The Psychiatric/Mental Health NP MSN at UL Lafayette
UL Lafayette's PMHNP concentration is a six-semester online MSN run through the ICMSN, listed at 48 to 51 credits in the 2026-27 catalog. Its three psychiatric practicums, NURS 591 through NURS 593, carry at least 750 precepted, direct patient care hours, and every one of those hours is completed in Louisiana.
Line up your psychiatric practicums
Share your start term and home parish; we plan all three practicums.
What the PMHNP concentration looks like
UL Lafayette offers the Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner concentration inside the consortium MSN that the LHC Group · Myers School of Nursing shares with McNeese State, Nicholls State and Southeastern Louisiana. Coursework is delivered online, and admission opens twice a year: apply by October 30 to start in January or by June 30 to start in August.
The plan runs six semesters, one longer than the FNP. Semesters one and two are the core that every MSN concentration shares. Semester three is given over to psychiatric diagnosis, psychopharmacology and psychotherapy, and the three precepted psychiatric courses follow in semesters four, five and six.
Credit totals depend on which page you read. The 2026-27 catalog says 48 to 51, while the nursing school's PMHNP requirements page and online.louisiana.edu both say 48. The figures line up once you add the courses: 48 is the scholarly project route, and the thesis route adds up to three more. UL Lafayette's general online MSN overview quotes 40 to 45 credits, a range that leaves the PMHNP out, so rely on the catalog.
Getting in: the MSN entry rules
PMHNP applicants clear the same catalog gate as every UL Lafayette MSN applicant: a bachelor's from an accredited program, a 2.75 undergraduate GPA, undergraduate statistics, a lifespan physical assessment course, proof of immunization, a statement of purpose and a resume. No GRE score is needed. The How to Apply page asks for a slightly different document set, which the FNP program page sets out.
Licensure is the item to check twice. The catalog accepts a Louisiana or multistate RN license; the online program page wants proof of Louisiana residency with a multistate one; the How to Apply page mentions only Louisiana. For clinicals, UL Lafayette's state authorization notes for the PMHNP call for a Louisiana RN license. The RN license guide puts the versions side by side.
Residence matters too. UL Lafayette says the PMHNP meets educational requirements in Louisiana and Mississippi, does not meet them in Minnesota, Tennessee or Washington, and is not taking students from most other states. The state authorization page has the full list.
Six semesters of PMHNP courses
The catalog's PMHNP plan, in order. Semester three is the hinge: NURS 508 and NURS 590 cover psychopharmacology, diagnostic frameworks and psychotherapy before your first precepted psychiatric hour.
| Semester | Course | Credits | Precepted? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NURS 500, NURS 505, NURS 518: theory, applied statistics, advanced pathophysiology | 9 | No |
| 2 | NURS 502, NURS 507, NURS 517: evidence, health assessment and diagnostic reasoning, pharmacotherapeutics | 9 | No (NURS 507 has lab hours) |
| 3 | NURS 508 Diagnostic Considerations and Psychopharmacology for Psychiatric Disorders | 3 | No |
| 3 | NURS 590 Psychotherapy for the Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse | 3 | No |
| 4 | NURS 509 Population-Based Primary Care | 3 | No |
| 4 | NURS 591 Advanced Nursing Practice: Psychiatric Mental Health I | 5 | Yes |
| 4 | NURS 599 Thesis (thesis track only) | 3-9 | No |
| 5 | NURS 592 Advanced Practice Nursing: Psychiatric Mental Health II | 5 | Yes |
| 5 | NURS 595 Focused Scholarly Project, or NURS 599 Thesis | 3 (thesis 3-9) | No |
| 6 | NURS 593 Advanced Nursing Practice: Psychiatric Mental Health III | 5 | Yes |
| 6 | NURS 581 Business, Leadership and Health Policy for Nurse Practitioners | 3 | No |
NURS 593 is the MSN's third psychiatric practicum. The PMHNP certificate ends with NURS 597 instead, a separate 4-credit course with an older-adult emphasis, so MSN and certificate students finish in different courses. Preceptor expectations for each MSN practicum are on the PMHNP practicums page.
750 hours in the catalog, 600 on one web page
The 2026-27 catalog sets a minimum of 750 precepted clinical hours for the PMHNP, and UL Lafayette's online MSN page repeats it as "750 precepted, direct patient care clinical hours in Louisiana." The nursing school's PMHNP requirements page, captured in February 2026, still gives 600 precepted direct patient care hours next to its 48-credit figure. Treat that as an open conflict between two UL Lafayette sources.
The catalog governs the 2026-27 year, so plan for 750. If you started under an earlier catalog, ask your course faculty and the graduate coordinator which figure your plan of study carries, and settle it before NURS 591 begins.
