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Bill would require public report of nursing clinical training sites to ease placement planning
Summary
Senate Bill 2058 would direct the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to publish an annual, publicly available report listing approved clinical training sites for nursing programs, capacity and current utilization; supporters said the information would help programs coordinate placements amid a statewide nursing shortage. The committee left
Senate Bill 2058 seeks to improve transparency and coordination of clinical training placements for nursing students by directing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to publish an annual report listing approved clinical training sites, their locations, total capacity and the number of students currently training at each site.
Sponsor Senator Parker described the nursing shortage and said lack of centralized, up-to-date placement data creates inefficiencies for programs and delays for students completing clinical requirements. “This lack of transparency creates inefficiencies and delays, making it difficult for nursing programs to plan effectively and for students to complete their education on time,” Parker said when laying out the bill and a planned committee substitute.
Jeremy Burciaga, vice president and academic dean for Southwest University at El Paso, testified in support and described clinical placements as a time-consuming, nonpaid process that today relies on networking and manual outreach. Burciaga said a consolidated, interactive data source would help nursing programs match students to available slots and allow agencies to coordinate across state resources.
The sponsor said he plans to file a committee substitute with substitute language that would have various state agencies work together to aggregate and publish the data and that the Board of Nursing, Department of State Health Services, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board have pieces of relevant information currently held across agencies. The committee opened testimony, heard support from industry representatives and closed public testimony; SB 2058 was left pending subject to the chair’s call.
