22 Tex. Admin. Code § 215.7 - Faculty
(a) Faculty Organization.
(1) The faculty shall be organized with
written policies and procedures and/or bylaws to guide the faculty and
program's activities, including processes for enforcement of written student
policies.
(2) The faculty shall
meet regularly and function in such a manner that all members participate in
planning, implementing, and evaluating the nursing program. Such participation
includes, but is not limited to: the initiation and/or change in program
policies, personnel policies, curriculum, utilization of affiliating agencies,
and program evaluation.
(A) Committees
necessary to carry out the functions of the program shall be established with
duties and membership of each committee clearly defined in writing.
(B) Minutes of faculty organization and
meetings shall document the reasons for actions and the decisions of the
faculty and shall be available for reference.
(C) Part-time faculty may participate in all
aspects of the program. Clear lines of communication of program policies,
objectives, and evaluation criteria shall be included in the policies for
part-time faculty.
(b) There shall be a Nursing Faculty Handbook
that contains written policies for nursing faculty that are in keeping with
accepted educational standards and are consistent with the policies of the
governing entity. Nursing policies that differ from those of the governing
entity shall be consistent with nursing unit mission and goals (philosophy and
outcome).
(1) Written policies concerning
workload for the director or coordinator shall allow for sufficient time for
administrative responsibilities consistent with §
215.6 of this title (relating to
Administration and Organization). Written policies for nursing faculty workload
shall allow sufficient time for faculty to accomplish those activities related
to the teaching-learning process.
(2) Personnel policies shall include position
descriptions for all members of the nursing program (including the
director/coordinator) outlining the qualifications and responsibilities
directly related to the nursing program.
(3) Written policies for nursing faculty
shall also include: terms of employment, plans for faculty orientation to the
institution and to the nursing program, resources and opportunities for faculty
development and evaluation of faculty, and Nursing Peer Review, as described in
§217.19 (relating to Incident-Based Nursing Peer Review and Whistleblower
Protections) and §
217.20(relating to Safe Harbor
Nursing Peer Review and Whistleblower Protections) of this title.
(4) Orientation of new nursing faculty
members shall be initiated at the onset of employment.
(5) A plan for nursing faculty development
shall be offered to encourage and assist faculty members to meet the nursing
program's needs as well as individual faculty members' professional development
needs.
(6) A variety of means shall
be used to evaluate faculty performance such as self, student, peer, and
administrative evaluation.
(c) A professional nursing education program
shall employ sufficient faculty members with educational preparation and
expertise necessary to enable the students to meet the program goals. The
number of faculty members shall be determined by such factors as:
(1) The number and level of students
enrolled;
(2) The curriculum
plan;
(3) Activities and
responsibilities required of faculty;
(4) The number and geographic locations of
affiliating agencies and clinical practice settings; and
(5) The level of care and acuity of
clients.
(d) Faculty
Qualifications.
(1) Documentation of faculty
qualifications shall be included in the official files of the
program.
(2) Each nurse faculty
member shall:
(A) Hold a current license or
privilege to practice as a registered nurse in the State of Texas;
(B) Show evidence of teaching abilities and
maintaining current knowledge, clinical expertise, and safety in the subject
areas of teaching responsibility;
(C) Hold a master's degree or doctoral
degree, preferably in nursing;
(D)
A nurse faculty member holding a master's degree or doctoral degree in a
discipline other than nursing shall hold a bachelor's degree in nursing from an
approved or accredited baccalaureate program in nursing; and
(i) if teaching in a diploma or associate
degree nursing program, shall have at least six (6) graduate semester hours in
nursing appropriate to assigned teaching responsibilities, or
(ii) if teaching in a baccalaureate level
program, shall have at least twelve (12) graduate semester hours in nursing
appropriate to assigned teaching
responsibilities.
(e) Faculty Waivers.
(1) In fully approved programs, if an
individual to be appointed as a faculty member does not meet the requirements
for faculty as specified in subsection (c) of this section, the dean or
director is permitted to waive the Board's requirements, without Board
approval, if the program and prospective faculty member meet the following
criteria and after notification to the Board of the intent to waive the Board's
faculty requirements for a temporary time period not to exceed one (1)
year:
(2) Minimum program criteria:
(A) program's NCLEX-RN® pass rate for the
preceding examination year was 80% or above; and
(B) total number of faculty waivers at
program shall not exceed 10% of the total number of nursing
faculty.
(3) Minimum
criteria for prospective faculty member:
(A)
hold a current license or privilege to practice as a registered nurse in the
State of Texas;
(B) has at least
two (2) years in the last four (4) years of nursing practice experience in the
anticipated subject areas of teaching responsibility;
(C) has earned a bachelor's degree in nursing
or completed, as part of a nursing education program culminating in a master's
or doctorate degree in nursing, the course work equivalent to the course work
required for a bachelor's degree in nursing; and either
(i) is currently enrolled in a master's
nursing education program and has earned a minimum of 50% of the required
credits toward the master's degree in nursing, excluding thesis or professional
paper; or
(ii) holds a master's
degree in another field and has a documented plan to complete, within a
designated time frame, the required number of graduate semester hours in
nursing appropriate to the anticipated subject areas of teaching
responsibility, six (6) graduate semester hours in nursing to teach in a
diploma or associate degree nursing education program or twelve (12) graduate
semester hours in nursing to teach in a baccalaureate degree or entry-level
master's degree in nursing education program.
(4) When the program does not meet the
minimum program criteria or the prospective faculty member does not meet the
minimum criteria for a faculty member, a petition for an emergency waiver may
be submitted to the Board Staff for approval when a vacancy occurs because a
faculty member fails to report as planned, i.e., sudden illness or death of a
faculty member, or there is an unexpected resignation, or qualified
applicants/prospective faculty are not available.
(5) A waiver is valid for up to one (1)
year.
(6) If an extension of the
waiver is needed, the dean or director shall petition Board Staff for an
extension of the original waiver.
(f) Non-nursing faculty are exempt from
meeting the faculty qualifications of this chapter as long as the teaching
assignments do not include nursing content or clinical nursing
courses.
(g) All nursing faculty,
as well as non-nursing faculty, who teach non-clinical nursing courses that are
part of the nursing curriculum, e.g., biological, physical, social, behavioral
and nursing sciences, including pathophysiology, pharmacology, research,
nutrition, human growth and development, management, and statistics, shall have
sufficient graduate level educational preparation verified by the program dean
or director as appropriate to these areas of responsibility.
(h) Non-nursing faculty assigned to teach
didactic nursing content shall be required to co-teach with nursing faculty in
order to meet nursing course objectives.
(i) Teaching assignments shall be
commensurate with the faculty member's education and experience in
nursing.
(j) Faculty
Responsibilities:
(1) supervising students in
clinical learning experiences;
(2)
supervising all initial nursing procedures performed by the student in the
clinical area and ascertaining that the student is competent before allowing
the student to perform an actual nursing procedure independently;
(3) developing, implementing, and evaluating
curriculum; and
(4) participating
in the development, implementation, and enforcement of standards/policies for
admission, progression, probation, and dismissal of students, and participation
in academic guidance and counseling.
(k) Teaching activities shall be coordinated
among full-time faculty, part-time faculty, clinical preceptors, and clinical
teaching assistants.
(l) There
shall be a minimum of one (1) full-time nursing instructor for the
program.
(m) A dean/director
without major teaching or clinical responsibilities shall not be considered a
full-time instructor for purposes of meeting the Board's requirements related
to having a sufficient number of nursing faculty for a professional nursing
education program.
Notes
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