SFCC nursing program on notice
Downgrade by state Board of Nursing blocks admission of new students; college to appeal decision
The New Mexico Board of Nursing has placed Santa Fe Community College’s nursing program on conditional status for two years because of belowpar scores on licensing exams. The college, which often has touted the success of its nursing program, cannot accept new students until its graduates’ test results improve or it wins a pending appeal to remove the conditional rating.
The Board of Nursing based its rating on results on the National Council Licensure Examinations, which the college’s nursing graduates take to become licensed nurses. The board has established a pass rate of 80 percent on the tests, but students at the college averaged between 72 percent and 79 percent in the last three years.
“It’s really more of a watching than a warning,” said Demetrius Chapman, executive director of the New Mexico Board of Nursing. “We usually have one or two colleges around the state that are placed on conditional. The next level is [for the program] to be closed.”
But, he said, “I don’t think this program is in danger of closing.”
Community college leaders said they plan to ask the board to change the program’s status from conditional to “full approval with warning” during an April 21 board meeting. They are basing their appeal on improved test scores for the first quarter of 2017.
Eighty-six percent of students in the associate degree program and 90 percent in the bachelor’s degree program passed the most recent licensure exam.
“We are going to ask that our status be reconsidered sooner rather than later,” said college President Randy Grissom.
But, he said, there is no guarantee that will happen. So the college could be restricted from enrolling new students in the nursing program.
Grissom said the college sent letters to prospective students planning to enter the nursing program next year to give them an update. He said the college is still taking applications with the hope the board will remove the conditional rating.
About 160 students now are in the college’s nursing program.
Vincent Contrastino, a student at the college who said he had been taking required courses so he could enter the nursing program next year, now is looking elsewhere in the state to pursue his degree.
“They should have known for three years that they were not up to grade, but they never implemented anything new to make it better,” he said of Santa Fe Community College leaders.
Jennifer Landen, dean of the college’s School of Sciences, Health, Engineering and Math, said she had hoped for a more broad-based review of the nursing program than the test scores.
“It surprised me because most of us in nursing education feel like you need to look at the whole picture and not just one part of the standard, like the pass rate on tests,” she said.
Landen also said two recent site visits by both the state board and a national board resulted in positive responses.
“They said, ‘Keep doing what you are doing.’ ”
She and Grissom said the state board had changed some of the curriculum requirements in the past few years, which might partly explain the dip in test scores. Additionally, the program experienced a change in personnel during that time.
Landen said she sees the lower-than-required test scores as “a bump in the road.”
Chapman said the college has to file quarterly reports addressing the nursing board’s concerns.
“If they can turn it around, bring test scores back up, then they can come back before the board to get the conditional status removed,” he said.