How we place UL Lafayette nursing students, one step at a time
You tell us your program, your next precepted course and the town you would drive from. We look for a clinician and a practice that suit that course, test each candidate against Louisiana's Board rules and the consortium's minimums, and assemble what UL Lafayette's faculty need to approve. Then we stay close until your last hour is logged.
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.
Built to be right whichever way your course runs
UL Lafayette's current catalog and the consortium's student handbook are specific about what a graduate practicum has to satisfy: the state it takes place in, the credentials of the person supervising you, and the documents that must sit in the graduate nursing office before your first clinical day. Your graduate coordinator can tell you what placement support comes with your course.
Whatever part UL Lafayette plays in setting up your clinicals, our desk secures a preceptor and a site that satisfy its rules, for the NP concentrations, the PMHNP certificate, Nursing Education and the DNP alike.
The graduate coordinator reviews every preceptor and course faculty approve them. Our part is to see that the file they receive is whole and already fits UL Lafayette's standards, so the decision turns on the preceptor's merits rather than a missing page.
The six steps from first message to final hour
- Your program, course and parishStart with the form: program, the precepted course coming up next, its term and your parish or town. A Family NP student heading into
NURS 582from Crowley needs a different search than a certificate student startingNURS 591in Shreveport. - A search where your hours are allowedMSN concentrations and the certificate keep every clinical hour inside Louisiana on a Louisiana RN license, so we search Louisiana, closest to home first: Lafayette, the Acadiana parishes, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, New Orleans or the northern cities. DNP residency hours may run in Louisiana or your home state, so a DNP search goes where you live. The Louisiana-only rule has its own page.
- A preceptor who fits the rules and the populationThe candidate needs a Louisiana license that is active and unencumbered, and the bulk of your hours goes to an APRN certified in the population you are studying. The consortium adds graduate preparation, certification in the area, a suitable setting and twelve months or more in practice. Then we match the course: pediatric and prenatal patients in
NURS 582, adult patients inNURS 583, geriatric patients inNURS 584, psychiatric care across the PMHNP sequence. More on who can precept. - Credentials and agency details, gatheredWe collect the preceptor's license and certification details and a CV dated within the last two years, plus the site information an agency contract needs. The student-faculty-preceptor letter of agreement comes ready to sign, and a checklist covers your immunization, OSHA and HIPAA records so nothing is left out. Our paperwork guide covers each item.
- Review and approval at UL LafayetteThe graduate coordinator reviews the preceptor and course faculty approve. If they ask for a detail, we supply it quickly. After approval, the schedule you agreed with your preceptor is posted in the tracking system the consortium requires.
- Hours under way, a backup in reserveWhile you log hours, a faculty member talks with you and your preceptor at least once a week. Your placement advisor answers all term and keeps a second option in view, so a preceptor who steps away triggers an immediate replacement search matched to the same course. See backup preceptors.
Timing: how early to reach out
No graduate placement deadline appears on UL Lafayette's pages, so the date that matters is the first day of the term holding your first precepted course: semester 3 in the Family NP plan, semester 4 in the Psychiatric/Mental Health NP plan, semester II in the certificate. The first clinical course page places each one.
Two lead times sit inside that window. The handbook warns that a first-time agency contract may need anywhere from several weeks to a few months, and the Board wants its facility survey in hand four weeks or more before a new agency hosts its first student. Reaching out a full semester early leaves room for both. Fall 2026 classes began Aug. 24 and Spring 2027 opens Jan. 13; Summer 2027 dates are not yet posted.
What the match has to fit, program by program
A preceptor who is qualified on paper can still be the wrong match if their patients do not fit the course. Here is how each program's precepted courses pair with the population or setting they serve, per the 2026-27 catalog.
| Program | Precepted courses | What the match must fit |
|---|---|---|
| MSN Family Nurse Practitioner | NURS 582, NURS 583, NURS 584 | Children, adolescents and childbearing women; then adults; then older adults |
| MSN Psychiatric/Mental Health NP | NURS 591, NURS 592, NURS 593 | Psychiatric mental health care across three practicums |
| PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate | NURS 590 (observational), NURS 591, NURS 592, NURS 597 | Psychiatric care, with an older-adult emphasis in NURS 597 |
| MSN Nursing Education | NURS 544, NURS 557 | Precepted class, lab and clinical settings for the educator role |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice | NURS 821, NURS 822, NURS 823 | Your specialty area of practice, plus an approved mentor at the agency where your project runs |
Hour totals for several programs differ between UL Lafayette's own pages, such as 750 versus 600 for the Family NP. We plan to the 2026-27 catalog and flag the difference for your course faculty to settle; the clinical hours hub sets out each figure.
Why UL Lafayette students choose us
We work only on UL Lafayette's process, so the details that stall a first-time file are the ones we check first: the Louisiana license, the population focus, the two-student cap, a CV current within two years, and a contract that may not exist yet.
What you get
- One placement advisor who knows your program, course and term
- A Louisiana preceptor and site near home, or a home-state residency for the DNP
- Credentials, CV and site details gathered and organized for review
- A letter of agreement ready for three signatures
- On-call support all semester and a replacement search if plans change
Ready to start? Send your program and next clinical term using the contact form, and an advisor will map out your search.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
Should I line up a lead before messaging you?
No. Plenty of students arrive with only a program, a course number and a start term, and we build the search from there. If you do have a lead, such as a nurse practitioner you once shadowed or a clinic near home, send it along and we check it against Louisiana's rules and the consortium's first.
Can my preceptor be someone at the place I work?
Yes, within limits. The ICMSN handbook lets you train with a preceptor at your own employer, provided your clinical time is unpaid and sits outside your normal job duties. We can match within your employer when that works, and our workplace clinicals page explains how to keep the two roles cleanly separate.
Who makes the final decision on my preceptor?
UL Lafayette does. The consortium handbook routes every preceptor through a review by the graduate coordinator and a final yes from course faculty, and state rules leave the selection and guidance of your learning experiences with nursing faculty. What we add is a file with nothing missing and every rule already checked, so their review can move quickly.
Do you help BSN or Accelerated BSN students?
Pre-licensure clinicals at UL Lafayette run on a different track. Semester coordinators set each traditional BSN student's lab day, and Accelerated BSN students rotate through Ochsner Lafayette General and Ochsner-affiliated sites. Our service centers on the precepted graduate courses, from the NP concentrations and Nursing Education to the certificate and the DNP residencies.
Can a DNP student living outside Louisiana use the service?
Yes. UL Lafayette lets DNP students complete clinical hours in Louisiana or in their home state, with residencies set in the student's specialty area of practice. We search where you live and look for a mentor who suits your project. The university's state authorization page contradicts itself on six states, so check yours with the DNP Coordinator.
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.
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.