Copper Mountain College urges BRN to create remediation pathway for nursing program directors

Copper Mountain College President Darren Otten told the Nursing Education and Workforce Advisory Committee on June 25 that his rural college struggled to hire a qualified nursing program director under current Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) rules and is asking the BRN to create a remediation pathway for districts that must hire outside their internal faculty pool.

Otten said his college had a candidate who “fit well for our program” but who did not meet certain BRN qualifications. He asked the BRN to consider ways for districts — particularly small or rural community colleges with very small applicant pools — to submit remediation plans or alternate training so that capable candidates can be approved to supervise programs: “When the BRN expresses concern about a specific candidate, we should be able to submit a proposal to address the deficiencies… and create a pathway so that we can hire the people that ultimately are interested in being in our places.”

Why this matters: rural and small colleges frequently see very small applicant pools for program director roles. Program directors have statutory responsibilities for curriculum, fiscal planning and regulatory compliance; if a college cannot fill the role its program can be jeopardized and student seats lost.

BRN response and context BRN Executive Officer Laurie Melby reviewed the existing regulatory pathway. She explained that Title 16, California Code of Regulations (CCR) sets minimal routes into faculty and director roles: instructor-level approval normally requires a master’s degree and one academic year of teaching (an academic year counted as two semesters); assistant director and director roles require specified amounts of teaching and/or administrative experience (the director role requires one year of validated administrative experience per 16 CCR §1420(h)). Melby said the BRN currently relies on equivalencies (for example, counting an academic practicum) but does not have an established remediation pathway for hiring outside-of-system candidates.

Melby described options the BRN can pursue: (a) regulatory change to clarify or expand equivalencies, (b) legislative change through the board’s sunset process, or (c) targeted policy guidance and enhanced communication with college executives. She also said a recent law change (effective Jan. 1) now allows individuals to apply directly to the BRN for faculty/program approvals tied to their RN license rather than waiting to be nominated by an employing school — a change the BRN expects will enlarge the applicant pool.

Next steps and committee direction Committee members and BRN staff agreed to follow up. The BRN staff will schedule a follow-up meeting with President Otten to explore options. MEWAC’s faculty subcommittee (co-chaired by Drs. Tanya Altman and Tammy Vanthol) was asked to consider regulatory options and possible remedial pathways for non‑accredited or small programs. Melby said the BRN could also increase direct communication with campus executive leadership at colleges when questions about approvals arise.

What was not decided No regulatory or legislative change was adopted at the meeting. Committee discussion identified options and follow-up actions but produced no formal vote.

Quotes "I do believe that there needs to be a remedial pathway for those places and in particular for districts where we get application pools of 1, maybe 2 if we're lucky when we fly an executive director role," President Darren Otten said.

"We can consider equivalencies and alternative pathways, but a remediation pathway to address specific candidate deficiencies would require either regulatory or legislative action," BRN Executive Officer Laurie Melby said.

Ending BRN staff said they will convene follow-up conversations with Copper Mountain College and asked the MEWAC faculty subcommittee to review possible regulation language. The issue was flagged as likely to be raised in the BRN’s upcoming sunset review and may require legislative as well as regulatory action.