNP project students also have a scholarly project advisor, who speaks with the project preceptor every semester, by phone or Zoom, as their signed project agreement requires.
The site side: signer, preceptor and education office
Two of the people named on your Wishlist sign Loyola paperwork. The authorized legal signer signs the affiliation agreement. The preceptor signs the Preceptor Agreement, orients you, signs your practicum log, evaluates you and raises problems with faculty.
Larger systems also run an education or academic office with rules of its own. LCMC Health's learner page says learners need coverage under a current academic affiliation agreement and should go through their school's preceptorship coordinator. CHRISTUS Health wants its Clinical Education Affiliation Agreement signed ahead of the placement term. Read a system's own page before calling anyone there, since some route every student request through the school rather than the student.
When something goes wrong, who to tell
- A preceptor cancels or leaves: tell your faculty of record right away, then the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, so paperwork for a new site can start.
- A hold blocks registration: check the LORA Holds tab, then contact the APPROVE team or the coordinator, depending on the item.
- An injury at a clinical site: Loyola's handbook names the Office of Risk Management for clinical injuries.
- A grade or evaluation you dispute: the nursing grievance ladder climbs from course faculty to the program director, then the School of Nursing director, the College of Nursing and Health's assistant dean, the dean's office and finally the provost.
We fit into this map as your placement desk. We run the preceptor search, check each preceptor against Loyola's rules, and hand you a complete Wishlist packet to submit, so the coordinator's office and your faculty receive what they need in one pass. The final say on every placement stays with Loyola's placement office and faculty. The how it works page lays out our process, and the form below gets it moving.
Questions Loyola students ask
Who approves my preceptor at Loyola New Orleans?
Approval runs through Loyola, not the site. Your request must reach Placement Approved in Exxat, with compliance reviewed by the APPROVE team and the agreement handled by the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, while faculty keep responsibility for your learning experiences. Settings outside primary care add a director's approval.
Who do I contact about an affiliation agreement?
The Clinical Practicum Coordinator obtains affiliation agreements with sites. Your part is to find the site's authorized legal signer and name that person on the Wishlist. The Standard Loyola Affiliation Agreement is the default form; a facility that prefers its own contract faces a longer review.
Who is my faculty of record for a practicum?
The faculty member who teaches and grades the practicum course. That person approves your logs and signs any change to practicum dates. If you are unsure who it is, check the course in Canvas or ask your Academic Advisor. Take hour, schedule and evaluation questions there first, before they go to a director.
Does a Loyola faculty member visit my clinical site?
The affiliation agreement gives faculty the right to visit. AGACNP sites are visited yearly, by Zoom when more than 90 minutes from New Orleans, and a Nurse Anesthesia handbook dated 2023 calls for in-person visits at least once a year. Loyola publishes no site-visit rule for FNP, PMHNP or DNP project practicums.
Where do I go if a compliance upload is rejected?
The Exxat APPROVE team reviews items in Required Documents under My Profile, so correct and upload the item again there. If the problem is technical, the Clinical Practicum Coordinator can help with Exxat uploads. Clear it quickly, because students not current on requirements get a compliance hold.
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.