NURS 6910 Psychiatric/Mental Health I: 200 hours at Southeastern
NURS 6910 is the first precepted psychiatric course in Southeastern Louisiana University's PMHNP programs: five credits, three didactic hours and 200 practicum hours in one semester. The catalog builds it around initial diagnostic assessment and the basics of individual and family psychotherapy, so the preceptor you want is a Louisiana psychiatric clinician who sees new patients and manages common disorders.
Find your Psych/MH I preceptor
Tell us your Southeastern program, the term you take NURS 6910 and your parish. A placement advisor replies with psychiatric preceptor options near you.
What the catalog says NURS 6910 covers
The 2026-27 catalog titles NURS 6910 Advanced Practice Nursing: Psychiatric/Mental Health I and describes it as an introduction to initial diagnostic assessment and to basic individual and family psychotherapeutic processes, interventions and modalities. The focus it names is differential diagnosis, risk analysis and the clinical management of clients with common psychiatric disorders.
In clinic terms, that is the daily work of a psychiatric intake and follow-up practice: a full psychiatric history, a working diagnosis, a judgment about safety and risk, a treatment start and return visits. The syllabus in Canvas holds the objectives and assignments; the catalog wording is only the public outline.
| Item | Catalog detail |
|---|---|
| Credits and contact | 5 credits; three didactic hours and 200 practicum hours per semester |
| Prerequisites | NURS 6000, NURS 8000 or NURS 8300; plus NURS 6020, NURS 6050, NURS 6070, NURS 6080, NURS 6090 (or concurrent), NURS 6170, NURS 6180 and NURS 6900 |
| Term by plan | MSN: semester 4, spring only. BSN to DNP PMHNP: semester 5, fall. Certificate: spring of year one. Post-master's DNP with PMHNP: fall, beside Residency II |
| Offered (course description) | No term stated |
| Opens the way to | NURS 6920 Psych/MH II and, for PMHNP students, NURS 6810 |
| Fee | Laboratory fee required; no amount printed |
Which preceptors fit Psych/MH I
Louisiana's board rules shape the answer. Every preceptor needs an active, unencumbered Louisiana RN or APRN license, and most of your clinical time has to be with an APRN certified in your population focus, which for you is psychiatric-mental health. The same rules let a mix of clinicians teach part of the hours and define a graduate preceptor as an APRN, physician or dentist, so a psychiatrist can cover a share while a PMHNP carries the majority.
The consortium's student handbook adds its own list: a master's or doctorate relevant to the role, current licensure, APRN certification in the right area, a practice setting that suits the course and at least a year of clinical experience. Louisiana also caps each preceptor at two graduate APRN students in any given clinical experience, which matters in busy practices that already host other students. Preceptor requirements and the board's rules go further.
Settings that suit a first psychiatric rotation
Look for places where new patients arrive steadily and a PMHNP or psychiatrist does the first evaluation. Outpatient psychiatric practices, community mental health programs, health centers with behavioral health services and inpatient psychiatric units can all fit; the right one depends on your preceptor and on what your course faculty approve.
Near Hammond, the federal hospital file lists Universal Behavioral Health Hospital in Hammond, Northlake Behavioral Health System in Mandeville, Greenbrier Behavioral Health in Covington, Beacon Behavioral Hospital Northshore in Lacombe and Oceans Behavioral Hospital of Kentwood. Toward Baton Rouge sit the state-run Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System in Jackson and several private behavioral hospitals. None of these publishes a PMHNP student process in the research behind this guide, so the way in is a willing preceptor plus Southeastern's contract check. The Northshore guide maps the region.
