Tennessee and Rivier University: NP tracks red, the DNP green
Rivier University is unable to accept Tennessee residents into its FNP or PMHNP: the State Guide colors both tracks red for prohibitive barriers, and Nursing Education and Leadership are red as well. Tennessee still stands out among the red NP states, because Rivier's DNP is green there, alongside the RN-BSN.
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Tell us your Rivier program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Rivier course.
Tennessee's row, read carefully
The DNP's green is easy to over-read, so look at the whole row first. The colors are from the January 2025 guide, unchanged from the 2022 copy on Rivier's licensure page.
| Rivier program | Tennessee color | Plain meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Family Nurse Practitioner, MSN or certificate | Red | No admission from Tennessee |
| Psychiatric-Mental Health NP, MSN or certificate | Red | No admission from Tennessee |
| Nursing Education | Red | No admission from Tennessee |
| Leadership in Health Systems Management | Red | No admission from Tennessee |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice | Green | OK to accept |
| ASN/BSN pre-licensure | Yellow | Limiting criteria; call the undergraduate program director |
| RN-BSN | Green | OK to accept |
A green DNP does nothing for the NP tracks, and the guide has no AG-ACNP column at all. See how Rivier's State Guide works for the full key.
The DNP: Tennessee's green graduate column
Master's-prepared Tennessee nurses can look at the Rivier DNP. Its Professional Practice and Systems Leadership tracks center on NURS 895, where each student and a faculty guide identify an external expert the committee approves. Doctoral students keep a clear RN license from whichever state hosts the project or practicum, and anyone on the Professional Practice track adds an APRN license from that same state; a lapse moves the student onto leave of absence.
Rivier's own sources disagree about campus time. The DNP page lists the format as online, while the 2025-26 catalog asks for a campus seminar every semester a student is enrolled in NURS 895. Ask the Director of Doctoral Nursing Education which applies to you before budgeting for travel.
A Tennessee bill aimed at out-of-state programs
Tennessee lawmakers have turned their attention to schools from other states. The measure, SB 2013 in the Senate and HB 1905 in the House, is dubbed the Nursing Education Integrity and Oversight Act. It tells Tennessee's nursing board to stop taking and granting applications from schools headquartered in other states for two years, covering any school that wants to operate, enroll or place clinical students in Tennessee. No program level is exempt.
Schools approved before its effective date stay approved, yet they must answer data requests, down to preceptor lists and placement numbers, from both the Board and the Tennessee Center for Nursing Advancement, which owes recommendations on future standards by the end of June 2027. Ask the Tennessee Board of Nursing whether the freeze is in force before counting on any Tennessee site, including for DNP work.
For Rivier NP students thinking about Tennessee
If you are in a Rivier NP track in a green state and a move to Nashville or Memphis is on the table, the practicum is what the red cell puts at risk. Rivier's Handbook wants the Dean informed by letter a full 90 days, or longer, before the move, and it expects you to research the barriers yourself. Before deciding, sit down with your Program Director, who can speak to red status, and with the Clinical Practicum Coordinator, and read our notes on moving mid-program.
Tennessee residents who hope to train in an accepted state instead should ask Rivier whether that is possible at all. The guide describes no such route, and the answer hinges on Rivier's admission rules and your RN license.
Practice rules, licensing and preceptor pay programs
- Compact status: Tennessee has honored multistate RN licenses since early 2018; APRN Compact legislation has not been enacted.
- AANP lists Tennessee as restricted practice. A supervising physician is part of every NP's practice, and prescribing of Schedule II-IV drugs and opioid quantities is capped.
- Preceptor pay: the THA Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program, paid for with state grant money, rewards one-to-one precepting, but only for students of accredited Tennessee schools and of schools in seven bordering states that do not include New Hampshire.
Why Rivier students choose us
Rivier hands its graduate students the preceptor search, and making that search succeed is all we do. For Rivier NP students living in accepted states, we find preceptors in person near home who meet each track's rules, assemble the Preceptor Request Form materials, and plan around the August 1 and December 1 deadlines. Approvals come from Rivier's graduate faculty and practicum coordinator, who work from a file we have already checked against Rivier's rules. Talk to the placement desk.
Questions Rivier students ask
Can I do Rivier's online FNP from Tennessee?
Not on the current State Guide. Rivier marks the FNP red for Tennessee, MSN and certificate alike, Rivier's signal that prohibitive barriers keep it from admitting Tennessee students. Three more columns, PMHNP, Nursing Education and Leadership, are red too. Tennessee's green options are the RN-BSN and, for master's-prepared nurses, the DNP.
Is Rivier's DNP really open to Tennessee nurses?
The guide marks it green, Rivier's code for OK to accept. Green covers Rivier's side only: your project still needs clear RN licensure wherever it is based, and Tennessee's bill on approvals for out-of-state programs is a separate state question to raise with the Program Director before you commit.
Would a Tennessee preceptor qualify for the THA incentive with a Rivier student?
Going by the program's published terms, no. Qualifying students attend accredited Tennessee programs or schools in one of seven neighboring states, Alabama and Kentucky among them, and complete the hours in Tennessee. New Hampshire is not one of those states, so a Rivier University student's hours sit outside the incentive.
Is Tennessee part of the Nurse Licensure Compact?
Yes. Tennessee's compact membership has been live since January 19, 2018. A Tennessee-issued multistate RN license is recognized in the other party states. The APRN Compact is a separate agreement Tennessee has not enacted, so NP licensure there remains state by state.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against Rivier's own Nursing Student Handbook, program sheets, catalog, academic calendar and State Guide. Your program of study, your course faculty, your Program Director and the Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
Rivier asks you to identify a qualified preceptor. We make that the easy part.
Tell us your Rivier track, where you live and which semester your next practicum starts. We find preceptors who meet your track's rules, check early whether the site can contract with Rivier, and prepare everything the Preceptor Request Form asks for, well ahead of August 1 and December 1.
- Preceptors matched to the track: an MD, DO or FNP in outpatient family practice for
NURS 511, a psychiatrist or PMH-certified NP forNURS 521, a hospitalist or intensivist forNURS 638P - Preceptor license, credentials and CV ready for the Preceptor Request Form, with the site's contact details for the contract
- In your own area, in New Hampshire or any state Rivier's State Guide accepts
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