Living in Tennessee, working in Mississippi
Can a Tennessee nurse work in Mississippi?
If your primary state of residence is Tennessee and you hold an active multistate license from Tennessee, you may generally practice in Mississippi under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Mississippi license.
Tennessee vs Mississippi at a glance
| Tennessee (home) | Mississippi (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Tennessee board ↗ | Mississippi board ↗ |
Status shown as of 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — confirm anything that affects your license with the state board.
Recommended next step
Verify that your Tennessee license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Mississippi-specific requirements with the Mississippi Board of Nursing.
Verify before you rely on this
Whether you can practice comes down to your actual license type, not just the two states’ status. Look your license up on Nursys to confirm it is single-state or multistate, then check Mississippi’s current requirements with the Mississippi Board of Nursing.
Tennessee and Mississippi share a border
Both are on the same side of the compact, so crossing this particular border does not change your licensure position the way it would at a compact seam. The usual cross-border questions still apply — where you actually reside, and which state each employer sits in.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Tennessee is what you will be asked to produce, Mississippi is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Tennessee
Tennessee Department of Health licensure verification ↗Tennessee has designated Nursys a primary-source equivalent, so either is acceptable for license status — but the state system additionally returns disciplinary profile and abuse-registry data that a Nursys lookup does not, which matters if you are credentialing rather than just confirming a license.
Where you want to work
Mississippi
Mississippi Board of Nursing verification ↗Two constraints worth knowing before you rely on this. The board’s search asks for a Social Security number alongside a license number or surname, so it is not a blind lookup an employer can run from a CV alone — you need information the nurse must give you. And the record is regenerated at the close of business and appears the following day, so a license issued or changed today will not show until tomorrow. That lag is a further reason an empty result is not proof of absence.
How long each has been part of this
Both Tennessee and Mississippi began recognizing compact privilege in 2018. A pairing of two states that arrived together is the simplest case there is: neither has a transitional quirk the other lacks.
The law behind each side
Compact privilege is not a courtesy between states — it is each legislature having enacted the compact into its own code. These are the provisions that do it.
Your home state
Tennessee
Tennessee has enacted the compact, but we have not yet confirmed the exact citation against the state’s own published code. We would rather say that than print a section number we cannot stand behind.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from T.C.A. tit. 63, ch. 7 (Nursing); RNs at §§ 63-7-103, -104, LPNs at §§ 63-7-108, -109 ↗.
Where you want to work
Mississippi
Miss. Code Ann. § 73-15-201 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗Read off the Board of Nursing’s own published copy of the section, which opens “The Nurse Licensure Compact is enacted into law and entered into by this state with any and all states legally joining in the compact.” That document also carries the trap: its header reads “Formerly cited as MS ST 73-15-22”. Mississippi RENUMBERED the compact, so an older citation points at 73-15-22 and a search for it in the current code comes back empty — the same shape of problem as Arizona’s repealed sections, except here the text moved rather than died.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Miss. Code Ann. § 73-15-1 et seq. (Mississippi Nursing Practice Law) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Mississippi's practice requirements (for example, scope of practice and any continuing-education rules).
- APRN roles are generally not covered by the standard compact — APRNs usually need separate authorization in each state.
Frequently asked questions
Related pages
Sources & last reviewed
- NLC frequently asked questions— NCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)
Covers multistate licenses, primary state of residence, the 60-day rule, telehealth, and license type coverage.
- NLC member states map & status— NCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)
Identifies full members, partial implementation (Guam), and enacted/awaiting implementation (Massachusetts, U.S. Virgin Islands).
- Nursys QuickConfirm license verification— NCSBN / Nursys (nursys.com)
Recommended destination to verify whether a license is single-state or multistate.
Facts on this page were last reviewed against official sources on 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — always verify with your state board of nursing.