Tennessee CME Requirements for Psychiatrists
Reviewed by CME Psychiatry Center editorsLast reviewed against the Tennessee medical board3 primary sourcesHow we verify
Tennessee requirements for all physicians
- 40 hours of CME in the 24 months preceding each license renewal (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.19)
- All 40 hours must be ACCME-accredited AMA PRA Category 1, AAFP Prescribed, or AOA credit; hours may be completed in any distribution across the 2-year window
- 2 of the 40 hours must address controlled substance prescribing and must include the Tennessee Department of Health treatment guidelines on opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and carisoprodol (course must be Tennessee-specific); applies to all licensees unless exempt under T.C.A. § 63-1-402(c)
- Statutory exemption from the 2-hour prescribing course: physicians board-certified (ABMS/AOA/ABPS) in pain management, anesthesiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, or rheumatology; psychiatrists are not exempt
- New licensees: exempt from CME only for the calendar year of licensure if licensed in the same calendar year as passing USMLE Step 3; retired/inactive licensees are exempt
- No carry-over; a course counts only once per calendar year
- Retain CME documentation for 4 years after the end of the calendar year in which it was earned; deficiencies draw a $100-per-hour civil penalty plus 10 penalty hours under Board policy
- Board may waive CME for illness, disability, or undue hardship if requested in writing before the renewal period ends
What this means if you are a board-certified psychiatrist in Tennessee
- Your Tennessee license and your ABPN certificate run on separate clocks: the state rules above are checked at license renewal; ABPN checks 90 CME and 16 SA-CME at the end of each 3-year block. One activity can count for both.
- Any AMA PRA Category 1 activity satisfies both. Only activities on the ABPN Approved CC Activities List earn Self-Assessment credit; topic-specific state hours (ethics, opioids, etc.) satisfy the state but are ordinary CME for ABPN.
- A state-mandated patient-safety or risk-management course can also satisfy the ABPN patient safety requirement; a hospital QI project may satisfy your PIP.
Last reviewed August 23, 2026. State figures come from the Tennessee medical board; ABPN figures from the CC Booklet (June 2025) and CC FAQ (April 2026). See the full ABPN CME requirements guide.
ABPN requirements (apply in every state)
Board certification and state licensure are tracked separately. Whatever your state requires below, ABPN Continuing Certification also requires, per 3-year block:
- 90 AMA PRA Category 1 CME credits per 3-year block (average 30 per year) (full CME rules)
- 16 Self-Assessment (SA) CME credits per block, counted within the 90, from the ABPN Approved CC Activities List (what counts as SA)
- One Performance in Practice (PIP) activity per block — a Clinical or Feedback module (how PIP works)
- One Patient Safety activity, one-time, if your first block began in 2017 or later (who it applies to)
- Either the 10-year CC exam or 20 ABCC articles per block (compare the two)
- An unrestricted license and the annual fee ($175 for one certificate) (fees and statuses)
CME from any ACCME-accredited provider counts toward the 90; SA credit only counts from activities on the ABPN list. Read the complete ABPN CME requirements →
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