Tennessee residents and TTUHSC's graduate nursing tracks
Tennessee clears TTUHSC's own licensure screen: each of its APRN graduate tracks reads Meets there, and the state carries none of the school's exclusion marks. The wrinkle comes from the legislature: a 2026 bill tells Tennessee's Board of Nursing to stop approving nursing programs based elsewhere for two years, clinical placements included.
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The out-of-state program pause, in plain terms
Senate Bill 2013, matched in the House by HB 1905, is called the Nursing Education Integrity and Oversight Act. For two years it has the Board of Nursing set aside applications from any nursing school not based in Tennessee that wants to run a program in the state, sign up Tennessee students or send students to Tennessee clinical sites. Prelicensure, RN to BSN and APRN education are treated alike.
Schools already holding Board approval when the law takes effect are allowed to keep it, though the Board, and also the state's Center for Nursing Advancement, can demand their data, preceptor lists and placement figures included. Legislators said the pause buys time to write standards, because many outside programs already place students in Tennessee with too little oversight.
Two caveats. The bill takes effect on becoming law, yet no official enactment record could be confirmed when this page was written, and no current Board rule turned up that plainly requires outside programs to get approval before a placement. Which side TTUHSC falls on is not public either. Ask TTUHSC's Admissions Team before you apply, and your program director before you offer a Tennessee preceptor any dates.
How TTUHSC's licensure page reads for Tennessee
Hours in TTUHSC's graduate clinical courses are earned close to home, and they count only once SON staff and faculty have cleared the preceptor as well as the site.
| TTUHSC program | Tennessee residents | Where clinical hours happen |
|---|---|---|
| MSN FNP, AGACNP, PMHNP, Pediatric Primary or Acute Care NP | Meets, with no unable-to-accept note | Near home, with an approved preceptor and facility |
| MSN Nurse-Midwifery | Meets | Sites the Program Director approves, arranged with TTUHSC's preceptor/site coordinators |
| BSN to DNP (FNP or PMHNP) | Meets | Locally, with faculty and the preceptor team helping select and contract |
| BSN programs | Texas campus programs | Texas sites chosen by course faculty |
A Meets mark lets you apply; it is not an offer. TTUHSC notes that rules keep changing, so no out-of-state applicant gets a promise of acceptance at the point of applying; instead the school sends them to its Admissions Team. Our licensure disclosure guide explains each mark.
A compact license in a restricted-practice state
Tennessee put the multistate compact into effect in January 2018. Hold a multistate Tennessee RN license and the MSN's license condition is met, since TTUHSC takes Texas licenses and compact multistate licenses alike, provided they are current and unencumbered. On the DNP side, any state's RN license works if it is current and carries no encumbrance. The RN license guide compares the wording. Tennessee has not enacted the separate APRN Compact.
AANP rates Tennessee restricted. Nurse practitioners there work under physician supervision, and Schedule II to IV prescribing and opioid supply both face limits, so a supervising physician will already be part of your preceptor's practice.
Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga
Nashville anchors the largest metro, with Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga next; the Memphis area reaches into Mississippi and Arkansas, and Chattanooga's into Georgia. Erlanger, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Ballad Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and Covenant Health (the Tennessee system, not Lubbock's namesake) show where NPs practice. They are examples only.
Two border states, Arkansas and North Carolina, carry TTUHSC's unable-to-accept mark, so crossing either line would change your eligibility. For any interstate move, TTUHSC's handbook wants notice at least 60 days before the move, and whether the new state approves hinges on the specific placement you put forward. See moving out of state and the Arkansas and North Carolina guides.
Why Tennessee's TTUHSC students choose us
Tennessee rewards early, orderly paperwork, which is how we work. We find a preceptor and site within reach of home that suit your TTUHSC course, then put together a file on the preceptor (license, certification, practice setting) and on the facility that is complete the first time SON staff and faculty open it. Should a preceptor step away mid-plan, the replacement search is ours; how it works shows every step.
Questions TTUHSC students ask
Does Tennessee's moratorium shut TTUHSC out?
Not necessarily. The bill freezes fresh approvals for schools headquartered in other states, while schools approved before it took effect keep their standing. Public sources do not show which group TTUHSC belongs to, and the official enactment date was unconfirmed when this page was written. TTUHSC's Admissions Team and your program director can answer for your case.
Can I take TTUHSC's online PMHNP track from Memphis or Knoxville?
Applying is open to you: the PMHNP is one of the MSN tracks TTUHSC marks as meeting Tennessee's requirements. The admission decision is TTUHSC's, and residents of other states are asked to check eligibility with its Admissions Team before submitting. The PMHNP admits for Spring only, and its rotations would take place near your Tennessee home once the SON approves preceptor and site.
Is my Tennessee RN license enough for TTUHSC's MSN?
Only if it is multistate. The MSN wording recognizes two kinds of RN license, Texas-issued or compact multistate, and both must be current and unencumbered; a Tennessee single-state license is neither. The DNP programs are broader and accept a current, unencumbered RN license from anywhere in the United States.
Does the Tennessee preceptor incentive cover TTUHSC students?
No. The state-funded program run through the Tennessee Hospital Association counts hours spent with students of Tennessee schools, and with students from a handful of neighboring states' schools who train in Tennessee. Texas is missing from that list, which leaves a preceptor teaching a TTUHSC student outside the program.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against TTUHSC's catalog, Student Handbook, program pages and licensure disclosures. Your course faculty, your program director and the plan of study for your cohort have the final word.
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