Mississippi practicums for Loyola University New Orleans students
Mississippi, which borders Louisiana, comes up clear for every Loyola University New Orleans nursing program in each of Loyola's state sources. What sets it apart is who regulates nursing schools. IHL, the board over the state's Institutions of Higher Learning, sets the standards for RN degree programs and reviews any school from another state that brings clinical students into Mississippi.
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 Loyola lists Mississippi
No Loyola document limits Mississippi or attaches a note to it.
| Loyola source | Date | Result for Mississippi |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced practice (MSN and DNP) licensure table | June 2, 2026 | Meets Mississippi educational requirements, no note |
| BSN (pre-licensure) licensure table | June 2, 2026 | Meets, no note |
| School of Nursing State Approvals Map | July 15, 2026 | Approved for all programs |
| Earlier approvals map, still linked | August 20, 2025 | Approved for all programs |
Mississippi residents, from Jackson to the Gulf Coast, can plan Loyola practicums at home, and those near the state line can also weigh Louisiana sites if their RN license is active there.
IHL, not the Board of Nursing, reviews outside programs
Oversight is split in Mississippi. The Board of Nursing handles practical nursing programs, and IHL writes the standards RN degree programs follow. IHL reads an in-state practicum as a school physically operating in Mississippi, so a school headquartered elsewhere must match Mississippi's standards and go through IHL Nursing Education's review; budget up to a quarter of a year for it. Appendix S of IHL's procedures manual, dated August 2024, sets the request at four months or more ahead of the first clinical day.
The framework also calls for SARA participation or, failing that, non-SARA authorization through MCCA; Loyola is an NC-SARA participant. All of this is the School of Nursing's work, and Loyola's map shows Mississippi approved. What falls to you is timing: tell the Clinical Practicum Coordinator about a Mississippi site early, so any open question is settled before the affiliation agreement goes out.
Collaborative practice and who precepts in Mississippi
Mississippi carries AANP's reduced-practice label. A Mississippi NP practices inside a collaborative relationship the board has approved, partnered with a Mississippi-licensed physician or dentist, so your NP preceptor comes with a named collaborator. Loyola's own requirements sit on top: board certification, more than a year in practice, no relatives, and in-person supervision for every hour.
IHL's program standards echo Loyola's own license rule. Anyone taking an APRN clinical course, or a graduate clinical course of another kind, needs an RN license without encumbrance in whichever state hosts the clinicals, and out-of-state programs are held to that same standard. Loyola's preceptor requirements cover the preceptor side course by course.
Where Mississippi NP students look
The 2025 Census estimates give the Jackson metro roughly 609,800 people and Gulfport-Biloxi on the Coast about 431,300, with Hattiesburg near 158,000; another 277,600 or so Mississippians are counted in the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metro.
Five larger systems show where clinicians concentrate: Singing River Health System; Forrest Health; North Mississippi Health Services; UMMC, short for the University of Mississippi Medical Center; and Baptist Memorial Health Care, a Memphis-based system that runs Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson and other hospitals in the state. Each writes its own student rules. Family practices and community clinics outside those systems belong on your list as well.
Your license for a Mississippi site
Compact rules took effect in Mississippi on January 19, 2018. The Mississippi Board of Nursing puts the rule plainly: keep your license in good standing, declare a compact state as your primary residence, and you may practice in any other compact state, with no employer entitled to demand a second, remote-state license. Any multistate license, whether from Mississippi, Louisiana or another compact state, covers the Mississippi site and Loyola's enrollment rule together.
Mississippi has no APRN Compact law, so APRN licensure after graduation follows Mississippi's own process if you practice there. Your preceptor's Mississippi license must be unencumbered, and an NP's goes into the Wishlist as a Nursys PDF; the RN license page has Loyola's timing.
Why Mississippi students choose us
Mississippi students choose us because we understand how the state's layers meet Loyola's. We search Jackson, the Coast, Hattiesburg and north Mississippi for collaborating NPs and physicians whose patients suit your course, check every license, and raise your site early enough for any school-side review to finish. Your Wishlist reaches Loyola with the CV, Nursys PDF and Preceptor Agreement in place, and the final word belongs to Loyola's placement office and faculty. Should a Mississippi preceptor withdraw mid-course, we reopen the search at once. Share your county and course.
Questions Loyola students ask
Does the Mississippi Board of Nursing approve Loyola's clinicals?
Not in the usual sense. Mississippi's RN degree standards come from IHL, which also reviews out-of-state schools that place clinical students in the state. That review is the School of Nursing's business, and Loyola's July 15, 2026 map shows Mississippi approved for all programs. Your own task is the site: a signed affiliation agreement and Placement Approved in Exxat.
How early should I name a Mississippi site?
Loyola's lead time for any site is at least three months. IHL's manual puts an outside program's review request at four months or more before the start, so bring a Mississippi site to the Clinical Practicum Coordinator well before Loyola's three-month mark, leaving room for any school-side check.
Does SARA settle my Mississippi practicum?
Only part of it. IHL counts SARA participation toward its framework, and Loyola participates in NC-SARA, but Loyola notes that SARA does not change licensing rules. Your RN license still has to be active in Mississippi, and your preceptor needs an unencumbered Mississippi license.
I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Can I do my hours in New Orleans?
Yes, if your RN license is active in Louisiana; a Mississippi multistate license covers that. At a Louisiana site, LSBN's preceptor rule applies: the preceptor holds a Louisiana license, and faculty confer with you and the preceptor at least weekly. The Louisiana guide lays out the rest.
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.