Continuing-Education Audit Guide
Tennessee Nursing CE Audit Response Guide
What to do if the Tennessee Board of Nursing audits your continuing education for the current renewal cycle. Built from Tennessee-specific board guidance — not generic advice.
Response window
30 days
from audit notice receipt
Records retention
4 years
required by Tennessee Board of Nursing
Submission method
Submit via Tennessee Department of Health licensee portal.
What Tennessee reviewers actually look for
- TN requires 5 contact hours OR national certification per renewal — a comparatively low bar, but ALL hours must be from board-approved providers.
- APRNs have separate 25-pharm-hour-per-cycle requirement; documentation of pharm-flagged courses is reviewed independently.
- Refresher course completions for return-to-practice need OFP verification.
Top reasons audit responses get rejected
- Workplace in-services without an ANCC or state-board-approved provider on the certificate (most states reject these).
- BLS/ACLS/PALS certifications submitted as CE hours — these are competencies, not continuing education.
- Journal article reading without an associated CE quiz/certificate from an approved provider.
- Courses from providers whose accreditation lapsed before the renewal cycle's start date.
- Certificates that don't state the contact hours awarded (reviewers can't credit hours they can't see).
- Courses completed BEFORE the audited renewal cycle's start date (you can't use hours twice).
- Screenshots or phone photos of certificates instead of original PDFs or printed certificates.
- Duplicate certificates for the same course title from the same provider — submit once.
Paper submission address
Tennessee Board of Nursing 665 Mainstream Drive, 2nd Floor Nashville, TN 37243
Always send by trackable mail (certified return-receipt). Keep proof of delivery for your own records.
Step-by-step: respond to a Tennessee CE audit
- 1Read the audit notice carefully. Note the renewal cycle being audited and the 30-day response deadline.
- 2Pull every CE certificate from the audited cycle. Each must show course title, accredited provider number, completion date, and contact hours.
- 3Group certificates by mandatory topic if Tennessee has them. Verify provider numbers are visible on every page.
- 4Write a brief cover letter listing your full legal name, license number, the audit reference, and a numbered inventory of attached certificates.
- 5Submit via Tennessee Department of Health licensee portal.
Audit-ready in one click. RenewRN tracks every CE certificate, provider number, and category, then generates a Tennessee-formatted audit response packet on demand.