Tennessee Health Facilities Commission (HFC), Division of Licensure and Regulation — Nurse Aide program and the Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry. The Commission took the nursing-home rules over from the Department of Health: chapter 0720-18 was “Transferred from chapter 1200-08-06 pursuant to Public Chapter 1119 of 2022 effective July 1, 2022.” The Commission’s mailing address changed in late 2025: “As of November 24, 2025, we have moved into a single location in Nashville… please direct all mail to our new address: Health Facilities Commission, Andrew Jackson State Building, 502 Deaderick Street, 9th Floor Nashville, Tennessee 37243.” Registry operation and testing are contracted out — “As of June 1, 2026, Credentia will be the new Nurse Aide Registry and Testing vendor for the Health Facilities Commission.” administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Tennessee. Every figure below is verified against the board’s own official pages and dated. Who must personally hold a credential — the contractor, the business, or the individual worker — is set out under Requirements.
What it’s called
Tennessee uses “nurse aide” in its headings and treats “Certified Nurse Aide” and “Certified Nursing Assistant” as the same thing — the rule’s definition is headed “Certified Nurse Aide or Certified Nursing Assistant” and covers “An individual who has successfully completed an approved nursing assistant training program and is registered with the department” (0720-18-.01(9)). CNA is the abbreviation the Commission itself uses in prose (“the individual must retrain and retest in Tennessee in order to become certified as a CNA in this State”). What Tennessee grants is CERTIFICATION by listing on the Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry; it issues no nurse aide licence and no board of nursing is involved. Names that are NOT this credential: NATCEP, the Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program, which is the course-and-testing programme rather than the certificate; NNAAP, the National Nurse Aide Assessment Program, which is the examination; the ELDERLY OR VULNERABLE ABUSE REGISTRY, a separate Tennessee list of people found to have abused or neglected elderly or vulnerable persons or misappropriated their property; and “Nursing Personnel”, a rule term meaning “Licensed nurses and certified nurse aides who provide nursing care” (0720-18-.01(45)), which is broader than this credential. Two agency names attach to the same programme and both appear in current Tennessee material: the TENNESSEE HEALTH FACILITIES COMMISSION, which publishes the nurse aide pages and whose rules chapter 0720-18 now carries these provisions, and the TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, which the Commission’s own page still names as the agency required to approve training programmes and to certify and list individuals — the chapter was “Transferred from chapter 1200-08-06 pursuant to Public Chapter 1119 of 2022 effective July 1, 2022.”
License types & fees
| Type | Notes | Who Its For |
|---|---|---|
| Certification on the Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry (Certified Nurse Aide / Certified Nursing Assistant) | Tennessee's rule defines the credential in one sentence: "Certified Nurse Aide or Certified Nursing Assistant. An individual who has successfully completed an approved nursing assistant training program and is registered with the department" (Rules of the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission, 0720-18-.01(9)). The Commission states the route: "In order to be certified on the Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry, an individual must have completed an approved nurse aide training program and successfully completed the state competency examination within 24 months from completion of the class." The certification period is 24 months. It is a registry certification, not a licence — no board of nursing is involved. | A person who wants to work as a nurse aide in a Tennessee nursing home. |
| Working as a nurse aide before certification — a four-month allowance, not a credential | The rule puts the limit on the FACILITY rather than on the worker: "A nursing home must not use any individual working in a facility as a nurse aide for more than four (4) months unless that individual's name is included on the Nurse Aide Registry. A facility must not use on a temporary, per diem, leased or any basis other than permanent, any individual who does not meet the requirements of training and competency testing" (0720-18-.15(3)). No Tennessee source read on 2026-08-16 states whether that four-month clock restarts on a change of employer. | A person hired by a Tennessee nursing home who is not yet on the Registry. |
| Challenge route — nursing students and military medics | The Commission publishes two challenge paths. "A student enrolled in a LPN or RN program may request to challenge the competency examination by providing original transcripts of their education verifying they have completed the basic nursing fundamentals and skills that are covered in a nurse aide training program." And: "An individual who is military trained as a medic, may apply to challenge the test by providing a copy of their DD-214. Documentation of classroom and clinical experience will be required." In the testing vendor's eligibility scheme this is route E2 — "The challenger candidate will create an account and submit their E2 application into the Credentia platform and upload all required documents for approval by the state" — with three maximum attempts each at skills and knowledge, and retraining required after a third failure or after two years. | An LPN or RN student, or a person trained as a military medic, who did not complete a Tennessee-approved nurse aide training programme. |
