About the AHCNA

Creation of the Center

• Housed at East Tennessee State University, the Appalachian Highlands Center for Nursing Advancement was created in October 2021 thanks to a generous investment from Ballad Health to create a center dedicated to bringing the region’s academic nursing, clinical nursing, and school systems together in order to increase the pipeline of opportunity and augment the supply of nurses and nursing support in the Appalachian Highlands.
• The center will address increasing nurses at all levels such as the CNAs, LPNs and RNs.
• The Center will develop partnerships with other colleges and universities across the Appalachian Highlands to advance the clinical practice of nursing, enhance interprofessional collaboration, contribute to knowledge about nursing workflow and generate nursing scholarship and innovation as well as provide a dashboard presentation of data related to nurses.
• Read more about the development of the Center.

As part of the Appalachian Highlands Center for Nursing Advancement, the Tennessee Center for Nursing Advancement was established by the state of Tennessee legislature and charged with:

• Developing a statewide plan for nurses based on a detailed analysis of workforce needs;
• Establishing and maintaining a database of nursing workforce needs, including current data and future projects;
• Routinely convening representatives of nursing professionals, healthcare professional organizations, business and industry leaders, and other leaders to solicit their reviews and recommendations;
• Recognizing nurses and the accomplishments of nurses and conveying the positive image of nursing to Tennessee; and
• Increasing the pipeline for nursing education, thus increasing the number of qualified nurses to care for Tennesseans.