Report 2019-120 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2019-120: Board of Registered Nursing: It Has Failed to Use Sufficient Information When Considering Enrollment Decisions for New and Existing Nursing Programs (Release Date: July 2020)

Recommendation #3 To: Registered Nursing, Board of

To ensure that nursing education staff members provide complete information to the governing board when it is considering enrollment decisions, by January 1, 2021, BRN should establish in policy the specific information that its staff should present to the education committee and governing board, including data about clinical facilities that nursing programs use for placements, the content areas for which the programs use those facilities, and the total number of available placement slots and the risk of clinical displacements at the facilities.

6-Month Agency Response

The BRN previously amended the optional clinical facility approval form (EDP-P-18) and the EDP-I-15 Instruction form and presented them to the Deans and Directors at the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing/California Association of College Nursing (COADN/CACN) meeting on October 7, 2020. The BRN requested all approved prelicensure programs update each of their EDP-P-18s to reflect the current up-to-date information with a goal to be completed by January 2021. The BRN updated the ELC Liaison manual and the New Hire Orientation manual to reflect these amendments. Additionally, the EO held training sessions for the Deans and Directors where questions were asked and answered on Monday December 22nd, Tuesday December 23rd, and Thursday December 31st after it was expressed that there was confusion around the completion of these forms and whether the BRN had the authority to request and collect this information.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

We reviewed documentation BRN provided and believe its guidance documentation for the nursing education staff, if followed, would ensure they provide complete information to the governing board. Specifically, we reviewed the Agenda Item Summary template used for preparing board meeting agendas and the checklist of information that must be provided for ELC and Board meetings and found they require the nursing education staff to provide information that addresses our recommendation. However, as Recommendation 6 states, once it has compiled and aggregated in a database information about clinical capacity, BRN should also require its nursing education staff to provide that information to the governing board.

60-Day Agency Response

BRN has amended the optional clinical facility approval form (EDP-P-18) to capture annual capacity estimates from clinical facilities, as well as annual clinical placement needs of programs. BRN provided training with the NECs during the Joint Nursing Education Consultant (JNEC) meeting on September 3, 2020, on the revised EDP-P-18. The BRN will update the ELC Liaison and NEC New Hire Orientation manuals to ensure that they reflect the updated policies. Additionally, the Director's Handbook has the updated EDP-P-18. The changes to the Director's Handbook are scheduled to be presented at the 2020 CACN-COADN Joint Fall Conference during the BRN session. Once these new forms are presented, the NECs will start the work to have all approved pre-licensure programs update each of their EDP-P-18s to reflect the current up to date information.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2019-120

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.