Cumberland University

Cumberland University occupies a campus in Lebanon, Tennessee, roughly thirty miles east of Nashville in Wilson County. Founded in 1842, it operated for much of its history as a small liberal arts institution with a nationally known law school, and today functions as a private university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees to a modest student body. Its proximity to Nashville places students within reach of one of the country's denser concentrations of hospitals and health systems.

Nursing is offered as a bachelor's degree for students entering the profession, along with a completion pathway for licensed registered nurses and graduate study for nurses advancing into practice or leadership roles. Undergraduate coursework moves through anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, and health assessment into nursing care across medical-surgical, maternal-newborn, pediatric, psychiatric-mental health, and community health settings, with skills lab and simulation work preceding clinical rotations. Placements draw on hospitals and health agencies in Lebanon, Nashville, and the surrounding counties. Graduates are prepared to sit for the NCLEX-RN. Compared with Tennessee's large public nursing programs, Cumberland offers smaller cohorts and close faculty contact within commuting distance of a major medical market.