| Certification by reciprocity | "An individual who is currently listed as active with no derogatory or abuse information on another State's list of certified individuals can apply for reciprocity. Tennessee accepts reciprocity from all States except Florida. An individual living in Florida must retrain and retest in Tennessee in order to become certified as a CNA in this State." That Florida exclusion is unusual enough to be worth stating twice — the testing vendor's handbook repeats it: "Florida Nurse aide certifications are not accepted for reciprocity in the state of Tennessee." No testing is required on this route (eligibility route E3), and "Upon receipt of all required information, the process typically takes no longer than one week." | A nurse aide currently active and in good standing on another state's registry — except Florida. |
| Elderly or Vulnerable Abuse Registry — a separate Tennessee list, named here only as a boundary | Tennessee maintains two distinct lists and the Commission links both from the same page: the State Nurse Aide Registry, and a separate register of "all individuals who are found to have abuse or neglected elderly or vulnerable persons, or misappropriated their property." This record covers the nurse aide certification only and makes no claim about the abuse registry's contents, effect or removal procedure. | Not covered by this record. |
Who does NOT need this license — exemptions
Tennessee draws the boundary by FACILITY, not by task, and puts the duty on the nursing home rather than on the worker: “A nursing home must not use any individual working in a facility as a nurse aide for more than four (4) months unless that individual’s name is included on the Nurse Aide Registry. A facility must not use on a temporary, per diem, leased or any basis other than permanent, any individual who does not meet the requirements of training and competency testing” (0720-18-.15(3)). The four-month window is the only published allowance to work uncertified, and the second sentence closes a common workaround — an agency, per diem or leased aide gets no grace period at all. TENNESSEE PUBLISHES NO OCCUPATIONAL EXEMPTION LIST of the kind a trade licence carries, and the certification rules sit inside the STANDARDS FOR NURSING HOMES chapter, which is the Commission’s own signpost: “NOTE: that all laws and regulations that govern the Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry are under nursing home requirements.” WHAT FOLLOWS FROM THAT, AND WHAT DOES NOT: no Tennessee source read on 2026-08-16 states whether a home health aide, a hospital patient care technician, an assisted living aide or a private-duty caregiver must hold this certification, and this record does not extend the requirement beyond nursing homes. Note the asymmetry Tennessee does publish on the renewal side: work “in a licensed or certified healthcare facility” counts toward keeping the certification, while “Private duty services, sitter, companion services, private physician’s offices, etc. are not accepted for renewal” — a statement about what counts as qualifying work, not a statement about where certification is required. THE ONLY ROUTES AROUND THE APPROVED TRAINING PROGRAMME are the two challenge paths, and they replace the course, not the examination: an LPN or RN student challenging with original transcripts showing completed nursing fundamentals and skills, and a military-trained medic challenging with a DD-214 plus “Documentation of classroom and clinical experience.” Both still take the competency examination.
Fees
EXAMINATION FEES, as published for Tennessee: Knowledge Exam at a test center $35; Knowledge Exam online $35; Oral Exam English online $35; Oral Exam Spanish online $35; Skills Exam at a test center $87. “You must pay for both the Skills Evaluation and the Written (or Oral) Examination at the time of scheduling”, payment “in the form of a credit card, debit card, ACH (electronic check), or electronic voucher”, and “Fees are not refundable.” WHO ACTUALLY PAYS — usually not the candidate: “Under Federal and Tennessee laws, nursing homes are required to pay the NNAAP fees for their nurse aide employees, including individuals required to re-test. For individuals associated with these training programs you will have no testing fee.” The Commission says the same about training: “training and testing are free for candidates who train in a nursing home based program and are employed by a skilled nursing facility.” IF YOU PAID YOUR OWN WAY AND ARE HIRED WITHIN A YEAR, THE FACILITY OWES YOU THE MONEY BACK, in halves: “An individual who does not have an employment relationship with a facility at the time the individual enters a NATCEP or CEP, but becomes employed, or obtains an offer of employment within twelve (12) months of completing the program, will be reimbursed for the costs of training and testing by the facility that employs or offers employment to this individual. This reimbursement will be made on a pro rata basis… The nurse aide will be reimbursed for half the costs of training and testing after the nurse aide has worked at the facility as a nurse aide for one hundred thirty (130) hours and the remaining half of the training and testing costs after the nurse aide has worked an additional one hundred thirty (130) hours. The hours start accruing when the individual has successfully tested and is listed on the registry.” NOT PUBLISHED, and searched for on 2026-08-16 across chapter 0720-18 in full, the Commission’s Nurse Aide page, the Commission’s Nurse Aide Examination Program FAQ and the Tennessee candidate handbook articles read: a state application or certification fee; a renewal fee; a reciprocity fee; and any state-set training tuition (“Fees, length of study and other requirements may vary by program” for a private, non-nursing-home programme).
