Southeastern's online RN to BSN: courses, 8-week terms and the community lab
Southeastern Louisiana University's RN to BSN is fully online for working registered nurses, with courses in 8-week terms and starts in August, January and June. Its published curriculum is a 31-hour nursing core with no precepted clinical hours listed. This guide covers the courses, the calendar, what is and is not public about a community lab, and how to set yourself up now if an MSN or DNP is next.
Planning a graduate NP program after your BSN?
Tell us which Southeastern track interests you and when you finish, and your placement advisor will sketch the clinical timeline with you.
The program at a glance
Southeastern describes the RN to BSN as a completely online program designed for nurses who already hold an RN license. You need an unencumbered license issued through the Louisiana State Board of Nursing or valid under the Nurse Licensure Compact, which means a nurse with a multistate license from another compact state can apply as well.
Classes begin in August, January or June, and you pick the start that suits your schedule. Fall and spring each hold two 8-week terms and summer holds one, a rhythm Southeastern pitches as personalized to a working nurse's schedule. Southeastern's RN to BSN FAQ answers the campus question directly: there is no requirement to come to campus.
Southeastern publishes a single program total for U.S. residents and says it covers tuition, books and fees. Check the RN to BSN page for the current figure, since fee schedules change from year to year.
What the curriculum includes
Southeastern's 2025 RN to BSN curriculum sheet builds the 120-hour BSN from three parts: 59 hours of prerequisites, 30 hours of nursing block credit and a 31-hour nursing core.
The core is nine required nursing courses plus three nursing electives of three credits each. The required courses are listed by number on the sheet:
NURS 3040,NURS 3190andNURS 3310NURS 3320,NURS 3330andNURS 3780NURS 4790,NURS 4820andNURS 4870- Three nursing electives of 3 credits each
The curriculum sheet lists no clinical or practicum hours for any of these courses. That fits a program built for nurses who are already licensed and practicing.
If you are unsure how your earlier coursework maps onto the 59 prerequisite hours, ask the RN to BSN coordinator before you choose a start date. A missing prerequisite is easier to schedule in your first term than your last.
The community lab: what is public and what is not
Southeastern's BSN catalog includes NLAB 4880 Promoting a Healthy Community Lab, a one-credit course with three hours of laboratory a week. Its description has the student collaborating with other health professionals and community members to carry out every phase of the nursing process in a community context.
What no Southeastern page says is whether RN to BSN students take NLAB 4880 or a similar community lab, and, if they do, who arranges the setting. The 2025 RN to BSN curriculum sheet does not list it, and Southeastern publishes no preceptor or site process for the RN to BSN. We would rather tell you that plainly than guess.
If a community component appears in one of your courses, the syllabus in Canvas and your course faculty are the authorities. Ask three questions early in the term: whether the activity needs an outside organization, whether the university needs an agreement with that organization first, and whether hours at your own workplace are acceptable. The answers decide how much lead time you need.
Eight-week terms on the university calendar
Southeastern states the 8-week format for the RN to BSN specifically. The registrar's 2026-27 calendar also splits each fall and spring semester into a Term I and a Term II, and the dates below come from that calendar. Confirm in Workday which term each of your courses sits in, because registration and withdrawal deadlines follow the term.
The registrar's summer 2026 semester ran from June 3 to August 3; the summer 2027 calendar was not yet posted at the end of September 2026. A course that runs eight weeks moves quickly, and a week behind is an eighth of the course, so block study time before the term opens.
| Term | Classes | Last day to withdraw |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026, Term I | August 19 to October 13 | September 25 |
| Fall 2026, Term II | October 14 to December 11 | November 20 |
| Spring 2027, Term I | January 20 to March 11 | February 26 |
| Spring 2027, Term II | March 15 to May 14 | April 30 |
Registration, schedules and grades live in Workday, which replaced the retired LeoNet portal in July 2026, and your courses run in Canvas. The online student tools guide explains both.
If an MSN or DNP comes next
Many RN to BSN students already have a graduate program in view, and a few Southeastern rules are worth knowing now. The MSN and the FNP and PMHNP routes of the BSN to DNP ask for an unencumbered Louisiana RN license, a narrower wording than the RN to BSN's acceptance of a compact license, so a nurse licensed through another compact state should ask the graduate office how that wording applies. RN license requirements sets out each program's version.
The same programs look for at least a 2.7 GPA across all undergraduate work, repeated courses included, so every RN to BSN grade counts. Before the first graduate clinical course, the catalog also expects a year of RN practice in an area suited to your specialty, which your current job may already be building.
The largest difference is the clinical model. Graduate NP students choose their preceptors and sites with course faculty, who approve every preceptor, and all MSN clinical hours happen in Louisiana. The MSN FNP guide and the BSN to DNP FNP guide show when each clinical course arrives.
Where we fit for RN to BSN students
Our work is finding and preparing preceptors for Southeastern's graduate clinical courses, where students propose each preceptor and site for faculty approval. During your RN to BSN, the most useful thing we offer is a planning conversation: which graduate track suits your experience, when its first clinical course would fall, and which settings near you tend to fit that course.
If one of your RN to BSN courses does ask for a community partner, share the assignment with us and we will suggest the kinds of Louisiana organizations that match it, so you can take a short list to your course faculty. When a graduate clinical course is on your calendar, reach out through the request form about two semesters ahead.
Questions Southeastern students ask
Do I need a Louisiana RN license for Southeastern's RN to BSN?
No. Southeastern accepts an unencumbered RN license through the Louisiana State Board of Nursing or through the Nurse Licensure Compact. Southeastern is also a member of NC-SARA, which it says lets it offer distance programs to residents of other states. Graduate NP programs use stricter Louisiana license wording, so check again before applying to one.
Is Southeastern's RN to BSN accredited?
Yes. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits Southeastern's baccalaureate nursing program, and the RN to BSN is a pathway within that BSN. The current accreditation term runs through December 31, 2032, with the next on-site review planned for spring 2032.
Does the RN to BSN program price include textbooks?
Southeastern's RN to BSN FAQ says its flat contract rate includes tuition, fees and textbooks, and the RN to BSN page describes the published total as covering tuition, books and fees for U.S. residents. Confirm the current figure on the program page before you enroll, and ask whether any course adds separate costs.
Can I take just one course at a time in the RN to BSN?
Southeastern does not state a minimum or maximum course load for the RN to BSN in the materials it publishes. With five 8-week terms a year, the pace is largely yours to set; the RN to BSN coordinator can help you spread the 31 core hours across the terms that fit your work schedule.
Who do I contact about the RN to BSN?
Southeastern's RN to BSN page lists an RN to BSN coordinator and an RN to BSN faculty coach for advising. Registration questions go through Workday, technical problems with Canvas or sign-in go to the Student Help Desk, and course questions go to your course faculty.
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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