Southeastern's post-master's PMHNP certificate for nurse practitioners
Southeastern Louisiana University's post-master's PMHNP certificate turns a nurse practitioner certified in another population into a psychiatric mental health NP in four semesters. The catalog lists 20 credit hours and 510 clinical hours, but its own course descriptions add to 595, and every practicum must take place in Louisiana. Here is what those numbers mean for your preceptor search.
Plan your psychiatric practicums
Tell us your start term and where you practice, and your placement advisor maps preceptors for all four clinical courses.
Who the certificate is for
This is Southeastern's route for nurse practitioners who want to add psychiatric mental health to their practice. The catalog asks for national certification as an adult, family, geriatric, acute care or women's health nurse practitioner, a graduate GPA of at least 3.0 and an unencumbered Louisiana RN license. As nurse practitioners, applicants also show a Louisiana APRN license, per the post-master's admission page.
Like the FNP certificate, it is offered in affiliation with the consortium behind Southeastern's MSN; the catalog describes it as accelerated and fully approved by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing. Admission happens in spring and fall.
The same certificate is built into Southeastern's post-master's DNP with a PMHNP option, a 59-credit route covered on the post-master's DNP page. Students on that route follow a different term order for the psychiatric courses, so this page describes the standalone certificate.
Four semesters, five courses
The catalog plan alternates fall and spring, opening with psychopharmacology and psychotherapy and closing with a version of Psychiatric/Mental Health III written for certificate students.
| Catalog term | Course | Credits | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall, semester I | NURS 6080 Diagnostic Considerations and Psychopharmacology for Psychiatric Disorders | 3 | None |
| Fall, semester I | NURS 6900 Psychotherapy for Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing | 3 | 60 observation |
| Spring, semester I | NURS 6910 Psychiatric/Mental Health I | 5 | 200 |
| Fall, semester II | NURS 6920 Psychiatric/Mental Health II | 5 | 275 |
| Spring, semester II | NURS 6970 Psychiatric/Mental Health III for Post-Master's Certificate Students | 4 | 120 |
The printed plan assumes a fall start. Southeastern admits certificate students in spring too but prints no spring sequence, so ask the graduate coordinator how a spring start is ordered. Psychiatric/Mental Health I and Psychiatric/Mental Health II are the same courses MSN students take; the difference comes at the end.
The shorter final course for certificate students
NURS 6970 is a four-credit course with 120 practicum hours, written for post-master's certificate students, and it requires NURS 6920 first. MSN students take NURS 6930 in its place, which carries 275 hours with an emphasis on older adults. The certificate version is less than half as long. The Psychiatric/Mental Health III guide sets the two side by side.
Timing varies by document. The course description lists NURS 6970 for fall and spring, the certificate plan places it in spring, and the post-master's DNP with PMHNP plan puts it in summer. Your advisor fixes the term, and your preceptor has to be ready for that one.
Because NURS 6900, NURS 6910 and NURS 6920 are shared with MSN students, the observation hours, the adult diagnostic course and the child and adolescent emphasis are identical to what MSN PMHNP students complete. Only the length of the last course changes.
510 or 595 hours: reading the conflict
Southeastern's figures do not agree. The 2026-27 catalog prints a total of 510 clinical hours, and the majors listing shows 20 semester hours with 510 clinical. Add the course descriptions and you get 200 plus 275 plus 120, which is 595, or 655 counting the 60 observation hours in NURS 6900.
The certificate's own web page adds a third version: it describes an 18 credit hour curriculum of five courses with 120 to 240 practicum hours in each, which matches neither the catalog's 20 credits nor the 275 hours in NURS 6920.
Our advice: plan preceptor time for the course descriptions, 595 hours plus observation, since each course states its own hour requirement. If the graduate coordinator confirms a lower figure for your cohort, you finish early rather than short. The PMHNP hours guide sets this beside the MSN's 750.
Budget for 595 hours, not 510. Planning to the lower catalog total leaves you short if a course expects its full stated hours.
Onsite orientation and Louisiana practicums
Certificate students must attend an onsite Post-Master's Certificate Program Orientation, which Southeastern's admission information says will be scheduled; no date is published. That admission sheet dates from February 2023 and still names Moodle, which Southeastern replaced with Canvas in spring 2024, so confirm current details with the Graduate Nursing Office.
The Louisiana rule is written directly into this certificate's page: every practicum experience takes place in the state. Louisiana's board adds that preceptors hold an active, unencumbered Louisiana RN and/or APRN license and that most hours are with an APRN certified in the population focus, here psychiatric mental health. Southeastern also lists the certificate on its professional licensure disclosure page with no determination yet for other states; read state authorization if you might practice elsewhere.
One more rule matters to working NPs: hours count only when you are not being paid. If your own practice employs a PMHNP, precepting there works on your unpaid time, provided the site has a university agreement and course faculty sign off.
What we do for PMHNP certificate students
You already know clinical practice; what you need is psychiatric preceptors on a fixed calendar. We plan the whole sequence: an observation setting for NURS 6900, a psychiatric NP for the 200 hours of NURS 6910, a preceptor who sees children and adolescents for NURS 6920, and a setting for the 120 hours of NURS 6970, all in your part of Louisiana.
Practicing NPs often hold the best first leads: the psychiatric clinician your patients are referred to, or the behavioral hospital that admits them. We start from those relationships where you have them, add fresh candidates from outpatient psychiatric practices and community mental health settings across your region, and check each one against the course before you approach faculty.
Every preceptor is checked for a Louisiana license and psychiatric certification, room in the schedule for a student, and whether the site already has an agreement with the university, and your hours are scheduled around your paid practice. You receive the preceptor's CV and a brief for course faculty. If a preceptor leaves partway through, the placement desk finds and vets a replacement. Start with the request form.
Questions Southeastern students ask
Is the PMHNP certificate fully online?
The didactic courses are online, and each practicum course pairs online coursework with clinical hours beside an approved advanced practice preceptor, guided by graduate faculty. The in-person pieces are the onsite orientation at the start and the clinical hours themselves, which all happen in Louisiana.
Can I keep practicing as an FNP while doing the PMHNP certificate?
Yes, as long as your clinical hours fall on unpaid time. The middle two semesters are the heaviest, with 200 hours in NURS 6910 and 275 in NURS 6920. Our arithmetic puts 275 hours over a 16-week semester at about 17 hours a week, so a lighter work schedule that fall is worth planning early.
Does Southeastern help find PMHNP certificate preceptors?
Faculty take part at every step. Southeastern's certificate page describes clinical work alongside an advanced practice preceptor the program approves, with graduate faculty guiding it. Under the consortium process, you propose the preceptor, course faculty approve and the graduate coordinator reviews, and the consortium tells students it maintains a roster of preceptors, current and former, across south Louisiana to suggest. Our search adds a dedicated advisor on top of that.
Do the 60 observation hours need a preceptor too?
The catalog counts them as practicum hours of observation in NURS 6900, so treat them like any practicum: a setting course faculty accept, arranged before the semester. Ask course faculty early what the observation must include and whether the site needs a contract, since the course sits in your very first semester.
Can I start the PMHNP certificate in summer?
No. Southeastern admits PMHNP certificate students in spring and fall only. The catalog plan opens with NURS 6080 and NURS 6900 in a fall semester, so a fall start follows the printed order, and spring admits should ask the graduate coordinator how their first courses are arranged.
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.