What are the qualifications for nursing faculty in a professional nursing education (RN) program?
A faculty member in a professional nursing education program should:
- be licensed as a registered nurse or have privilege to practice in the State of Texas
- have teaching experience
- have current knowledge and clinical expertise in subject area of teaching responsibility
- hold a master’s degree or doctorate, preferably in nursing
If the faculty member holds a master’s degree in another discipline, he/she shall have appropriate graduate work in nursing for type of program and the assigned teaching responsibilities.
The program director is permitted to waive required qualifications with appropriate rationale.
What are the qualifications for nursing faculty in a vocational nursing education (VN) program?
A faculty member in a vocational nursing education program should:
- hold a current license or privilege to practice nursing in the State of Texas
- have been actively employed in nursing for the past 3 years
- have had 3 years varied nursing experiences since graduation
If the faculty member has not been actively employed during the past 3 years, other factors will be considered:
- advanced preparation in nursing, nursing education, and nursing administration
- prior relevant nursing employment
The program director is permitted to waive required qualifications with appropriate rationale.
Can licensed vocational nurses be used as faculty in VN nursing programs?
Program directors or coordinators may use licensed vocational nurses as faculty in VN programs using the following criteria:
- Licensed vocational nurses work under the supervision of a registered nurse.
- Didactic courses taught by licensed vocational nurses are limited to Fundamentals and Vocational Nursing Skills.
- Licensed vocational nurses teaching didactic courses other than Fundamentals and Vocational Nursing Skills must have the documented academic credentials to do so.
- Licensed vocational nurses may act as clinical supervisors for student clinical rotations. Evidence of registered nurse supervision must be documented.
What are the qualifications for adjunct (part-time) nursing faculty?
Requirements for adjunct or part-time nursing faculty are the same as for full-time nursing faculty.
How would a nursing program determine how many faculty members are needed?
The number of faculty members shall be determined by such factors as:
- the number and level of students
- the curriculum plan
- activities and responsibilities required of faculty
- the number and geographic locations of health care agencies and clinical practice settings
- the level of client care and acuity of client illness
Sufficient faculty are required to provide a ratio of 1 faculty to 10 students in the clinical area. The ratio of faculty to students will vary if preceptors are used during the clinical experiences. The total number of faculty may include a mix of full-time and part-time faculty.
Vocational nursing education rules specifically call for at least one full-time nursing instructor for the program and a director/coordinator without major teaching or clinical responsibilities.
What can clinical teaching assistants do?
Clinical teaching assistants function in the role of clinical supervisor, responsible for supervision of students’ skills performance, student evaluation and other aspects of student learning in the clinical setting. The faculty member must be physically present in the facility and available to the clinical teaching assistant if consultation is needed. Clinical teaching assistants are employed by the professional nursing program to assist the program faculty with the supervision of students during a clinical learning experience. The use of clinical teaching assistants is a mechanism that can be used to extend the faculty: student ratio. When clinical teaching assistants are used the number of students supervised by the faculty increases from 10 to 15.
What is the appropriate workload for full-time and part-time nursing faculty?
The nursing education rules do not specify workload or a method to calculate faculty workload for nursing faculty. There are rules which provide guidance in setting workloads for nursing faculty:
- There should be written policies describing workload.
- Written policies should be in keeping with accepted educational standards and consistent with those of the governing institution.
- Teaching activities should be coordinated among full-time and part-time faculty, clinical preceptors, and clinical teaching assistants, if appropriate.
- Workload should be determined by the number of faculty employed.
- Workload should be determined by faculty responsibilities.
- The program should employ sufficient faculty to enable the students to meet program goals.
Can programs use lab assistants? What are their qualifications? What can they do? Are they considered faculty?
Many nursing programs utilize lab assistants to manage the nursing lab. The qualifications and expectations for the lab assistant should be provided in the job description. Some activities that might be included in their job description are:
- maintaining lab supplies and equipment
- scheduling students' lab times
- organizing the laboratory
Lab assistants are not nursing faculty and they cannot teach students or evaluate their performance in the skills lab. However, if the lab assistant is an RN, he/she may follow a pre-set lab procedure and check-off students’ practice in the lab. Checking-off differs from evaluation, as evaluation is a more complicated activity and involves making a decision about a student’s performance.
The 1:10 clinical ratio requirements in rule 214.10 and 215.10 only apply to clinical learning experiences involving direct patient care, and therefore do not apply to the skills lab setting.
What faculty policies should be included in the Faculty Handbook?
Rule 215 for Professional Nursing Education (RN) Programs specifically names areas where faculty policies are required:
- faculty orientation
- faculty development
- faculty evaluation
- faculty organization with written policies and procedures and/or bylaws to guide the faculty and program’s activities
- faculty workload
- dean/director workload
It is also implied that written policies are provided to describe how the faculty will meet regularly and function in such a way that all members participate in planning, implementing and evaluating the nursing program. Policies should describe how faculty can initiate or change academic policies, personnel policies, curriculum, utilization of affiliating agencies, and program evaluation. This list is not inclusive.
There shall also be written policies related to committee structure, membership, duties and function.
Rule 214 for Vocational Nursing Education (VN) Programs specifically requires there be written faculty policies to include:
- faculty qualifications
- faculty responsibilities
- performance evaluation criteria
- terms of employment
- faculty workload
- faculty orientation
- faculty development
- faculty evaluation
- director/coordinator workload
In addition Rule 214.7(c)(7) provides for policies for part-time faculty related to lines of communication of program policies, objectives and evaluative criteria.
Other suggested policies to be included:
- policies for maintaining minutes of meetings
- policies regarding supervision of clinical experiences
- grading policies
- interrater reliability policies
- library acquisition and weeding policies
- policies for test blueprinting
- policies for test review
- student policies
- policies for advising students
- references to personnel policies in the institution