Louisiana residents and NKU's online nursing programs

NKU publishes its limits in two places: the graduate state-authorization table and the NP application list on its graduate admission page. Louisiana is excluded in every row that covers online nursing.

NKU's licensure disclosure warns that a student in a restricted state may be unable to finish field placements, and its preceptor rules require every preceptor to practice in an NKU-approved state.

Louisiana writes its checks into LAC 46:XLVII.3539. Before an out-of-state school can teach courses or run clinicals in Louisiana, at either the undergraduate or graduate level, the Board of Nursing must approve it. The packet is heavy: a request letter naming each agency and unit, the curriculum, syllabi and catalog, faculty qualification forms, a survey of each clinical facility and exam pass data, filed six months or more ahead. An approval holds for as long as three years, with renewal by petition.

Obligations continue after approval. Anyone teaching for the school inside Louisiana needs a Louisiana RN or APRN license, a master's or doctorate in nursing and at least two years in clinical practice. For graduate students, the Board's spreadsheet of clinical experiences is due within a fortnight of the rotation beginning. Faculty confer with the preceptor and student each week, go to the site at least once a semester or quarter, and supervise no more than nine APRN students per clinical day in a preceptorship.

AANP classes Louisiana as reduced practice: a state-regulated collaborative agreement with a physician governs at least part of what every NP does. The large employers are Willis-Knighton Health, LCMC Health, Baton Rouge General, Ochsner Health and FMOL Health, across the New Orleans-Metairie, Baton Rouge, Shreveport-Bossier City and Lafayette metros. While Louisiana stays off NKU's tables, clinicians at those systems cannot serve as NKU preceptors, including colleagues you already know well.

Louisiana's compact membership took effect on July 1, 2019. A Louisiana multistate license widens where you may work as an RN, but it does not change which NKU programs are open to a Louisiana resident; NKU's tables follow the state you live in. Our RN license page covers how licenses and NKU's approved states interact.

Next door, NKU says yes to Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas for every non-NP program: both MSN tracks outside NP training, the DNP and the RN-to-BSN. NP training needs an address in one of the eleven NP application states, Georgia and Florida being the closest. A sensible order before any move: reread NKU's lists for your application term, secure a license good in the new state, and, if you are already a student, speak with your advisor first, as NKU cautions that relocating can change your program status.

If you are heading to a state NKU serves, a placement advisor can map preceptors for your track around the new address, collect the CV, license and Preceptor Responsibilities form, and time your Medatrax self-placement request to your first 7-week session. Plan with us before the move and your first clinical can be taking shape while you pack. Start with the form.