Your Southeastern clinical course is close and you have no preceptor: this week's plan
If a clinical course at Southeastern Louisiana University is weeks away and no preceptor has said yes, the next five days matter most. Talk to course faculty first, ask about the consortium's recommendations, widen the search past the big hospital systems, and check each lead's contract status before you invest in it.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Southeastern program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Southeastern course.
Day one: tell your course faculty where you stand
Your course faculty member plans each clinical experience with you and approves the preceptor, so they should hear about the gap first. Use your university email, the account the consortium handbook requires for all faculty and preceptor contact, and name the course, the semester, the leads you tried and the answers you got.
Then ask three questions. When does Southeastern need your preceptor and agency named? The handbook points only to your university's designated deadline, and Southeastern does not publish that date. Does the consortium's list of preceptors it can recommend include anyone near you? Which facilities already hold a current university contract? Southeastern has no published policy for a student who reaches a course without a preceptor, so faculty guidance is what counts. Who does what lists the other roles to contact.
A five-day plan
Run these side by side. One focused week shows how realistic the semester still is.
- Day one: facultyEmail course faculty with your course, semester and leads tried, and ask for the consortium's recommendations near you.
- Day two: a wide listList every practice within driving range that sees your course population, from independent offices to community health centers and behavioral health groups.
- Day three: contract statusLook up each facility in the clinical tracking system. A site under a current university contract can move quickly; a site without one needs a fresh agreement, which the handbook says can stretch from weeks into months.
- Day four: the right front doorSend each request the way the organization asks: a web form for some hospitals, a direct note to independent practices, and your school for Ochsner, which asks students not to contact its providers.
- Day five: the packetFor every yes, gather the preceptor's current CV or professional profile, license and certification details and a proposed schedule, and send it to course faculty that day.
A willing preceptor at a facility with no university contract is only half a placement. Check the contract first, and keep a second lead moving until faculty approve the first.
Look past the big hospital systems
Several large Louisiana systems route graduate requests through schools or post long lead times. Smaller practices that decide for themselves deserve as much of your week.
- Independent family, internal medicine and pediatric practices, where the preceptor and the decision-maker are often the same person.
- Community health centers. HRSA counts 91 active health center sites across Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes, run by organizations such as RKM Primary Care and Southeast Community Health Systems; many are school-based clinics that follow the school year.
- Outpatient behavioral health groups and psychiatric hospitals for PMHNP courses, such as Northlake Behavioral Health System in Mandeville or Universal Behavioral Health Hospital in Hammond. None publishes a PMHNP student process, so ask the clinical leadership directly.
- Physicians for part of a course, since Louisiana's rules permit several kinds of clinicians so long as a population-matched APRN supervises the larger share.
Widen the map as well. Baton Rouge sits roughly 44 road miles from Hammond and New Orleans roughly 57, by our own approximate routing; see Baton Rouge and Greater New Orleans.
Know each system's front door
Each larger system sets its own route for graduate nursing students, as its student page describes; confirm on the live page before you act.
| System | How requests go in | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Ochsner Health | Your school's representative, through InPlace Network; students asked not to contact providers | Spring cutoff November 15; a new school agreement takes at least four months |
| Ochsner LSU Health (Shreveport, Monroe) | School faculty or coordinator, through InPlace; no calls to providers | At least three months ahead; spring cutoff October 1 |
| LCMC Health | School affiliation agreement first, then each hospital's education office; no preceptor matching (archived copy) | None posted |
| North Oaks, Hammond | Online student request form; no pediatric rotations (archived copy) | None posted |
| St. Tammany Health System | Its own NP clinical request form (archived copy) | 7 to 10 business days to process |
| CHRISTUS Health | Faculty advisor identifies the site; signed affiliation agreement | Signed before the term begins |
The university side of every one of these, the contract or letter of agreement, is explained in clinical contracts.
Pediatric and psychiatric gaps need the earliest push
NURS 6820 needs children and child-bearing women. An archived copy of North Oaks' student request page says the Hammond hospital has no pediatric rotations, and every children's hospital in the state lies off the Northshore, in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette or Shreveport. Family practices with many young patients, pediatric offices and school-based health centers during the school year are where to push. The Family Health I guide goes deeper.
NURS 6920 centers on children and adolescents with psychiatric needs, while HRSA lists Hammond's home parish of Tangipahoa and its neighbors Livingston, Washington and St. Helena as short of mental health professionals. Child psychiatric preceptors are few, so start with outpatient groups and community mental health programs that see teenagers, and ask course faculty early whether two approved preceptors could share the course.
How we help right away
Send your course, semester start, parish and the leads you already tried. Your placement advisor starts with preceptors near you who fit that course's population, confirms each Louisiana license and each preceptor's student load for the term, and learns whether the facility is under contract or needs one started. If the course is already underway, we look first at practices with open clinic days in the weeks you have left.
You receive a faculty-ready brief for each option: CV or profile, certification, patient mix and a weekly schedule outside your paid shifts. Course faculty still decide; our job is putting strong, complete options in front of them fast. Send the request form today, or see how it works for the whole process.
Questions Southeastern students ask
What happens if the semester starts and I still have no preceptor?
Neither Southeastern nor the consortium has published a policy for that case, so your course faculty member's guidance decides it. No clinical hour can count until a preceptor is approved and the contract, CV and signed letter of agreement are on file. Talk with faculty well before the withdrawal deadline, October 30 for full-semester fall 2026 classes.
Can I do my clinical hours in Mississippi if Louisiana practices are full?
Not for the MSN or the PMHNP certificate. Southeastern's MSN page puts all clinical hours in Louisiana, the PMHNP certificate page says the same of its practicums, and the state board wants every preceptor licensed in Louisiana as an RN or APRN. Students near the state line should widen the search inside Louisiana instead.
Can a physician precept me if I cannot find a nurse practitioner?
For part of the course, yes. Louisiana's board rules allow a mix of clinicians, and Southeastern's graduate programs page describes contract arrangements with physician preceptors as well as advanced practice nurses. The board also wants the majority of your clinical time under a population-matched APRN, so a physician usually supplements an NP preceptor rather than replacing one.
Is it too late to find a preceptor for spring 2027?
Not necessarily. Spring classes begin January 20, 2027. A practice already under a university contract can still be approved in that window, while a brand-new contract may need months and Ochsner Health's spring request cutoff is November 15. Start with sites that show a current contract in the tracking system.
Can a nurse practitioner at my own job precept me this semester?
Yes, provided your clinical time is kept apart from your regular duties and falls on hours your employer is not paying for. The consortium handbook allows a preceptor where you work on that condition. Check that the facility has a current university contract, and give course faculty a schedule that shows clinical days separate from your shifts.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Southeastern's own catalog, program pages and consortium handbook, and Louisiana rules. Your course faculty, the graduate coordinator and your advisor have the final word.
Southeastern asks you to choose your preceptor. We find one near you.
Tell us your Southeastern track, where in Louisiana you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find Louisiana-licensed preceptors who fit the course, confirm whether the facility is already under contract with the university, and hand you what your course faculty need to approve it before the semester.
- Pediatric and women's health preceptors for
NURS 6820, adult and older-adult primary care forNURS 6830andNURS 6840 - Psychiatric preceptors for
NURS 6910toNURS 6930, with the child and older-adult focus each course sets - Across Louisiana, from the Northshore to Shreveport
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.