Tennessee has about 7.3 million residents. Registered nurses average $85,390 a year, 42nd among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Tennessee Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and advanced practice nurses through the Department of Health. Its office is on Mainstream Drive in Nashville, telephone (615) 532-5166. Rules and applications are at tn.gov/health.
Tennessee was among the first states to implement the Nurse Licensure Compact, in 2000. A nurse living in Tennessee holds one multistate license good in every other compact state, which covers all eight states Tennessee borders, more than any state except Missouri.
Nurse practitioner practice
Tennessee is in the restricted group. A nurse practitioner works under a written protocol with a supervising physician, who has to review a sample of charts and stay available for consultation, and the protocol is filed with the state. See nurse practitioner practice authority and collaborative practice agreements.
Nursing education
The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville is the state's leading research program and runs a graduate entry route for students without a nursing background. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Nursing in Memphis, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, East Tennessee State University in Johnson City and Belmont University carry further programs, Tennessee State University runs a historically Black program in Nashville, and the community colleges supply associate degree graduates.
Pay and workforce
Nashville is both a large hospital market and the corporate home of a substantial part of the American hospital industry. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, HCA's Tristar Health and Ascension Saint Thomas are there, along with the headquarters of HCA Healthcare, the largest for profit hospital operator in the country.
Memphis carries Methodist Le Bonheur, Baptist Memorial and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, while Knoxville and Chattanooga hold regional systems. The Appalachian counties in the east and the rural west depend on smaller hospitals and critical access hospitals, and Tennessee has seen more rural hospital closures than most states over the past fifteen years. See rural and frontier nursing.
Notable nurses
Mary Breckinridge, who founded the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky and brought nurse midwifery to the United States, was born in Memphis in 1881. The blues singer Alberta Hunter, who spent more than twenty years as a licensed practical nurse in New York, was also born in Memphis, in 1895. The state declared an Alberta Hunter Day in 1978, after she resumed her singing career at 82.
Related
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Nurse midwifery
- Critical access hospitals
- Nursing by state
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, state population estimates for July 1, 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, registered nurses (29-1141), May 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Tennessee Board of Nursing, contact details and licensing information. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact, member states. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners, State Practice Environment. Accessed September 8, 2026.