Living in Utah, working in Tennessee
Can a Utah nurse work in Tennessee?
If your primary state of residence is Utah and you hold an active multistate license from Utah, you may generally practice in Tennessee under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Tennessee license.
Utah vs Tennessee at a glance
| Utah (home) | Tennessee (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Utah board ↗ | Tennessee 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 Utah license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Tennessee-specific requirements with the Tennessee 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 Tennessee’s current requirements with the Tennessee Board of Nursing.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Utah is what you will be asked to produce, Tennessee is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Utah
Utah DOPL license lookup & verification ↗Conventional: a public online lookup through the Division of Professional Licensing, with no fee gate, credential split, identifier requirement or terminology trap found in this review. Recorded as unremarkable on purpose — after thirty-five states of exceptions it is worth knowing which ones simply work the way you would expect.
Where you want to work
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.
How long each has been part of this
Both Utah and Tennessee 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
Utah
Utah Code tit. 58, ch. 31e (Nurse Licensure Compact — Revised), § 58-31e-102 ↗Utah is the jurisdiction where citing the wrong chapter is easiest, because BOTH compacts are still in the code. Chapter 31c is the PRIOR compact and chapter 31e is the current one — party states to the old compact were deemed withdrawn within six months of the new one taking effect. A citation to 58-31c therefore points at superseded law that still looks live on the page. This is the same trap that produced repealed section numbers for Arizona, except here it is visible if you read the chapter titles.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Utah nursing licensure law (DOPL) ↗.
Where you want to work
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 ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Tennessee'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.