Olivet's nursing programs for Tennessee residents
FNP practicum hours may not be completed in Tennessee: Olivet Nazarene University's FNP disclosure, dated March 12, 2026, lists the state as Not Approved, a status meaning Olivet has yet to determine whether its FNP satisfies Tennessee's requirements. Tennessee residents can study online and complete FNP clinicals in an approved neighbor such as Kentucky, Virginia or North Carolina.
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Tell us your Olivet program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Olivet course.
Tennessee in Olivet's disclosures
If you are weighing Olivet from Tennessee, you can enroll and finish the online coursework at home; only FNP practicum hours are restricted. If you are an FNP student living in Tennessee, every preceptor must practice in an approved state, whatever your employer or contacts look like locally.
NEL and RN-BSN students have no Tennessee row to read. Get the SON Clinical Coordinator's word on which list governs your practicum, and get it early, given the legislation described next. The Not Approved states page shows the whole group.
| Where Olivet publishes it | Program | Tennessee |
|---|---|---|
| FNP out-of-state file, March 12, 2026 | MSN FNP | Not Approved (not yet determined) |
| Same file | Post-Graduate APRN (FNP) certificate | No separate listing; check with the SON Clinical Coordinator |
| BSN file, reviewed 2024 | BSN | Met |
| Olivet's disclosures page | Education and leadership tracks, RN-BSN | Not included |
Tennessee's new scrutiny of out-of-state programs
Tennessee lawmakers have turned their attention to nursing schools based outside the state. SB 2013/HB 1905 (short title: Tennessee Nursing Education Integrity and Oversight Act) calls for a two-year freeze on the Board of Nursing's intake and approval of applications from programs outside Tennessee that seek to operate, enroll students or run clinical placements there. The freeze covers any program not based in Tennessee, whether pre-licensure, RN-BSN or APRN.
Out-of-state programs approved before the effective date stay approved, yet the board and the Tennessee Center for Nursing Advancement can demand their data, down to preceptor lists and placement figures, and the Center is to recommend approval standards for outside programs by June 30, 2027. The bill's findings describe many outside programs placing students without enough oversight. Check with the Tennessee Board of Nursing whether the act is now in force; its existing rules in Chapter 1000-01 contain no express approval step. For NEL and RN-BSN students, all of this makes the SON Clinical Coordinator's answer the first thing to secure.
Practice rules and the preceptor incentive
On AANP's scale Tennessee is restricted: an NP there needs physician supervision, and the state caps both the prescribing of Schedule II through IV drugs and the size of opioid supplies. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Ballad Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Covenant Health and Erlanger are among the major systems, and none of them can host Olivet FNP hours, while other tracks wait on Olivet's answer about Tennessee.
A preceptor incentive exists, run by the Tennessee Hospital Association with state grant money and paid per cycle while funding lasts. To qualify, an LPN, RN or APRN preceptor spends at least 70 hours working one-on-one with a student and takes a UTHSC preceptor course that includes an NP module. Eligibility then turns on the student's school: accredited Tennessee programs count, as do schools in seven nearby states (Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama) when the hours happen in Tennessee. Illinois is not among them, so precepting an Olivet student would not qualify.
Approved states within reach of Tennessee
Eight states touch Tennessee. Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Missouri are on Olivet's approved list; Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi are not. That plays out differently in each metro. Memphis students can cross into Arkansas but not onto the Mississippi side of their own metro, and the Chattanooga metro's Georgia portion is closed too. Nashville students can look north to Kentucky, while Knoxville and East Tennessee face Virginia and North Carolina.
Tennessee's compact membership dates to January 2018, and all five approved neighbors belong as well, so a Tennessee-issued multistate license generally carries you across the line. Tennessee has not enacted the APRN Compact. Olivet's own license standard is on the RN license page.
Why Tennessee FNP students choose us
We build your search around the approved border that suits your city, from Arkansas practices for Memphis to Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina for Middle and East Tennessee. Every candidate is screened for fit with your Olivet course and for a practice address in an approved state, and the approval file goes to Olivet complete and in the form its review expects. Olivet approves every preceptor, and if yours drops out mid-course, we start the replacement search at once. Tell us where you live.
Questions Olivet students ask
Does Tennessee's oversight bill explain Olivet's Not Approved listing?
Olivet's file gives no reason for any state, Tennessee included, so the two should not be linked. Its only statement is that Olivet's determination on Tennessee is still outstanding. For Olivet's own explanation, email FNPpracticum@olivet.edu, the disclosure's contact for out-of-state FNP matters, and save the answer.
A nurse practitioner at my Nashville job offered to precept me. Does that work?
Not at a Tennessee address. If your colleague also sees patients at an office in Kentucky or another approved state, clinical days there could qualify once Olivet approves the preceptor. Name that approved-state office when the approval goes in, and keep every clinical day at it for the whole course.
Can a Memphis student train in Arkansas?
Yes. Arkansas is on Olivet's approved list and belongs to the Nurse Licensure Compact, and part of the Memphis metro lies in Arkansas. A Tennessee multistate license covers practice there. Olivet approves the preceptor, and the Arkansas site handles its own onboarding.
I'm an Olivet RN-BSN student in Tennessee. Where do my practicum hours happen?
Olivet's RN-BSN page tells students outside Illinois they can do practicum hours in their home community, and the RN-BSN does not appear on the disclosures page. Tennessee's oversight bill reaches RN-BSN programs too, so confirm with the SON Clinical Coordinator before arranging hospice or community hours. The RN-BSN guide lists the practicum courses.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Olivet's own handbooks, program pages, fee sheet and licensure disclosures. Your handbook version, your Canvas clinical requirements course, your faculty and the SON Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
Olivet asks you to start with your own network. We make the search the easy part of your program.
Tell us your Olivet track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors whose patients fit the course, inside Olivet's approved states, and prepare everything Olivet's approval and the site's onboarding need.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adults and older adults for
NRSG 636C, women's health forNRSG 637C, children forNRSG 638C, education and leadership forNRSG 620 - Credentials, license and site details ready before your clinical course opens, with the drug screen timing on your calendar
- In your own community, in Illinois or any state Olivet approves for your clinicals
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