A Pennsylvania address and UL Lafayette's online nursing lineup
Pennsylvania residents have one UL Lafayette nursing option today, the post-MSN Doctor of Nursing Practice, and it lets you finish residency hours at a Pennsylvania agency. The MSN nurse practitioner concentrations and the PMHNP certificate turn on Louisiana clinicals, and UL Lafayette is not enrolling Pennsylvania students in them.
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.
The Pennsylvania verdict for each online program
UL Lafayette posts its enrollment limits program by program on its authorization page. Here is Pennsylvania's position in September 2026.
| Program | Status for Pennsylvania residents | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Post-MSN DNP | Open to Pennsylvania | Residency can be at a Pennsylvania agency in your specialty |
| MSN FNP | Not accepting | No determination for Pennsylvania |
| MSN PMHNP and PMHNP certificate | Not accepting | Louisiana rotations and a Louisiana RN license |
| MSN in Nursing Education | Pennsylvania not included | Limited to eight other states |
A license exemption for graduate students licensed elsewhere
Start with what research did not find. No State Board of Nursing regulation, and no Board web page, turned up telling a school from another state to seek approval before its students begin Pennsylvania clinicals. The Board's own Distance Education Application exists, but it is aimed at schools already holding Pennsylvania Board approval, a different group.
Now what research did find: a license exemption at 49 Pa. Code § 21.118. It reaches someone licensed as an RN outside Pennsylvania, in another U.S. jurisdiction or in Canada, who is a student in a graduate nursing program (or a BSN program) holding accreditation. Clinical practice the program requires may then happen in Pennsylvania with no Pennsylvania license, provided the student draws no pay for it, though a stipend, a scholarship or a program-related award is allowed. Working a Pennsylvania RN job alongside the program changes things, because endorsement licensure plus a temporary practice permit are then needed.
One pending change to watch is the Board's broad education rulemaking, IRRC #16A-5141, whose final annex keeps § 21.118 with little change. UL Lafayette's presence on any Pennsylvania list was not part of the research, so settle your residency setup with the DNP Coordinator and the Board.
Pennsylvania practice rules and the compact's late arrival
Pennsylvania was a latecomer to multistate licensing, completing its Nurse Licensure Compact rollout on July 7, 2025. RNs and LPNs from other compact states may now work there on an active, unencumbered multistate license. Pennsylvania has not enacted the APRN Compact. Its nurse practitioners practice under a written collaborative agreement with physicians that never lapses, and prescriptive authority takes collaborative agreements with two physicians at minimum; AANP's term for that setup is reduced practice.
Four metros hold much of the state: Harrisburg-Carlisle, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pittsburgh, and the Philadelphia metro, which crosses into New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Among the large systems are Penn State Health and UPMC, Geisinger, Jefferson Health, and Penn Medicine. They are listed to describe the market and do not stand for UL Lafayette training sites. No Pennsylvania preceptor incentive surfaced in research.
A three-course residency from a Pennsylvania base
The DNP is 39 credits online, with one entering group each Fall and an application deadline of May 1. Between two campus visits (the DNP Orientation Intensive when you start, the Synthesis Project presentation when you finish) the work is online coursework plus residency.
How the residency hours fall
- Residency I,
NURS 821: 120 clock hours, placed in semester 4 of the six-semester catalog plan - Residency II,
NURS 822: 180 clock hours spent putting an evidence-based intervention into practice with your residency mentor and faculty advisor - Residency III,
NURS 823: 120 clock hours to close out the sequence
Add them up and you have 420 of the 1,000 post-baccalaureate practice hours the program asks for. The DNP guide covers admission, and the residency guide covers mentors and hours.
The placement partner Pennsylvania DNP students pick
Our focus is UL Lafayette's DNP, so the agency, the mentor and the paperwork all line up with what its project committee expects to see. However your placement comes together at UL Lafayette, we find a Pennsylvania or Louisiana setting and mentor that fit its rules, verify credentials well ahead, and hold an alternate in reserve. Contact the placement desk.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
Can I study UL Lafayette's FNP online from Pittsburgh or Philadelphia?
Not while your home is in Pennsylvania. UL Lafayette's authorization page puts Pennsylvania on the not-accepting list for its FNP, its PMHNP and its PMHNP certificate, because all three train students at Louisiana sites and need a Louisiana RN license. Our page on Louisiana-only clinicals traces where that rule comes from.
Is a Pennsylvania license required for residency hours in Pennsylvania?
If you already practice in Pennsylvania, you hold the license your job requires. An RN whose license comes from somewhere else can lean on section 21.118 for unpaid, program-required clinical work while enrolled in an accredited graduate program. Ask the DNP Coordinator and the Board how that fits a doctoral residency.
Will Pennsylvania's new education rules change my residency?
The rulemaking is close to the finish: final-form rules went to the IRRC in September 2026, with its public meeting on the calendar for October 15. Section 21.118 comes through with little change in the final annex. Watch the Board's page as the rules take effect, and bring any change to the DNP Coordinator.
Does Pennsylvania give preceptors a tax credit?
Research for this page found no Pennsylvania preceptor incentive program. A few states run one, and Pennsylvania did not show up in the sources checked. For your residency, the thing that matters is an approved agency mentor in your specialty, and that is what our placement desk finds.
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.