Finding a preceptor in Greater New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans sits Uptown on St. Charles Avenue, and many of its nursing students live somewhere in the surrounding metro. That puts a dense health care market within reach, from federally qualified health centers in designated shortage areas to the hospitals of LCMC Health and Ochsner. Here is the Orleans and Jefferson Parish picture, and how to match New Orleans settings to your Loyola course.
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.
Loyola's home market
Loyola's main campus is at 6363 St. Charles Avenue, across from Audubon Park, and the School of Nursing office is in Bobet Hall. Several programs rely on the metro by design: Loyola's ABSN clinicals are with Greater New Orleans partners, and the Nurse-Midwifery handbook places most of its sites in Louisiana, mainly around the city.
For NP and DNP students, the bulletin says practicums take place with preceptors in the area where the student lives. If that area is Greater New Orleans, your search starts in a market with plenty of practices, and with students from other Louisiana programs looking too. Loyola's FNP practicum letter also asks students to be ready to travel beyond their own city for a site in any semester.
Orleans Parish shortage areas
HRSA's shortage data shows Orleans Parish with a low-income population primary care HPSA, designated May 9, 2025 with a score of 12, plus eight federally qualified health center facility HPSAs scored from 14 to 22. The parish as a whole is not a geographic primary care HPSA; that older designation was withdrawn in 2012.
For mental health, the parish's low-income population HPSA is proposed for withdrawal, while seven FQHC facility HPSAs stay designated, with scores from 18 to 23. Dental care has its own low-income population HPSA and seven FQHC facility designations. HRSA's HPSA Find tool looks up any address.
Why this matters for a practicum: the FQHC facility designations span primary care and mental health, the same two fields behind Loyola's FPCM and PMHNP courses, and they point you to clinics serving the patients those courses are built around.
Jefferson Parish and the West Bank
Jefferson Parish carries a geographic HPSA and a high-needs geographic HPSA for the Avondale and Westwego area, scored 15 and 16 in 2025, population HPSAs for Gretna and Terrytown and for the Lafitte service area, and five FQHC facility HPSAs, all in primary care. For a student on that side of the river, those designations mark where community clinics and underserved patients cluster.
Students living on the West Bank or in East Jefferson can weigh drive time against patient mix. A community clinic a little farther away that sees children, adults and pregnant patients may carry more of an FNP plan than a nearby practice with a narrow panel, especially for NURS G829, where Loyola wants 150 pediatric and 50 obstetric hours. One broad site across two courses also means one agreement instead of two.
Hospitals across the metro
The metro's hospitals include those of LCMC Health, among them University Medical Center New Orleans, Touro, East Jefferson and West Jefferson, with Tulane Medical Center part of LCMC through the LCMC-Tulane partnership. LCMC Health's learner page says learners need a current academic affiliation agreement between their school and LCMC before anything else, and then work with the school's preceptorship coordinator.
Ochsner Health's New Orleans pages center on undergraduate clinicals and the Ochsner Scholars program, while Loyola's own Ochsner connection is its BSN and simulation lab partnership. For any hospital-based AGACNP or FNP request, begin with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator and check the Explore Clinical Locations map; the Louisiana NP preceptors page sets out each system's published rules. Expect a hospital request to run on the system's schedule, and keep an independent practice moving alongside it.
Matching New Orleans settings to your Loyola course
The metro's density helps most when every lead fits the course from the start. Use the course number on your plan of study to decide where to look.
| Loyola course | What to look for in the metro |
|---|---|
NURS G823, NURS G827 (FPCM I, II) | Outpatient family primary care, community health centers included; NP, MD, DO or PA preceptors |
NURS G829 (FPCM III) | Practices seeing children and pregnant patients, for 150 pediatric and 50 obstetric hours |
NURS G833 (FPCM IV) | Outpatient primary care; a specialty clinic needs the FNP Director's approval |
NURS G902, NURS G904, NURS G907 | Hospital acute care, with shifts of 4 to 12 hours arranged with the preceptor |
NURS G856 to NURS G859 | Psychiatric-mental health care with a psychiatric preceptor |
NURS G939, NURS G942, NURS G944 | Health care organizations, departments of health, professional associations or policy settings |
Hours in urgent care, hospital wards, emergency departments, nursing homes or specialty clinics need Graduate Program Director approval in any FNP course, so a convenient urgent care near home still needs that sign-off first.
Planning around the New Orleans calendar
Loyola's Spring 2027 term runs January 19 to May 7, with a Mardi Gras holiday from February 8 to 12. Carnival season also changes how the city moves, so ask your preceptor early how the clinic runs that week and spread your hours to suit.
Fall 2026 classes run August 17 to December 4, with fall break on October 12 and 13 and Thanksgiving from November 25 to 27. Confirm with your course faculty which dates your practicum course follows, and count back three months from that start for your placement request. The academic calendar page lists the other dates that matter. If your course follows one of Loyola's 8-week online sessions (August 17 to mid-October, or October 19 to mid-December), your hours fit a shorter window.
Why New Orleans students choose us
We search the metro in person, parish by parish, for preceptors whose patients match your course, whether that is a West Bank community health center for FPCM I or a practice with a strong pediatric and prenatal panel for FPCM III. Every lead is checked against Loyola's rules and Louisiana's two-student cap before it reaches you; the Louisiana APRN rules page explains that cap.
You receive each site's Loyola agreement status and the full Wishlist packet, with your three-month lead time in view. Tell us your parish, course and term through the form below. If a preceptor steps away mid-term, we restart the metro search right away. Students elsewhere in the state can start from the Louisiana state guide.
Questions Loyola students ask
What is a HPSA, and why does it matter for my practicum?
A Health Professional Shortage Area is a federal designation for a place, population or facility short of primary care, mental health or dental providers. In Orleans Parish, HPSA-designated federally qualified health centers serve the low-income patients that primary care and psychiatric courses are built around. HRSA's HPSA Find tool shows designations by address.
Can I do FNP hours at a New Orleans urgent care?
Only with approval. Loyola's FNP practicums are outpatient primary care, and urgent care hours need the Graduate Program Director's sign-off before they count toward any FPCM course. Ask before you commit to the site, and have a primary care fallback lined up in case approval does not come.
Should I look outside New Orleans for a preceptor?
It can help. Loyola's FNP letter tells students to be ready to travel outside their city for sites in any semester, and a practice in a neighboring parish may have more room than a busy city clinic. Keep the site in a state where Loyola approves your practicum and you hold an active RN license.
Do New Orleans hospitals have affiliation agreements with Loyola?
Check the Explore Clinical Locations map in Exxat Prism, which lists organizations holding an active Loyola agreement, and ask the Clinical Practicum Coordinator. Systems such as LCMC Health require a current school agreement before any learner starts, so the agreement question comes ahead of the preceptor question.
Where do Loyola DNP students find project sites around New Orleans?
Loyola's DNP practicum letter points to settings such as health care organizations, health policy internships, departments of health, ethics committees and professional nursing associations, and a large metro holds many of each. Project preceptors can be nurse administrators, directors, chief officers, APRNs or physicians, but not relatives, employers or direct supervisors.
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.