Exam
Two parts — a Knowledge Examination and a Skills Evaluation — and Tennessee’s version differs from the standard NNAAP shape in ways worth knowing. KNOWLEDGE: “The Knowledge Examination has seventy-five (75) multiple-choice questions and can be taken both online or in person. You will have two (2) hours to complete the Knowledge Examination. You will be told when fifteen (15) minutes are left to finish.” Ten of those questions do not count: “There are ten (10) experimental questions intermingled within the knowledge (oral and written) test… These experimental questions will not be considered/factored into the computation of the final test score.” ORAL: “The Oral Examination consists of seventy-five (75) multiple-choice questions and is given on a computer for test center exams. Oral exam questions will be read by recorded voice. Each of the seventy-five (75) multiple-choice questions will be repeated as many times as needed. You will have two (2) hours to complete the entire Oral Examination.” PASS MARK: “You must have a score of 75% or better to pass the knowledge portion of the exam” — which matches the rule’s own floor, “The minimum passing grade for each test shall be seventy-five percent (75%) for the written or oral component” (0720-18-.15(1)(a)5). SKILLS: “you will be asked to perform five (5) randomly selected nurse aide skills within thirty (30) minutes. You will be rated on these skills by an RN Nurse Aide Evaluator… You must perform all bolded steps correctly and pass all five (5) skills to be successful in the Skills Evaluation.” The rule describes the same test from the regulator’s side and adds how the five are drawn: “The performance demonstration portion of the test shall consist, at minimum, of five performance tasks, which shall be selected randomly for each registrant from a pool of skills evaluation tasks ranked according to degree of difficulty, with at least one task selected from each degree of difficulty. Registrants are required to pass a minimum of five (5) performance tasks.” QUESTION POOL: the rule caps the graded test — “The test will be developed from a pool of questions, only a portion of which is to be used for grading purposes in any one test, not to exceed one hundred (100) questions.” EVALUATORS: “Evaluators must maintain an active RN license and have one year experience caring for the elderly or critically ill.” WHERE: at a Regional Testing Site (RTS), which “may provide testing to eligible candidates from across Tennessee”; at an In-Facility (INF) site “associated with an approved training program or facility” serving its own students or employees; or online with a live proctor for the knowledge or oral exam. BOOKING WINDOWS: “For exams at test center locations, you must make an online reservation via a PC… at least ten (10) calendar days prior to the test date”, while “For Written (or Oral) online exams, you may schedule an exam as early as the following day depending on exam availability.” A ONE-MONTH DEADLINE SURVIVES IN THE RULE AND SITS ODDLY WITH THE ONLINE SYSTEM, and is recorded rather than reconciled: “Applications to take the test shall be sent by the program coordinator to the appropriate testing agency postmarked no later than thirty (30) days prior to the test date” (0720-18-.15(1)(b)). Arrival: “arrive 30 min early to complete the required check-in process. Late arrivals may not be permitted to test.”
Renewal & continuing education
Every 24 months, and the qualifying test is work rather than education. “The certification period is for 24 months, and the individual must renew every 2 years by providing verification that they have worked a minimum of eight hours during the 24-month time frame.” WHERE THE WORK COUNTS: “Certified Nurse Aides are required to renew their certification every two years and must provide verification of having worked a minimum of eight hours during the past 24 months in a licensed or certified healthcare facility. (NOTE: Private duty services, sitter, companion services, private physician’s offices, etc. are not accepted for renewal.)” HOW IT IS PROVED — Tennessee is specific: “This proof of employment must be in the form of either: a pay stub; payroll printout; or notarized attestation form. The pay stub or payroll printout must contain the name of the facility (not the payroll services company), the individual’s name, a date and the number of hours worked. The notarized attestation form must be completed and notarized by the facility where the individual worked and must include: the individual’s name; social security number; the date the individual worked 8 hours; and the name and title of the individual verifying the information.” WHERE IT IS FILED: “As of June 1, 2026, all Nurse Aide Renewals, and demographic changes will be move to Credentia.com or 1-888-204-6249.” NOTICE: the registry contractor “will send electronic renewal reminders to your email address, as listed on your account, approximately one hundred and twenty (120) days prior to expiration of your enrollment,” and on success “you will receive an electronic registry renewal notification by email, which will be valid for the next twenty-four (24) months.” ⚠ A CONFLICT ON THE EIGHT HOURS, RECORDED BOTH WAYS AND NOT RESOLVED: the Tennessee candidate handbook says “you are required to work as a nurse aide A minimum of 8 hours in the previous 24 months in a licensed