Mental health shortage areas across Louisiana
HRSA's shortage files, with records dated September 26, 2026, list 179 active mental health shortage designations in Louisiana. Sixty-two of the 64 parishes carry a parish-level designation, five of them only as proposed for withdrawal, and West Baton Rouge and St. Charles have none. Thirty parishes hold the high-needs geographic type, and the top score in the state, 22 on a scale that runs to 25, belongs to Bienville, Claiborne and Morehouse.
| Parish | Designation | Score |
|---|---|---|
| St. Helena | High-needs geographic, whole parish | 20 |
| Tangipahoa | High-needs geographic, whole parish | 18 |
| Livingston | Geographic, whole parish | 17 |
| Washington | High-needs geographic, whole parish | 16 |
| St. Tammany | Geographic, proposed for withdrawal | 8 |
| East Baton Rouge | Low-income population | 12 |
| Jefferson | Low-income population | 13 |
| Orleans | Low-income population, proposed for withdrawal | 16 |
Shortage status changes often, so check HRSA's HPSA Find tool before you lean on a score. For a PMHNP student the picture cuts both ways: the need for psychiatric care around Hammond is plain, and the clinicians meeting it carry full caseloads, so a request for 200 precepted hours is a real commitment on their side. The Baton Rouge guide covers the parishes west of campus.
Planning the 200 hours
Our arithmetic: a Southeastern fall or spring semester holds about 15 weeks of classes, so 200 hours works out to roughly 13 or 14 hours a week. A fixed weekly pattern, agreed with the preceptor and posted in the clinical tracking system, is easier for a busy practice to plan around than scattered shifts.
- Choose the clinical area with facultyThe consortium procedure opens with an area of practice that fits the course and a conversation about your preceptor choice with the faculty member assigned to
NURS 6910. - Get the preceptor's yesAsk whether they can take a student for 200 hours in your term, and what kinds of patients and visits the practice handles.
- Check the facility contractLook the site up in the clinical tracking system; a new contract can take weeks to months, so start a semester ahead. See facility contracts.
- File the paperworkA preceptor CV or profile dated within two years, a signed three-way letter of agreement and your current health, OSHA and HIPAA records go on file with the Graduate Nursing Office before hour one.
- Look one course ahead
NURS 6920needsNURS 6910, so begin the child and adolescent search for Psych/MH II while you are still in this course.
How we find a NURS 6910 preceptor
We start from your address and the course. Your placement advisor looks for Louisiana PMHNPs and psychiatrists near you whose practice centers on assessment and ongoing management of common psychiatric disorders, confirms their license and certification, and asks whether they can give a student 200 hours in the term your plan shows.
We then check whether the practice or facility already has a contract with Southeastern and prepare what the faculty conversation needs, so approval can move before the semester opens. When the same preceptor also sees many older adults, we flag them for Psych/MH III as well. You see each candidate's setting and likely schedule before anything goes to faculty, and if a preceptor drops partway through the term, we reopen the search near you. Request a search.
Questions Southeastern students ask
Can a psychiatrist be my only preceptor for NURS 6910?
Louisiana's board rules count a physician as a graduate preceptor, but they place the majority of your clinical experience with an APRN certified in your population focus. A psychiatrist can therefore cover part of the 200 hours, with a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner carrying most of them. Your course faculty approve the mix before you start.
Can I use the psychiatric unit where I work for NURS 6910?
You may choose a preceptor at your employer, but the consortium handbook requires practicum hours to be separate from your job duties and outside the time you are paid for. A unit where you are staff can still work if your precepted hours are distinct, unpaid and with an approved APRN. Clinicals where you work covers the practical side.
When do BSN to DNP students take NURS 6910?
In the BSN to DNP PMHNP plan it sits in semester five, a fall term, alongside NURS 8040 and NURS 8310. The MSN plan tags it spring only, and the post-master's DNP with the PMHNP certificate places it in a fall beside Residency II. Confirm your own term with your advisor before a preceptor holds time for you.
What comes after NURS 6910?
NURS 6920 Psych/MH II follows, with 275 hours and an emphasis on children and adolescents, and NURS 6810 opens to PMHNP students once NURS 6910 is complete. Louisiana's children's hospitals sit outside the Northshore, so starting that search during this course pays off; see the NURS 6920 guide.
Do I need psychiatric RN experience before NURS 6910?
The catalog requires evidence of one year of RN clinical practice in an area appropriate to your specialty concentration before any clinical or practicum course, and NURS 6900 comes before this one. If your RN background sits outside psychiatry, ask the graduate coordinator how your experience maps to that rule well before the course.
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.