Studying with UCCS when you live in Tennessee
A Tennessee home address rules out UCCS's online NP programs along with its RN to BSN, because the college draws students solely from states it names and Tennessee is on neither roster. The route opens after a relocation. Tennessee's own rules come first below, then the UCCS path in a listed state.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UCCS program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UCCS course.
Program by program, from a Tennessee address
Eligibility follows the state you physically live in, program by program.
| UCCS program | Available to Tennessee residents? | Clinical hours |
|---|---|---|
| Family, AGNP or PMHNP MSN | No | Where you then live, with a preceptor you arrange |
| RN to MSN | No | None in the NURS 4460 bridge; NP track hours in your listed state |
| Post-Graduate NP Certificate | No | Courses set by your GAP analysis, in your listed state |
| BSN to DNP, Post-Master's DNP | Requires an RN license from a UCCS-approved state; confirm with UCCS | Close to home |
| RN to BSN | No; not on the 21-state list | NURS 4450 at a community site in your state |
| Campus BSN | For people living in, or planning to live in, Colorado | Assigned by UCCS in Colorado |
UCCS's APRN licensure disclosure says its curriculum meets Tennessee's educational requirements, a point about course content alone; the approved-states page covers who can enroll.
Tennessee's moratorium bill for out-of-state programs
A Tennessee bill, SB 2013 with its House companion HB 1905, directs the Board of Nursing to freeze new approvals for nursing programs based outside Tennessee for two years. The freeze covers operating in the state, enrolling students there and placing them in local clinicals, whatever the degree level.
Schools approved earlier would keep their standing yet must hand over data on request, down to preceptor lists and placement counts, and a state nursing center is to draft new standards for outside programs by mid-2027. Official sources could not confirm enactment, so check the Board's site for the current position.
Licensing, practice and preceptor programs in Tennessee
Compact licensure arrived in Tennessee in January 2018, and Tennessee RNs may carry a multistate license. AANP rates NP practice there as restricted: a supervising physician is required, and the state limits prescribing in Schedules II through IV along with opioid quantities.
Preceptors can draw on a hospital-association incentive backed by a state grant. It rewards preceptors who log 70 or more hours working one-on-one with a student in a cycle, requires a UTHSC training course that includes an NP module, and is open to LPN, RN and APRN preceptors. The learner must attend an accredited Tennessee school or a school in one of seven named neighboring states; Colorado is not on that list.
Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga are the largest metros, and Erlanger, Ballad Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Covenant Health rank among the major systems. They sketch the state's care network, not UCCS sites.
Comparing destinations before you relocate
For a future NP, the destination's practice climate matters alongside UCCS's rules. AANP gives ten of the fourteen listed states a full-practice rating, Arizona, Idaho and Utah among them, while four listed states, California, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, share Tennessee's restricted label. Alaska, California and Nevada sit outside the compact and license RNs separately, as the clinical license guide explains.
After you settle and are admitted, UCCS expects you to locate a preceptor near home, submit a Clinical Site Sheet, and wait for the agreement and the college's go-ahead before logging a single hour. Start that search early; the lead-time guide shows how early.
Where our placement desk comes in
The preceptor search UCCS assigns to its students is the whole of our focus. Once you are living in a listed state with an offer in hand, we pair your course with a nearby preceptor who meets UCCS's criteria for your track, prepare the credentials and exact schedule the Clinical Site Sheet calls for, and keep a backup search moving in case a preceptor withdraws. Share your destination city through the contact page.
Questions UCCS students ask
Can a Tennessee resident start UCCS's online FNP or AGNP?
Not while living in Tennessee. UCCS limits NP applicants to residents of fourteen listed states and judges residency by physical location when you apply. A nurse who genuinely moves to one of them may apply from the new address, and every admission decision rests with UCCS.
Does Tennessee's moratorium bill affect UCCS students?
Only indirectly for now, since UCCS students do their clinical work in whichever listed state they live in. The bill weighs most on outside schools that already place students in Tennessee. Official sources did not confirm its enactment, so check with the Tennessee Board of Nursing.
Could a Tennessee preceptor earn the hospital association incentive by teaching a UCCS student?
That incentive is built around learners at accredited Tennessee schools and at schools in seven nearby states, with the hours worked inside Tennessee. Colorado universities fall outside the named group, and UCCS students log hours in their own listed state, so the incentive would not come into play.
Is the RN to BSN open to Tennessee nurses?
No. Tennessee is missing from the RN to BSN's 21-state list, though neighboring North Carolina and Virginia appear on it. A nurse living in either of those states could apply to study online, with NURS 4450 placed at a community site in that state; the RN to BSN page has more.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UCCS's catalog, practicum handbooks and college pages. Your degree plan, the handbook for your cohort and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
UCCS asks you to find your clinical hours where you live. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UCCS track, your next clinical course and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the details your Clinical Site Sheet needs, early enough for the agreement to be signed before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 6900, acute and chronic care forNURS 6915andNURS 6925, psychiatric prescribers forNURS 6801toNURS 6803 - Credentials, license, certification and the site's signer ready for the Clinical Site Sheet
- In Colorado Springs, along the Front Range, or in any of UCCS's approved states
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next clinical semester is all we need to begin.