health care facility. The 8 hours does not have to be consecutive hours,” while the same contractor’s Tennessee test-taker page says “you are required to work as a nurse aide at least one documented day (eight consecutive hours) for pay in an approved facility during the previous twenty-four (24) months.” Non-consecutive in one place, one documented eight-consecutive-hour day in the other. The Commission’s own page requires “a minimum of eight hours during the past 24 months” without saying either way, and specifies a proof form that names “the date the individual worked 8 hours” — singular. Both published statements are reported here and neither is adopted. NONE for renewal of the certification. Tennessee conditions continued certification on eight hours of qualifying paid work in twenty-four months and on nothing else — no continuing education, no in-service hours, and no course. What Tennessee does require runs to the FACILITY rather than to the aide: “The facility must complete a performance review of each nurse aide employee at least once every 12 months and must provide regular in-service education based on the outcome of these reviews” (0720-18-.15(4), headed “Continued Competency”). That is a nursing home’s duty to its staff, not a condition of the aide’s place on the Registry, and no Tennessee source read on 2026-08-16 makes it one. An aide assigned to a designated Alzheimer’s unit owes a separate forty hours of classroom instruction under 0720-18-.07(10), which is likewise an assignment condition rather than a renewal condition. Tiers searched: chapter 0720-18 in full, the Commission’s Nurse Aide page, the Commission’s Nurse Aide Examination Program FAQ, and the Tennessee candidate handbook’s Introduction, Eligibility Criteria, Exam Overview, Exam Fees, Registration and Scheduling, Quick Reference Guide and The Registry articles.
How to apply
Applications are handled by Tennessee Health Facilities Commission (HFC), Division of Licensure and Regulation — Nurse Aide program and the Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry. The Commission took the nursing-home rules over from the Department of Health: chapter 0720-18 was “Transferred from chapter 1200-08-06 pursuant to Public Chapter 1119 of 2022 effective July 1, 2022.” The Commission’s mailing address changed in late 2025: “As of November 24, 2025, we have moved into a single location in Nashville… please direct all mail to our new address: Health Facilities Commission, Andrew Jackson State Building, 502 Deaderick Street, 9th Floor Nashville, Tennessee 37243.” Registry operation and testing are contracted out — “As of June 1, 2026, Credentia will be the new Nurse Aide Registry and Testing vendor for the Health Facilities Commission.”. Start at the official application page .
Verify a license in Tennessee
Credentia, under contract to the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission (published by the contractor as the “TN Nurse Aide Registry Search”) publishes a public license search , searchable by first name, last name, city, date of birth, Social Security number or registration number. It covers Tennessee Nurse Aide Registry entries. The contractor states the practical requirement: “To conduct a search, you will need the name, city, and date of birth OR registration number of the nurse aide.” The field list above was read from the live search application’s own compiled form controls on 2026-08-16, not from a description of the tool: there are THREE search cards, one taking firstName, lastName, city and dateOfBirth, a second headed “Or Search By Social Security Number”, and a third headed “Search By Registration Number” whose own helper text reads “You may add up to 15 registration numbers by clicking on the + button below” — so a registration number is a search input in its own right, not just a value that comes back. The same code sets the result columns to First Name, Last Name, City, State, Postal Code, Program, Status and Registration Number (headed “Certification Number” in the medication-aide variant of the same tool), plus an action column. TWO THINGS TO EXPECT BEFORE CLICKING. First, the lookup puts a CAPTCHA challenge between the search form and the result. Second, the page builds itself in your browser after it loads, so a search result has no web address of its own and cannot be bookmarked, emailed or cited; you have to run the search yourself each time, and an automated watch on this address can only ever see the empty form. A THIRD THING WORTH KNOWING: the Health Facilities Commission’s own “Verify Status of Nurse Aide” link does not lead to this search — it redirects to the contractor’s home page, leaving the visitor to find the Tennessee registry search from there. Tennessee no longer does verification by paper for other states: “Effective May, 2019, all states agencies have been advised that Tennessee no longer manually completes paper verification forms. Anyone who has ever been certified in Tennessee can be located on the website.”.
Records come from Credentia, under contract to the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission (published by the contractor as the “TN Nurse Aide Registry Search”)’s own system. LicensingAtlas does not hold license records and cannot confirm any individual’s status — the date on this page refers to the requirements described above, not to anyone’s credential.