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Board ratifies program approvals, places several programs on provisional status and advances removal/denial proceedings
Summary
The board approved a range of NEC recommendations on program approvals and admissions requests, including continued approvals, admission requests, provisional placements, rescissions of admission patterns and one recommendation to remove a program from the approved list after finding persistent noncompliance.
At its Nov. 18 meeting the Board considered a large set of nursing education program reports from the NECs and voted on multiple admissions, continued approvals, provisional statuses and one proposed removal from the approved program list.
Highlights of the board’s actions include: ratification of executive officer program decisions for the Aug. 5–Oct. 14 period; approval of admission requests for Quest Nursing Education Center, Summit College (San Bernardino) and Angeles Institute with NEC conditions; provisional approvals and reduced class-size approvals for Glendale Career College and Northwest College (West Covina) to ensure closer oversight; rescission of the pattern of admission and placement on provisional approval for San Bernardino Valley College’s psychiatric technician program; and a recommendation to remove California Healthcare Skills Center from the approved program list because of repeated noncompliance and extremely low NCLEX pass rates.
The San Bernardino Valley College item produced extended public comment and institutional responses. NEC Roberta Thompson recommended rescinding the program’s admissions pattern and placing the program on provisional approval for two years, citing prior site-visit findings and deficiencies. College representatives described a package of steps — weekly attendance verification, added clinical hours, an immediately hired clinical coordinator and a planned remediation specialist — and asked for oversight and time to implement the fixes. Several college staff and former staff members spoke during public comment alleging prior administrative resistance to compliance efforts; one NEC and multiple board members asked for tight, time-framed reporting to ensure the college meets milestones.
On the other end of the spectrum, some private college representatives asked for flexibility to admit classes where they could demonstrate capacity and fidelity to an approved curriculum. For example, Stanbridge University (San Diego) requested permission to admit 75 students in a single class; the NEC recommended denial because a full site inspection and a review of records cannot occur before the second class start, and the board denied that request per the board’s regulations.
Board action was specific to the NEC recommendations: when NECs recommended conditional or provisional approval the board generally adopted those recommendations or asked staff to report back on defined corrective steps.
Quote: "We will only approve the smaller class so they can give the students individual attention and make sure these students succeed," Dr. McLeod said about provisional approvals.
What’s next: NECs will continue scheduled site visits, monitoring, and milestone reporting for programs on provisional approval; staff will track corrective-action timelines and report progress to the board.
