Southeastern's MSN Nursing Education concentration and its two practicums

Updated September 27, 2026 · Reviewed by the Southeastern Preceptor placement team

Southeastern Louisiana University's MSN in Nursing Education totals 40 credit hours across four semesters under the 2026-27 catalog, with coursework online and shared across the consortium. Its practice component is small but fixed: NURS 6440 at four hours a week in fall and NURS 6570 at twelve hours a week in spring, 240 hours in the catalog and 225 on the majors page. Both need a Louisiana preceptor that course faculty approve.

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Line up both education practicums

Tell us your start term and the specialty you want to teach, and your placement advisor finds settings for both courses.

40credit hours, 43 with a thesis (2026-27 catalog)

240practicum hours in the 2026-27 catalog; the majors page says 225

What the concentration prepares you for

The consortium offers two advanced role concentrations, nurse practitioner and nursing education, and the catalog names Nursing Education as the educator role its graduates are prepared to seek certification in. You study roles and foundations, curriculum and program development, teaching methods and technologies, and outcome measurement. You also take the same advanced health assessment, pharmacotherapeutics and pathophysiology courses as the NP students, which grounds your teaching in advanced clinical content.

Because the program belongs to the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing, classmates and faculty may come from McNeese, Nicholls or UL Lafayette while Southeastern remains your home school. The consortium guide explains how that works day to day.

Admission requirements are shared across the MSN: a Louisiana RN license without encumbrance and at least a 2.7 GPA on undergraduate work, followed after enrollment by background, drug and alcohol screening and health requirements you pay for. The catalog's experience rule, a year as an RN in an area fitting the specialty, applies before any practicum course, both of yours included, and CPR has to stay current.

The four-semester plan

The education and science courses come first, and both practicums fall in the second half. As printed in the 2026-27 catalog:

MSN Nursing Education plan, 2026-27 catalog
Semester	Courses	Practicum
1	`NURS 6000` Theoretical Foundations; `NURS 6050` Applied Statistics; `NURS 6180` Pathophysiology; `NURS 6340` Nursing Education: Roles, Issues and Foundations	None
2	`NURS 6020` Generating Evidence; `NURS 6070` Health Assessment; `NURS 6170` Pharmacotherapeutics; `NURS 6350` Curriculum and Program Development	`NURS 6070` lab, 4 hours a week
3	`NURS 6360` Teaching Methodologies and Technologies; `NURS 6700` Measuring Outcomes in Nursing Education; `NURS 6440` Advanced Clinical Practicum; `NURS 6950` or `NURS 6990`	4 hours a week
4	`NURS 6090` Population Based Primary Care; `NURS 6570` Nursing Education Practicum	12 hours a week

Choosing the thesis over the focused scholarly project raises the total to 43 credit hours. Full-time students in the catalog take 7 to 10 credit hours per term; part-time students take longer and have six years from their first course to finish.

The advanced clinical practicum in the fall

NURS 6440 carries one credit: one class hour plus four practicum hours each week, in fall. Its catalog title is Advanced Clinical Practicum in Nursing Practice. It requires NURS 6070 and NURS 6340, so it follows directly from the second semester.

The catalog gives the hours but little about the setting. The course sits beside the teaching methods and outcomes courses, so a clinical area tied to the specialty you hope to teach is a sensible starting point; course faculty confirm what the course needs before you ask anyone to precept.

Four hours a week sounds light, yet it is a full practicum under the consortium's process: a preceptor whom course faculty approve and the graduate coordinator reviews, a facility contract with the university and a signed letter of agreement, all on file before your first hour. Choosing your preceptor sets out those steps, and the Nursing Education practicums guide covers both courses in depth.

The education practicum in the spring

NURS 6570 Nursing Education Practicum is three credits: one class hour and twelve practicum hours a week in spring, after NURS 6700. The catalog describes it as putting the nurse educator roles into practice in precepted class, lab and clinical settings, so the natural preceptor is a nurse who teaches, in a school of nursing or a clinical education role.

That widens the field beyond hospital units: a nursing program's classrooms and skills labs, a hospital's staff development department, or clinical teaching with prelicensure students. Each setting still needs course faculty approval and an agreement with the university, either a contract or a letter of agreement.

The consortium's preceptor policy sets five tests: graduate education, master's or doctoral, relevant to the role; a current license with no encumbrance; certification in the appropriate area; a practice setting suited to your learning; and a minimum of one year in clinical practice. How the certification item applies to an educator preceptor is a question to settle with course faculty early.

