Clinical placements in Lake Charles and the southwest parishes
Southwest Louisiana gives a Southeastern Louisiana University NP student five parishes, one metro around Lake Charles and fewer community health center sites than any other Louisiana region. Its two biggest hospitals belong to a CHRISTUS and Ochsner joint venture, and CHRISTUS requires a signed affiliation agreement with your school before any rotation, so rural clinics, independent practices and a handful of health centers shoulder most searches.
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Tell us your Southeastern program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Southeastern course.
Five parishes at Louisiana's western edge
The Louisiana Department of Health's Region 5, the Lake Charles Area, takes in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jefferson Davis. Census estimates counted 304,000 residents in 2025, down from 313,954 in the 2020 base. Calcasieu, with Lake Charles, Sulphur, Westlake and DeQuincy, holds 208,466 of them, while Cameron Parish had just 4,718.
Calcasieu, Cameron and Jefferson Davis (home to Jennings) form the Lake Charles metro of 244,655 people. Allen (Oberlin, Kinder, Oakdale) and Beauregard (DeRidder, the center of its own micropolitan area) are nonmetro. At roughly 174 miles from Hammond, Lake Charles is a long way from campus, so the Hammond trip matters mainly for DNP orientation and the project defense.
CHRISTUS Ochsner and Ochsner: the hospital routes
CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital and CHRISTUS Ochsner Lake Area Hospital, both in Lake Charles, are a joint venture of CHRISTUS Health and Ochsner Health. CHRISTUS's clinical learning page, written for its sites in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico, lists advanced practice practitioners among the students it hosts and insists that the school and CHRISTUS sign a Clinical Education Affiliation Agreement, in writing, before the rotation's term starts.
That page asks a current student's faculty advisor to identify the CHRISTUS training site and contact its office to process the agreement, and it cautions that a rotation is not assured for every interested student. Its online rotation-request links serve Texas markets only, and no Louisiana student page, portal or deadline turned up.
In Jennings, Ochsner American Legion Hospital falls under Ochsner's clinical education page: an affiliated school enters every graduate nursing request in InPlace Network on fixed dates before each term, and Ochsner asks students not to contact its providers or staff directly.
Lake Charles Memorial, Beauregard and the McNeese connection
Lake Charles Memorial Health System, an independent nonprofit, runs student programs of a different kind. Its training programs page (archived May 2026) describes an extern program for senior RN students and a school of medical technology, and its community pages describe clinical training for McNeese State University nursing students. No NP or APRN process appears.
McNeese is one of the four consortium schools behind Southeastern's MSN, and the consortium keeps a roster of preceptors, current and former, across south Louisiana that it can recommend (the consortium). In DeRidder, Beauregard Health System announced a clinical affiliation with Lake Charles Memorial in 2018, an affiliation rather than a merger.
At any of these hospitals the Southeastern sequence is the same: a preceptor you name goes to course faculty for approval, with graduate coordinator review, and the university's contract or letter of agreement covering the facility has to be signed before your first hour (clinical contracts).
Shortage designations and the region's few health centers
Calcasieu's primary care designations follow census tracts: eight tracts of the Lake Charles area carry a high-needs designation scored 19, and 24 tracts around Vinton a geographic one scored 15. Mental health designations reach all five parishes.
| Parish | 2025 population | Primary care | Mental health |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allen | 22,672 | Low-income population, 11 | Geographic, whole parish, 19 |
| Beauregard | 36,673 | Low-income population (9 tracts), 9 | Geographic, whole parish, 18 |
| Calcasieu | 208,466 | High-needs geographic (8 tracts), 19; geographic (24 tracts), 15 | Low-income population, 19 |
| Cameron | 4,718 | Geographic, whole parish, 11 | Geographic, whole parish, 13 |
| Jefferson Davis | 31,471 | Low-income population, 15 | Geographic, whole parish, 19 |
- SWLA Center for Health Services: 4 sites in Lake Charles and Oberlin.
- Southwest Louisiana AIDS Council: 2 sites in Lake Charles.
- Iberia Comprehensive Community Health Center: 2 sites in DeRidder and Merryville.
- Access Health Louisiana: 1 site in Oakdale.
Those nine sites are the smallest health center count of any Louisiana region, so rural health clinics matter more here: Allen has four with facility shortage designations, Beauregard three, and Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis one each. Allen also has two tribal clinics and three correctional facilities with designations.
Southeastern's courses in the southwest
Louisiana's rules put a Louisiana-licensed preceptor on every hour and most of the NP time with an APRN whose certification matches your population, and hours on your employer's paid time never count (preceptor requirements).
- Children and pregnancy care for
NURS 6820(200 hours): Louisiana's children's hospitals are in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Shreveport, so southwest students build these hours from pediatricians' offices, OB-GYN groups, family practices and the SWLA health center sites. - Adult care for
NURS 6830, then adults with older patients forNURS 6840(275 hours in each): the Allen and Beauregard rural clinics, internal medicine offices around Lake Charles and Sulphur, and Ochsner American Legion in Jennings by way of your school. - Psychiatric hours for
NURS 6910(200),NURS 6920(275, youth focus) andNURS 6930(275, older adult focus): psychiatric practices and behavioral health groups in Calcasieu, where the low-income mental health designation covers the whole parish and scores 19. - DNP residency courses: a site in a designated parish where the project can measure a gap in access.
Why southwest Louisiana students choose us
Your placement advisor looks from Sulphur to Oakdale for Louisiana-licensed preceptors suited to your exact course and prepares everything the faculty conversation needs. The placement desk confirms early whether each facility is already under contract with Southeastern, flags hospitals such as the CHRISTUS sites that need a signed agreement before the term, and keeps a backup search ready if a preceptor pulls out. Start a search one full semester ahead of the course.
Questions Southeastern students ask
Can I do my clinical hours in Texas if I live in Lake Charles or Sulphur?
Not in Southeastern's MSN or PMHNP certificate. The MSN page keeps every clinical hour inside the state, and Louisiana's rules require each preceptor to hold an active Louisiana license, so a practice across the Texas line does not count however close it is. The Louisiana-only clinicals page covers the rule and how the DNP differs.
Does Ochsner's InPlace process apply to the CHRISTUS Ochsner hospitals?
Neither system's page says. The two Lake Charles hospitals are a CHRISTUS and Ochsner joint venture; CHRISTUS asks for a signed affiliation agreement, and Ochsner's list of sites needing their own agreement leaves them out. Ask your course faculty which route and agreement Southeastern would use before anyone approaches the hospital.
Does Lake Charles Memorial Hospital take nurse practitioner students?
It publishes student programs for RN externs, medical technology and McNeese nursing students, but nothing for NP or APRN students. If you know a preceptor there who fits your course, take the name to your course faculty and ask if the university already has an agreement with Lake Charles Memorial, since a new one takes time.
Are there tribal clinics in Southwest Louisiana for primary care hours?
HRSA lists two in Allen Parish with shortage designations: the Coushatta Health Center in Elton and the Coushatta Family Medical Center in Kinder. They are a less common primary care setting for NP students. Whether either can host you is a question for the clinic and your course faculty, and a facility contract would come first.
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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