Nurse practitioner clinicals in Houma, Thibodaux and the river parishes
South Central Louisiana stretches from LaPlace and Luling on the river to Houma, Thibodaux and Morgan City, seven parishes losing residents faster than any other Louisiana region. For a Southeastern Louisiana University FNP or PMHNP student, Ochsner runs the most hospitals, the non-Ochsner hospitals in Houma and Thibodaux publish no NP student process, and health centers, rural clinics and private practices do much of the work in any search here.
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Seven parishes split across four federal maps
The Louisiana Department of Health files Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary and Terrebonne together as Region 3, the Terrebonne Area. Census estimates counted 375,339 people there in July 2025, down from 392,798 in the 2020 base, the sharpest slide of the state's nine health regions.
Federal statistics split it four ways: Lafourche and Terrebonne form the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux metro (199,668 people), St. Charles, St. James and St. John the Baptist sit in the New Orleans-Metairie metro, Assumption in the Baton Rouge metro, and St. Mary, the Morgan City micropolitan area, is the lone nonmetro parish. From Hammond it is roughly 35 miles to LaPlace and 134 to Franklin.
Hospitals, and what each one publishes for NP students
Ochsner Health has the widest footprint: Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland (critical access), Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City, Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma, St. Charles Parish Hospital in Luling (on Ochsner's location list) and an emergency and outpatient complex in LaPlace whose inpatients go to Kenner.
Ochsner's clinical education page describes a process run by schools. Only someone from an affiliated school can file a graduate nursing request in InPlace Network; students have no login and send any preceptor they hope to work with to the school coordinator, not to Ochsner staff. The page singles out Chabert and St. Charles Parish Hospital as needing an affiliation agreement beyond Ochsner's main one, and says a new agreement takes four months or more.
Neither of the two local hospital systems posts an NP student route. Thibodaux Regional's site has no student placement page, though Nicholls State University, a consortium school, named its nursing school for the system after the largest gift that program had received, in 2024. Terrebonne General's job shadowing page (archived April 2026) covers shadowing and student jobs, not clinical rotations.
In Napoleonville, FMOL Health's Our Lady of the Lake Assumption Community Hospital is now a Rural Emergency Hospital, Louisiana's only one in CMS's July 2026 file, with emergency and outpatient care but no inpatient beds; FMOL posts no NP student process.
Whichever door you try, Southeastern's sequence holds: course faculty approve your proposed preceptor with graduate coordinator review, and no hour counts until the university has a signed contract or letter of agreement covering that facility (clinical contracts).
Health centers, VA clinics and rural clinics
HRSA's September 2026 file lists 30 active health center sites here; school-based ones mostly follow the school calendar.
- TAB Health: 13 sites in six parishes, including Houma, Thibodaux, Morgan City, Franklin, Pierre Part, Reserve and Vacherie; 3 school-based.
- Access Health Louisiana: 10 sites in St. Charles and St. James, from Destrehan and Luling to Lutcher; 7 are school-based and 1 is a mobile van.
- Life Coast Community Health Center (4 sites) and Start Corporation (3), both in Houma and Thibodaux.
- VA Southeast Louisiana: clinics in Houma, Franklin and Reserve; VA training requires a VA-school affiliation agreement.
Assumption Parish adds two rural health clinics with their own federal shortage designations.
Shortage designations: high need in St. John, none in St. Charles
St. John the Baptist's low-income primary care score of 20 sits near the top of the state. St. Charles stands apart: it is among just four parishes statewide lacking any area or population designation for primary care, and one of only two without a mental health designation.
| Parish | 2025 population | Primary care | Mental health |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assumption | 19,720 | Geographic, whole parish, 15 | Geographic, whole parish, 15 |
| Lafourche | 95,505 | Low-income population, 14 | Low-income population, 17 |
| St. Charles | 50,586 | None | None |
| St. James | 18,938 | Low-income population, 12 | Low-income population, 13 |
| St. John the Baptist | 39,875 | Low-income population, 20 | Low-income population, 14 |
| St. Mary | 46,552 | Low-income population, 15 | High-needs geographic, 13 |
| Terrebonne | 104,163 | Low-income population, 13 | Geographic, whole parish, 16 |
A mental health designation means too few mental health providers for the population, so fewer psychiatric APRNs have room to teach; PMHNP students in Terrebonne, Assumption or St. Mary should start a term early.
Fitting the region to Southeastern's clinical courses
The preceptor in each row must hold a Louisiana license, and most of your NP time belongs with an APRN certified for your population (preceptor requirements). Clinical time must fall outside shifts your employer pays for (clinicals where you work).
| Course | Hours and focus | Where to look here |
|---|---|---|
NURS 6820 Family Health I | 200; pediatrics and child-bearing women | Family practices, pediatric offices, school-based sites and OB-GYN offices; no children's hospital in the region |
NURS 6830 Family Health II | 275; adults | TAB Health, Life Coast and Start sites in Houma and Thibodaux; internal medicine groups |
NURS 6840 Family Health III | 275; adults and older adults | Assumption's rural health clinics, Morgan City and Franklin clinics, Ochsner clinics through the school's request |
NURS 6910 Psychiatric/Mental Health I | 200; diagnostic assessment and psychotherapy basics | Outpatient psychiatric practices and behavioral health groups |
NURS 6920 Psychiatric/Mental Health II | 275; emphasis on children and adolescents | Child and adolescent psychiatric practices |
NURS 6930 Psychiatric/Mental Health III | 275; emphasis on older adults | Geriatric psychiatry practices and long-term care consult services |
DNP residency NURS 8210 to NURS 8230 | 90, 180 and 180 | A health center or clinic in a designated parish |
Why students in the bayou and river parishes choose us
Your placement advisor searches all seven parishes, from the river towns to Morgan City, and screens every preceptor for your course, a Louisiana license and the right population before your course faculty see a name. The placement desk confirms early whether Southeastern has a contract with the facility, flags Ochsner sites needing their own agreement, and stays on call if a preceptor steps away. Start with the request form a full term ahead.
Questions Southeastern students ask
Can I contact a nurse practitioner at an Ochsner clinic in Houma or Raceland about precepting me?
Ochsner's clinical education page tells students to route every preceptor name through their school coordinator instead of contacting its providers or staff; the coordinator files the request in InPlace Network. Raise the site with your course faculty, and note that Chabert in Houma sits outside Ochsner's main agreement.
Where is the nearest children's hospital to Houma for pediatric hours?
None of Louisiana's children's hospitals is in the seven parishes; the closest are in New Orleans (Manning Family Children's and Ochsner Children's). Pediatric hours for NURS 6820 can also come from family practices and school-based clinics when the preceptor meets Louisiana's license rule and your course faculty approve.
Does Thibodaux Regional Medical Center take nurse practitioner students?
Its website has no student placement page, portal or published rule for NP students. If a preceptor there fits your course, check with your course faculty on whether the university already has an agreement with Thibodaux Regional, because a new facility agreement can take several weeks to months to finish.
Does LaPlace count as South Central Louisiana or New Orleans for my search?
Both, depending on the map: the state health department puts St. John the Baptist in its Terrebonne Area region, while the Census Bureau counts it in the New Orleans-Metairie metro. Southeastern's rule is statewide, every hour in Louisiana under a preceptor licensed here, so also check the Greater New Orleans guide.
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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