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Board flags continuing‑education quality, storage and audit issues as a priority
Summary
Members discussed creating an approved‑course database, streamlining CE audits and enabling certificate upload/storage to simplify renewals and provider oversight. Staff said provider audits exist and that expanding audits and technical solutions will require IT and regulatory review.
Continuing education (CE) surfaced as an operational priority during the strategic planning session, with board members and staff identifying five possible objectives: build a searchable database of approved CE offerings, streamline RN CE audits, provide storage for certificates, expand CE provider audits and improve CE course quality controls.
Why it matters: CE is tied to renewal compliance and professional competency; cumbersome reporting systems and variable course quality frustrate licensees and complicate audits.
Discussion highlights: board members supported a searchable database so RNs and employers could find vetted offerings and see provider ratings; several suggested short participant surveys or simple thumbs‑up/thumbs‑down feedback embedded in CE completions to create a quality signal. Staff noted current CE provider audits are separate from routine RN renewal audits and that expanding audits or requiring certificates to be uploaded into a state system could require regulation changes and IT capacity. Akali Keith Arons, identified as the chief of licensing division during the session, explained provider audits are a different process than RN renewal audits: “this 1 is more related to our continuing education provider courses and expanding the audits for those particular courses.”
On certificate storage: members suggested either Breeze or another DCA system could eventually host certificates to enable faster random audits; staff noted storage and scale need technical and budget analysis given the large number of licensees and certificates.
Next steps: staff will collect data on typical CE provider practices, investigate approaches used by other state departments and consider pilot surveys and certificate‑upload options as possible action items in the plan’s implementation phase.