Per-course hours for NURS 591, NURS 592 and NURS 593 are not published. The catalog shows lab contact figures of 13, 18 and 18, a field that is not a clock-hour total. The NP clinical hours page compares every NP figure UL Lafayette prints.
Plan for 750 direct patient care hours. Confirm any lower figure with course faculty before you count on it.
Direct patient care, and only in Louisiana
UL Lafayette describes PMHNP clinical time as direct patient care. The only observational hours UL Lafayette names anywhere belong to the certificate's psychotherapy course, not to the MSN, so ask course faculty before you log an hour that is not hands-on care. The what counts page explains how UL Lafayette and the Louisiana Board frame countable time.
Louisiana's Board rules shape who supervises you. Most of your clinical time must be with a preceptor holding an active APRN license and certification in your population focus, which for this concentration means psychiatric-mental health. A mix of other clinicians, physicians included, may add teaching, and each preceptor supervises at most two graduate APRN students during a clinical experience.
The MSN overview applies the Louisiana-only rule to all concentrations, and the PMHNP's state authorization notes require clinical rotations in the state. Need is real across the region: every Acadiana parish carries a federal mental health shortage-area designation, and Board-approved out-of-state programs place students with the same Louisiana clinicians.
Grades and the 3.0 rule
The PMHNP follows the MSN grade rules: nothing below a B counts, a course below B is repeated, and a repeat is allowed only once. The nursing school's PMHNP requirements page adds a line of its own, "Maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0," which matches the Graduate School's rule that a 3.0 GPA be held at all times.
The consortium's rules are the ones that end programs. A D or F in any course stops progression, and in a clinical course an unsatisfactory final evaluation from your preceptor or your faculty member is an F. In a psychiatric practicum, where the preceptor watches your assessments, therapy work and medication decisions week after week, the fit between you and that preceptor carries real weight. Grades and progression covers withdrawals and time limits.
Why PMHNP students choose us
A PMHNP student needs psychiatric preceptors for three semesters in a row, in a state where outside programs compete for the same clinicians. Whether or not UL Lafayette assists with your placement, our placement desk finds psychiatric-mental health preceptors and sites that satisfy its rules across NURS 591, NURS 592 and NURS 593: outpatient psychiatric practices, community mental health programs and inpatient behavioral health units within reach of home.
We check each preceptor against UL Lafayette's and Louisiana's rules before your name goes forward: an active Louisiana license, psychiatric-mental health certification, at least one year of clinical experience, a suitable setting and room under the two-student limit. The agency contract details, the preceptor's CV, the signed letter of agreement and your health, OSHA and HIPAA documents come together early, because the consortium wants all of it on file before your first clinical day. Course faculty approve the preceptor and the graduate coordinator reviews them; we see that the file reaching them is complete.
When a site changes its plans mid-term, your placement advisor starts a new psychiatric preceptor search immediately, so the practicum can continue. Our full process is on how it works, and the form below opens your file.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
How long does UL Lafayette's PMHNP MSN take?
Six semesters in the catalog plan, one more than the FNP, because psychiatric diagnostics, psychopharmacology and psychotherapy fill semester three before the first practicum. Which season each semester lands in is not published, so map your plan with your advisor after admission. The Graduate School allows six years for credits counted toward a master's.
Does the PMHNP include any primary care?
One course. NURS 509 Population-Based Primary Care sits in semester four, beside the first psychiatric practicum, and it carries no precepted hours. All three clinical courses, NURS 591 to NURS 593, are psychiatric mental health practicums, so your precepted hours are spent in psychiatric-mental health care.
Is there an on-campus requirement for the PMHNP?
UL Lafayette publishes none for the MSN. Lectures and coursework run in Moodle, including courses taught by other ICMSN schools. NURS 507 lists lab contact hours in the catalog, but no campus check-off is stated on any UL Lafayette page. Your in-person work is the precepted clinical time at Louisiana sites.
Who approves a PMHNP preceptor?
Under the ICMSN handbook, course faculty approve each preceptor and the graduate coordinator reviews them first. The consortium's minimums are a master's or doctorate in a relevant field, a current unencumbered license, APRN certification in the area, a suitable practice setting and at least a year of clinical experience. Louisiana's Board adds its own license and ratio rules on top.
I'm already a certified NP. Is the MSN my only route to PMHNP?
No. If you hold national certification as an ACNP, ANP, FNP, GNP or WHNP, UL Lafayette's PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate adds psychiatric practice through a shorter 20-credit, four-semester plan with 510 direct patient care hours. It asks for a Louisiana APRN license and a 3.0 graduate GPA at entry.
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.