Northern Arizona University NP programs for Louisiana nurses
Northern Arizona University's licensure table lists Louisiana as Meets for all four NP plans, so a Louisiana NP license stays within reach. The harder part falls on the school. Louisiana's State Board of Nursing insists on approving any out-of-state nursing program before that program runs a single clinical experience in the state, and it wants the request six months early.
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Tell us your NAU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Louisiana's answer in NAU's table
| NAU plan | Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Nursing - Advanced Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner (MS) | Meets |
| Nursing - Advanced Practice, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (MS) | Meets |
| Family Nurse Practitioner (GCERT) | Meets |
| Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (GCERT) | Meets |
For licensing questions, NAU's table points Louisiana students to the State Board of Nursing. Meets tells you NAU's NP education lines up with Louisiana's requirements for licensure; permission to train in the state is a separate Board process. Other states are compared in the licensure disclosure guide.
Board approval under LAC 46:XLVII.3539
Louisiana wrote this rule for undergraduate and graduate programs run from another state. Until the Board says yes, such a program offers no courses and no clinical experiences in Louisiana. Timing is the catch: the application is expected six months before anything starts.
Inside the application
- A request letter identifying each clinical agency and the units within it that students would use
- The program's catalog, along with its curriculum and the syllabus for each course
- Faculty qualification forms and a completed survey for every clinical facility
- Pass data on NCLEX and on certification exams
- Proof the program is approved at home and accredited twice over: regionally, and by a national nursing accreditor the Board accepts
Once granted, approval can last three years, and a petition renews it. The program then reports each graduate student's clinical experiences on a Board spreadsheet no later than two weeks after they begin. NAU holds HLC and CCNE accreditation for its MS and certificates (accreditation guide), yet only your program coordinator can say whether NAU has sought Louisiana approval. NAU has published no rule on graduate clinicals outside Arizona; the state authorization guide covers SARA's part.
Supervision, practice and Louisiana's health systems
The rule also shapes supervision. An instructor from your school who teaches in Louisiana needs Louisiana licensure (RN, APRN or both), graduate education in nursing and two-plus years of clinical nursing behind them. When a preceptor is involved, someone from the program talks with you both every week and walks the site in person each semester or quarter. One instructor, nine APRN students: that is the most Louisiana allows on a single clinical day.
AANP groups Louisiana with the reduced-practice states, meaning a physician collaboration agreement, regulated by Louisiana, governs part of every NP's practice there. The bar your preceptor clears for NAU is separate; our preceptor rules set it out.
By population, New Orleans-Metairie comes first and Baton Rouge a close second, then Lafayette and Shreveport-Bossier City. Our research lists five larger systems: Ochsner Health and Willis-Knighton Health, along with LCMC Health, Baton Rouge General and FMOL Health. Every one decides on students through its own process. No Louisiana preceptor incentive appears in that research.
Licensing for clinicals in Louisiana
Compact licensing reached Louisiana on July 1, 2019. With a Louisiana multistate license you meet NAU's admission rule and cover clinical hours at home, where Arizona's rule has NAU verify an unencumbered RN license for the state you train in; the RN license guide covers NAU's wording. No APRN Compact law exists in Louisiana, so NP work there after graduation begins with a Louisiana APRN license.
Texas, next door, is one of seven states where NAU's table says its NP plans do not meet licensure requirements. If a move west might happen during your program, read the Texas guide first.
Why Louisiana students at NAU choose us
A six-month approval horizon changes how a search should run, so ours opens early. We pin down the clinical agency and unit first, because Louisiana's request letter names them, and we flag the Board rule to you on day one, leaving time to raise it with NAU.
Your placement advisor then weighs each preceptor's license, experience and certification against what NAU requires, collects the CV and credentials, and has the site's approval in hand for your Green Form. FNP students get all three practicums mapped together toward 780 hours; PMHNP students get psychiatric settings near home for the in-person work of NUR 680. When a preceptor leaves mid-course, your advisor is already calling the next candidate.
Questions NAU students ask
Can NAU FNP students complete clinicals in Louisiana?
Only through a program the Louisiana Board has approved, and NAU would be the applicant. NAU has published no rule on graduate clinicals outside Arizona, so ask your program coordinator whether it holds or plans Louisiana approval before you line up a site.
How long does Louisiana approval of an outside nursing program last?
Three years at most, and the program can petition to renew. Its first request goes to the Board at least six months before the offering, with the full application package. Graduate students' clinical experiences are then logged on the Board's spreadsheet inside two weeks of starting.
Does a Louisiana preceptor need a Louisiana license?
Yes, in practice. NAU's standard requires a clean license in the preceptor's own practice state, so anyone precepting you in Louisiana will be licensed there. Louisiana adds a separate test for instructors from outside programs who teach in the state: Louisiana RN or APRN licensure, graduate nursing education and at least two years in clinical practice.
Will NAU faculty visit my Louisiana clinical site?
The rule expects faculty in precepted clinicals to confer with you and your preceptor weekly and to visit in person once a semester or quarter at minimum. How NAU would handle that for a Louisiana placement is a question for your program coordinator, since the duty sits with the program rather than with you.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Northern Arizona University's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your program coordinator and course faculty have the final word.
NAU welcomes a preceptor you arrange. We arrange one close to home.
Tell us your NAU track, your town and your next practicum. We line up preceptors who fit the course and Arizona's preceptor rule, confirm the site's approval, and gather the CV, license and certification the Green Form needs, well before NAU's cutoff.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages family primary care for FNP, psychiatric settings for PMHNP
- License, experience and certification checked against the rule NAU applies, before the Green Form goes in
- All three FNP practicums planned together, near home instead of a long drive away
Start your placement plan
Track, town and next practicum is all we need to begin.