Northwest Louisiana clinicals for Southeastern NP students
In northwest Louisiana the largest academic system, Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport, takes NP requests only from schools, confirms preceptors itself and asks students not to call its providers. Willis Knighton posts no NP route, and two parishes share Louisiana's top mental health shortage score. Southeastern Louisiana University students need a search that reaches practices and health centers from day one, and ours does.
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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.
The Shreveport region in brief
Region 7 covers Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, De Soto, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine and Webster parishes, home to an estimated 509,133 people in July 2025, down 3.0% since 2020. Caddo (224,226) and Bossier (131,867) hold most of them and, with De Soto, form the Shreveport-Bossier City metro area of 383,474.
Beyond the metro the parishes turn rural. Natchitoches and Webster anchor micropolitan areas around Natchitoches and Minden; Bienville, Red River and Sabine carry USDA rural code 8 and Claiborne code 9. Benton, Springhill, Mansfield, Many, Coushatta and Homer round out the map. Shreveport sits roughly 290 road miles from Hammond, the farthest of any region, which matters mostly when DNP students return for orientation and the defense.
Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport runs on school-entered requests
Ochsner LSU Health System of North Louisiana runs the Academic Medical Center and St. Mary Medical Center in Shreveport. Its graduate nursing page, read in September 2026, sets the system's own rules, not Southeastern's:
- The school enters every requestSince April 1, 2024, advanced practice requests reach InPlace only through a school faculty member or coordinator. The platform is closed to students, and emailed or PDF requests are no longer taken.
- Agreements and licenses firstThe school needs an active affiliation agreement with this system (Ochsner Health's page lists it apart from the rest of Ochsner), plus Louisiana State Board of Nursing approval for APRN clinicals; the student needs an RN license valid in Louisiana or a compact license.
- The system confirms the preceptorIts academics team makes the match. A preceptor's verbal yes is weighed but not binding, and its own employees and highly rated graduate programs come first.
- No calls, fixed datesStudents are told not to call its providers or their offices. Requests are due three months ahead at the latest: fall requests by May 1, spring by October 1, summer by February 1.
Ask your course faculty whether the university holds a current agreement with the system. Since no student can line up an Ochsner LSU Health preceptor alone, search elsewhere in parallel.
Willis Knighton, CHRISTUS and the VA
Willis Knighton Health runs Willis Knighton North, its flagship, plus South & the Center for Women's Health, Bossier and Pierremont. South, with women's and children's services, a PICU and a NICU, is Shreveport's entry on Louisiana's short list of children's hospitals. Yet a check of the system's site found no NP student page, only a summer shadow program for nursing student techs and a staff preceptor course.
CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System and the critical access CHRISTUS Coushatta Health Care Center follow the CHRISTUS system page: an affiliation agreement signed before the term, a faculty advisor who names the site, and no promise of a spot. Overton Brooks VA Medical Center accepts trainees through an affiliation agreement between the VA and the school.
Health centers from Caddo to Sabine
HRSA lists 44 active health center sites in Region 7 (September 26, 2026 records); school-based ones mostly run in term time.
| Organization | Sites | Towns |
|---|---|---|
| David Raines Community Health Center | 23 (12 school-based, 4 mobile vans) | Shreveport, Gilliam, Keithville, Bossier City, Minden, Haynesville |
| CASSE | 9 | Mansfield, Stonewall, Bossier City, Shreveport |
| Access Health Louisiana | 4, all school-based | Campti, Marthaville, Natchitoches, Robeline |
| Outpatient Medical Center | 2 | Natchitoches |
| Winn Community Health Center | 2 | Bossier City, Ringgold |
| Mercy Medical Health Center | 2 | Arcadia |
| Iberia Comprehensive; Capitol City Family Health Center | 1 each | Many; Shreveport |
Shortage scores, and why psychiatric preceptors are hardest to find
In HRSA's September 2026 files, every one of the nine parishes is a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) for both primary care and mental health, scored 0 to 25. On the mental health side, Bienville and Claiborne score 22, tied with Morehouse for the state's top, while Caddo's low-income designation, Sabine and Webster reach 21.
Primary care scores run lower: Bienville 19, Bossier 18, De Soto and Natchitoches 17, Sabine 16, Red River 15, Caddo 14, Claiborne and Webster 12. Those mental health scores show how few providers serve these parishes, so PMHNP students should start a semester before NURS 6910.
Lining up Southeastern's courses in the northwest
Southeastern's steps are the same statewide: you put forward a preceptor, course faculty approve with the graduate coordinator reviewing, and the site's university contract is filed first (clinical contracts).
NURS 6820: Willis Knighton South posts no NP route, so pediatric and prenatal hours tend to come from pediatric groups, family and women's health practices, and David Raines' school-based sites.NURS 6830andNURS 6840: Shreveport, Bossier City, Minden, Mansfield and Natchitoches health centers for adults and older adults, rural health clinics, or Overton Brooks under a VA agreement.NURS 6910toNURS 6930: Shreveport-Bossier psychiatric practices and the region's health centers, with young patients forNURS 6920, older ones forNURS 6930, and most hours under a psychiatric APRN (preceptor requirements).- DNP residency: parishes with mental health scores above 20 make strong project populations.
Paid shifts never count as clinical hours, including at a hospital where you already work (clinicals where you work).
Why northwest Louisiana students choose us
With the biggest system routing everything through schools and ruling out direct calls, the preceptors you can approach work in independent practices, health centers and behavioral health groups. We search those across all nine parishes, match each preceptor's Louisiana license and population focus to your course, flag any site needing a new university contract, and hand you a tidy file for the faculty conversation. Should a preceptor back out mid-semester, we go straight back to searching for a replacement. Begin with the request form.
Questions Southeastern students ask
Can I call an Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport NP and ask them to precept me?
Its graduate nursing page says students should not call its providers or their offices, and requests come only from the school through InPlace, after which the system confirms the preceptor itself. Raise your interest with course faculty and keep a second option moving.
I live near Shreveport. Can my hours be in east Texas?
Not in the MSN or the PMHNP certificate. The MSN program page requires all clinical hours in Louisiana, and state nursing rules want every preceptor licensed here. The consortium's FAQ does mention students in east Texas, which reads as consortium-wide wording; Louisiana-only clinicals sets out that conflict.
Is Willis Knighton South an option for pediatric hours?
It has women's and children's services, a PICU and a NICU, but Willis Knighton publishes no NP student process. An APRN there would still need course faculty approval and a university contract with the hospital, so keep pediatric and family practices in the search too.
Is Natchitoches part of the Shreveport region?
Yes. The state health department places Natchitoches Parish in Region 7, though the city anchors its own micropolitan area. Access Health Louisiana runs four school-based sites in the parish, Outpatient Medical Center two in Natchitoches, and the low-income primary care designation scores 17.
How early should I start looking for a Shreveport-area preceptor?
The semester before your clinical course. Ochsner LSU Health wants school requests three months ahead, and the consortium handbook warns that a new university contract with a practice can take weeks or months.
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
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