Protocol · RN · Tennessee
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Tennessee
Registered Nurses practice independently in Tennessee. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
General RN licensure (TCA Title 63, Chapter 7) is not subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement — RNs work within physician/APRN orders, standing orders, and facility protocols, categorically distinct from TN's APRN Certificate of Fitness/Collaborative Management Agreement regime above.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Tennessee
Tennessee requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Tennessee Board of Nursing governs registered nurses here.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician, consistent with Tenn. Code Ann. Title 63, Chapter 7. Tennessee law does not require a Collaborative Practice Agreement for this Registered Nurse's general scope of practice; the Physician shall instead be available to the Registered Nurse for consultation regarding clinical and patient care issues arising under any order or delegation.
- A voluntary protocol also carries 2 scope, 2 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Tennessee does require
The supervision and prescribing rules that apply to registered nurses regardless of any protocol.
Proximity
Not codified
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified
Meeting cadence
Not codified
Prescriptive authority
No agreement needed to prescribe · no controlled-substance authority
RNs do not have independent prescriptive authority in TN; they administer medications per physician/APRN orders.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in TN, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional Corporation or PLLC for nursing services under TN's single-profession-per-PC rule; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside this regime entirely.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
- Tenn. Code Ann. Title 63, Chapter 7 — Nurses
About Tennessee's rules
TN is a restricted-practice state for NPs — no independence pathway exists. Physicians must personally review ≥20% of an APRN's charts every 30 days (100% of controlled-substance charts) and visit remote practice sites in person every 30 days. TN has an explicit, unambiguous corporate-practice-of-medicine ban (statute, case law, and AG opinions; TCA § 63-6-204) — a professional corporation may practice only a single profession.
Other clinicians in Tennessee: see the state overview.