Tennessee nurses in NAU's online NP programs
Northern Arizona University's licensure table answers Meets for Tennessee on all four NP plans, so enrollment is open. Clinicals are the unsettled part. A 2026 bill would have Tennessee's Board of Nursing turn away, for two years, the applications of nursing schools headquartered elsewhere, and when this guide was written its official status could not be pinned down.
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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.
Tennessee's row on NAU's table
| NAU plan | Tennessee |
|---|---|
| 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 |
NAU links the Tennessee Board of Nursing for this state. Meets speaks to the education behind a future Tennessee license, not to clinical permission, which is where 2026 brought change. Our licensure disclosure guide covers the rest of the map, Kentucky included: just north of you, it reads Does Not Meet on all four NP rows.
What the 2026 bill would change
Picture SB 2013/HB 1905, which would add Code sections 63-7-501 through 506, as a two-year stop sign for schools outside Tennessee. Any nursing program headquartered elsewhere that wants to run courses, enroll Tennesseans or seat students in Tennessee clinical settings would find its application turned away. APRN programs get no special treatment.
Schools approved before the law took effect keep that approval but owe the Board and the state's Center for Nursing Advancement any data requested, down to who their Tennessee preceptors are and how students were placed. By mid-2027 (June 30), the Center must propose approval standards for any outside school leaning on Tennessee preceptors or clinical sites. Two cautions: a secondary report dates enactment to April 27, 2026 without official confirmation, and research found no Board rule already on the books that explicitly demands approval before a clinical placement.
The bill's findings complain of outside programs sending students into Tennessee with too little oversight, so expect sites to ask pointed questions. NAU's pages describe clinicals throughout Arizona and publish no rule on graduate clinicals elsewhere. Before approaching a Tennessee site, ask your program coordinator whether NAU can place students there now; the state authorization guide covers NAU's side.
Supervision, incentives and Tennessee's systems
AANP labels Tennessee restricted: physician supervision is built into NP practice there, and Tennessee limits how NPs prescribe Schedule II through IV drugs and how large an opioid supply they may provide. NAU's own preceptor standard still applies (preceptor rules).
Of the four big metros, Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin is largest, near 2.2 million residents; Memphis comes second, with Knoxville and then Chattanooga after it. Ballad Health, Erlanger and Covenant Health all appear among the major systems in our research, alongside Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and each decides on students by its own process. Chattanooga's metro spills into Georgia, where outside NP programs need no Board approval (Georgia guide).
The Tennessee Hospital Association's state-funded program makes incentive payments to preceptors who log 70 or more one-to-one hours in a cycle, while funds last, and the Fall 2026 cycle closes December 1. Its eligibility map is regional, Tennessee's own accredited schools plus seven surrounding states, and Arizona falls outside it, so an NAU rotation brings a preceptor nothing from THA.
Your RN license for Tennessee clinicals
Tennessee's compact licenses date from January 19, 2018. A Tennessee multistate license covers clinical hours at home and satisfies NAU's admission rule, and Arizona's rule has NAU check your license for the state you train in (license guide). Because Tennessee has no APRN Compact law, NP practice there after graduation calls for Tennessee's own APRN credential and a supervising physician.
Kentucky sits on NAU's Does Not Meet list for all four NP plans. If a move north might happen during your program, read the Kentucky guide first.
Why Tennessee students at NAU choose us
Tennessee's rules are shifting, so we check before we search. Your placement advisor raises the moratorium with you on the first call, so you can confirm NAU's Tennessee position with your coordinator, and in the meantime maps preceptors near home who meet what NAU requires.
Once the path is clear, we collect each preceptor's CV, license and certification, confirm the site's approval for your Green Form, and plan the three FNP practicums or the in-person NUR 680 placement as a whole. Close to the Georgia or Mississippi line, we test sites on both sides against each state's rules, and a preceptor who drops out mid-term triggers an immediate replacement search on our side.
Questions NAU students ask
Is Tennessee closed to out-of-state NP programs in 2026?
Not entirely. The 2026 bill pauses Board action on new applications from outside programs for two years, yet programs approved beforehand keep their standing. Research located no current Board rule that expressly requires approval before a placement, and the law's official status went unconfirmed. NAU students should ask their program coordinator.
Does the THA preceptor incentive cover NAU students?
No. THA's eligibility stops at Tennessee's accredited schools and seven surrounding states, with hours logged inside Tennessee, and Arizona is not one of them. For their part, preceptors must be citizens or permanent residents, carry an unrestricted license (Tennessee or multistate) and complete the UTHSC course for preceptors, which has an NP module.
Do Tennessee nurse practitioners need physician supervision?
Yes. In AANP's classification Tennessee is restricted: NPs there are physician-supervised, with state limits on controlled-substance prescribing and opioid quantities. That shapes the practices where NP preceptors work and the prescribing you will see. NAU's standard stays the same, asking your preceptor for the right license, experience, population focus and certification.
Is NAU's FNP program accepted for Tennessee NP licensure?
NAU's licensure table marks the MS FNP and the FNP certificate as Meets for Tennessee, and both PMHNP plans as well, meaning NAU judges its education sufficient for Tennessee's licensure requirements. After graduating, you would apply to the Tennessee Board for your APRN credential and practice under physician supervision.
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
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