Twelve hours a week is a real commitment beside a nursing job. The consortium handbook bars counting hours you are paid for, even when you teach or orient staff at your own employer, so plan the schedule well before spring.

240 hours or 225: the conflict

Two Southeastern documents give two totals: 240 clinical hours in the 2026-27 catalog and 225 on the majors page for Nursing Education. The two course descriptions give weekly rates only, so neither page shows its math.

Our own arithmetic, not a Southeastern figure: four hours a week plus twelve hours a week over a 15-week stretch comes to 60 plus 180, exactly 240, while 225 would fit a shorter count of weeks. Plan for 240, and ask course faculty at the start of each practicum how many hours the syllabus requires and how you should record them.

The Louisiana rule applies here as it does for the NP tracks, because Southeastern's MSN page covers every clinical hour in the program. See Louisiana-only clinicals for how the state's licensing rules shape who can precept you.

Treat the education practicums like the NP clinicals, not as an afterthought. The same approval, contract and paperwork steps apply, and setting up a new facility agreement can stretch from several weeks to a few months.

What we do for Nursing Education students

We plan both practicums in one pass. For NURS 6440, your placement advisor looks for a Louisiana clinical setting and preceptor aligned with the specialty you want to teach. For NURS 6570, we find an experienced nurse educator in a school of nursing, a hospital education department or a clinical teaching role who can take you for twelve hours a week through the spring.

We confirm each preceptor's license and credentials against the consortium's policy, check whether the setting is already covered by a university contract or letter of agreement, and prepare the preceptor's CV with a short summary for course faculty. Your schedule is built around your paid shifts from the start.

If a preceptor has to withdraw, the placement desk finds and vets the replacement. Send us your planned start on the request form, and the fall practicum is where your advisor begins.

Questions Southeastern students ask

Can I study Nursing Education part-time at Southeastern?

Yes. The catalog describes part-time plans of 6 credit hours a semester, and Southeastern's graduate page says most MSN students enroll part-time. Part-time study stretches the plan past four semesters, but NURS 6440 still runs in fall and NURS 6570 in spring, and every requirement must be finished within six years of your first course.

Can Nursing Education graduates sit for educator certification?

Certification eligibility for the educator role is part of what the catalog says the concentration prepares you for, though it names no specific exam and publishes no pass rates. Southeastern also cautions that some certification exams expect experience beyond the master's before you qualify, so read the certifying body's current eligibility rules before setting a timeline.

Do Nursing Education students use the clinical tracking system?

The consortium handbook's practicum steps cover nurse educator students as well as NPs, and they have you post your approved schedule in the clinical tracking system and check facility contracts there. The rule requiring a paid subscription is written for NP students. Ask course faculty what applies to you before NURS 6440 begins.

Will I need to travel to Hammond for the Nursing Education MSN?

No campus visit appears among the MSN requirements Southeastern publishes, and theory courses are delivered online. What happens in person is the practicum work itself, in Louisiana, plus a faculty site visit the consortium builds into practicum courses. The health assessment course lists four lab hours a week without naming a location, so confirm that one with your advisor.

Can I start Nursing Education in the summer?

Yes. Southeastern admits MSN students in summer as well as spring and fall, with May 16 as the summer application deadline. Wherever you start, NURS 6440 is offered in fall and NURS 6570 in spring, so your start term decides the academic year in which your practicums fall.

Nursing EducationNursing Education practicumsSoutheastern's MSN Nursing Education practicums: NURS 6440 at 4 hours a week, NURS 6570 at 12, the 240 vs 225 total, and how teaching placements are set up.Southeastern systemChoosing your preceptorSoutheastern's exact words on choosing NP preceptors: the DNP page, the consortium handbook steps, faculty facilitation, the preceptor list, and how we help.Southeastern systemClinical contractsHow Southeastern's facility contracts work: university-level agreements, checking status in the tracking system, lead times and Louisiana health system rules.Southeastern systemThe MSN consortiumSoutheastern's MSN runs through a four-school consortium with McNeese, Nicholls and UL Lafayette: home school, shared courses, the handbook, the preceptor list.Placement helpHow it worksStep by step: how we find a Louisiana-licensed preceptor for your Southeastern NURS course, check the facility contract and prepare for faculty approval.

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 for NURS 6830 and NURS 6840
Psychiatric preceptors for NURS 6910 to NURS 6930, with the child and older-adult focus each course sets
Across Louisiana, from the Northshore to Shreveport

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