BRN committee backs reestablishing intervention evaluation committees and creates subcommittee charter

The Board of Registered Nursing’s Enforcement and Intervention Committee voted to recommend that the full board reestablish up to five Intervention Evaluation Committees and approved a charter to form an intervention program subcommittee to review IEC applications and program processes. Committee Chair Tricia Winn made the motion to reestablish IECs; Committee Member David Lawler seconded the motion, which the committee approved by roll call. The committee later approved the charter, again by roll call.

Committee leaders said the changes aim to make it easier for program participants to be seen by their IECs quarterly, shorten long meeting days and allow more time for case discussion. “Each of our IECs come together each quarter,” Shannon Johnson, enforcement division chief, told the committee during the discussion of reestablishing IECs. “We think it is necessary for these participants to be able to be seen on a quarterly basis by their IECs.”

The committee’s action responds to months of public comment from participants and data staff presented showing delays in participant reviews and uneven access to IEC hearings. EO Lori Melby said the board reduced IECs in prior years and is proposing to reopen some previously closed panels so participants can be redistributed and seen more frequently. “Having a lower amount of participants being seen in a day will allow the IEC to be able to have more of a…