Questions UL Lafayette nursing students ask about preceptor placement
Quick, specific answers to what UL Lafayette nursing students ask us most, with a link on each topic to the page that covers it fully. If your question is missing, send it through the form and a placement advisor will answer it directly.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UL Lafayette program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UL Lafayette course.
Who we help
Our work centers on UL Lafayette's precepted graduate courses: the Family NP and Psychiatric/Mental Health NP concentrations of the online MSN, the MSN in Nursing Education, the PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate and the post-MSN Doctor of Nursing Practice. Those are the courses where a student needs a named preceptor, a site and a finished file before the first clinical day.
Pre-licensure students follow a different path. Semester coordinators set traditional BSN lab days, Accelerated BSN rotations run with Ochsner, and the RN to BSN Online plan shows no precepted clinical course in the 2026-27 catalog. Clinicians who want to host a UL Lafayette graduate student can reach us too. The programs hub lays out every UL Lafayette plan and its hours.
Where your clinical hours can happen
For the MSN concentrations and the PMHNP certificate, every clinical hour happens in Louisiana, and UL Lafayette ties those clinicals to a Louisiana RN license. Its state authorization page names Louisiana and Mississippi as the states where the NP programs meet educational requirements, yet a Mississippi resident in those programs still completes clinicals in Louisiana.
The DNP works differently: residency hours can happen in Louisiana or in the student's home state. The same state authorization page leaves six states off the DNP's program list but shows the DNP under every state further down, so confirm yours with the DNP Coordinator. The state authorization guide sorts out each list, and our Louisiana page covers the home state in depth.
Who can serve as your preceptor
Louisiana's Board lets an APRN, a physician or a dentist serve as a graduate preceptor, and every one of them needs an active, unencumbered Louisiana license. The larger share of your clinical time, though, has to be under an APRN licensed and certified in your population focus. A physician can round out your experience but cannot carry most of your hours. Other clinicians may fill out the rest.
The ICMSN handbook lays its own floor on top: a master's or doctorate in a related field, APRN certification in the area, a suitable practice setting and no less than one year in clinical practice. No preceptor may take on more than two graduate APRN students during the same clinical experience. The full picture is on preceptor requirements.
Hours, grades and the final evaluation
UL Lafayette's pages disagree on several hour totals. The 2026-27 catalog lists 750 precepted hours for the Family NP, where the web requirements page and earlier catalogs said 600. The Psychiatric/Mental Health NP shows the same 750 against 600 split, and Nursing Education reads 240 in the catalog but 300 on the web. The catalog comes first and course faculty settle the rest; see NP clinical hours.
Every MSN course needs at least a B, and a course graded below B may be repeated only once. The consortium also gives an F for the whole course whenever the preceptor or a faculty member marks the final evaluation unsatisfactory, which is why fit between you and your preceptor matters from week one. Grades and progression covers the DNP rules as well.
Working with the placement desk
One placement advisor handles your file from the day you first write until your practicum ends. We ask for your program, your next precepted course, its term and your parish or town, then search, match and prepare the file. You keep UL Lafayette's faculty informed through approval, and we answer any question they raise about the preceptor or the site.
Timing deserves early attention. A new agency contract can stretch over weeks or months, so the sooner you write, the more options stay open, and the calmer the weeks before your first clinical day. The page on how it works walks through each stage, and the contact form starts the conversation.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
Can I split one practicum between two preceptors?
Louisiana permits more than one clinician to teach you, provided the bulk of your hours sit with an APRN certified in your population focus and each preceptor holds a Louisiana license. Whether a particular course accepts two sites, and how it credits hours from each, is something to settle with course faculty before the term opens. We can match a primary and a secondary preceptor when that helps.
Do ICMSN courses taught at partner schools follow UL Lafayette's calendar?
Not always. The consortium handbook warns that partner universities may start and end courses on different dates, so a course taught at McNeese, Nicholls or Southeastern can follow that school's schedule. Check the dates inside Moodle for each course and build your clinical schedule around that course's own calendar, not UL Lafayette's alone.
What if my hours are not finished when the term ends?
An instructor may give an Incomplete to a student doing passing work who runs into an unforeseen problem, but it must be changed by the posted deadline or it turns into an F. Incompletes from Fall 2026 must be changed by Apr. 12, 2027. Talk with course faculty early, and ask us to widen the search if a site is slowing your hours.
Does a multistate RN license work for UL Lafayette clinicals?
UL Lafayette's sources differ. The catalog accepts a Louisiana or multistate RN license for MSN admission, the online program page adds proof of Louisiana residency, and the state authorization page ties NP clinicals to a Louisiana RN license. Ask the graduate coordinator which wording governs your plan before your first practicum begins.
Do shifts at my regular job count toward clinical hours?
Only time spent as a student counts. The consortium lets you train with a preceptor where you work, but those hours must sit outside your job duties and be unpaid. Keep your clinical schedule clearly distinct from your work shifts in the tracking system so every logged hour holds up when faculty review it.
When is the best time to contact you?
The moment you know which term holds your next precepted course. A semester of lead time leaves room for a new agency contract and for Louisiana's Board to receive its clinical facility survey four weeks before a new site is used. Shorter windows can still work, with fewer options to choose from.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UL Lafayette's 2026-27 catalog, its online program and state authorization pages, the ICMSN student handbook and Louisiana's nursing rules. Your course faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
- UL Lafayette 2026-27 catalog: MSN, Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration
- ICMSN Student Handbook (rev. 10/06/2025)
- UL Lafayette Online: State Authorization for Online Programs
- UL Lafayette 2026-27 catalog: Graduate School regulations
- Louisiana Administrative Code, LAC 46:XLVII.3543, Preceptorship Learning Experiences
Whether UL Lafayette helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your UL Lafayette program, the practicum coming up and the Louisiana town you train near. We look for preceptors and sites that fit the course and gather the license, CV and agency details that must be on file before your first clinical day.
- Preceptors who meet Louisiana's rules: an active Louisiana license, most hours with an APRN in your population focus
- The preceptor's CV, the agency details and your letter of agreement items gathered early
- Across Acadiana and the rest of Louisiana, plus DNP residencies in your home state
Start your placement plan
Your program, your town and your next clinical semester is all we need to begin.