COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO

NURSING DEPARTMENT

NURSING ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING

October 19, 2015

MINUTES

Agency Members Present:

1.  Akram Cader, San Mateo Medical Center

2.  Terry Graham, Kaiser Redwood City

3.  Cynthia Harrison, Health Workforce Initiative

College Representatives:

1.  Charlene Frontiera, Dean, Math/Science Division

2.  Jane McAteer, Director of Nursing

3.  Elizabeth Smith, CSM Nursing Instructor

4.  Janis Wisherop, CSM Nursing Instructor

5.  Yin Mei Lawrence, Science Instructor

6.  Nursing students: Tasha Keirns, Yesenia Madrigal, Marie Oliveros, Victoria Stauffer, Angela Tam, Michelle Umezu, Nolan Villamil

TOPIC / Discussion/Decision
1. Welcome/Introductions
2. Previous meeting minutes / 2.1. Approved. Minutes will be posted on the CTE website.
3. Student Profiles / 3.1 There are 48 second year students, many Filipinos, many students with other degrees. The average age has been at 30-31 for a long time but there are many in the 20-25 age group.
3.2 The ethnic composition of the first years is more varied; there are more Caucasians, Hispanics, and Asians. Many students have previous degrees. The average age is a bit younger. We started implementing merit-based acceptance this year and this might have an effect on the 1st year profiles.
4. FT Faculty position / 4.1 Tracy DeVille resigned in spring and we are currently hiring for a full time simulation instructor position. We hope to have 1-2 strong candidates to forward to Cabinet in December.
4.2 There is a second open FT position (not simulation) that focuses on Maternity/Pediatrics. There is an option to pick candidates who have applied for the simulation position. We need a lot of simulation in pediatrics because of the issue with clinical placements.
5. Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) Visit / 5.1 The BRN accreditation visit starts on September 26, 2016. The BRN staff will go to classes and talk to students re fulfilling objectives, Nurse Practice Act, etc. They will also meet with administrators. On their second day, they visit clinical agencies and talk to students in conference. They may check to see if objectives are posted. They offer to have confidential sessions with students. They are checking to see if we meet requirements. On their final day, they meet with the President and other interested parties to give their feedback report.
6. Merit-Based Acceptance / 6.1 Merit-based acceptance was applied for the Fall 2015 first year student admissions. Criteria will be slightly modified for Fall 2016, e.g., adding a point for completion of Humanities and American Government courses as an incentive to have GE courses completed at the time of application. The criteria emphasis is on overall GPA and the subset Biology GPA. The application review has been time consuming. There were some discrepancies in the points because students self-rated and assigned points to their application but the required documentation was incomplete. The department asked the top 90 students (highest points) to submit their TEAS results. Once the TEAS results came in, the applicants were ranked per points and the top 50 were accepted into the program. All students in the top 90 were invited to attend a meeting in May; historically, some accepted students decline their spot or drop out. More schools are doing merit-based acceptance to try to raise their NCLEX passing rate. We will be checking to see if merit-based acceptance changes our NCLEX rates.
6.2 Nursing Counselor Melissa Risso is doing in-person information sessions this year. She will check student records as they meet so there will be less processing to do during the application period itself.
6.3 Application trends: Applications peaked in 2010; there has been a downward trend since then, especially in 2015. This might be due to factors like students thinking their chances are lower due to merit-based points, and students preferring to get a bachelor’s in nursing. They might not be aware that they can get their associate’s in nursing, then transfer into a BSN. CSUs accept a limited number of nursing students due to funding issues.
7. Updates from partner agencies / 3.1  SMMC: There is no information on new grad programs. They are undergoing patient experience changes and are migrating some of their systems, e.g. Sharepoint, Outlook. Staff are training on customer service in nursing. This would be good training for students before joining the job market. Students affect scores in patient experience, e.g., excessive noise.
3.2  Kaiser is hiring RNS but not new grads. Kaiser Redwood City is getting RNS transferring from other Kaiser facilities and some from the nursery unit at Seton which closed. They might have a new grad program in the future. Some job postings say BSN preferred but some don’t specify. There is no requirement to get a BSN within a certain time frame. Kaiser RWC is still in transition even if it has been a year since the move. The MedSurg unit is still closed but could open in the future.
3.3 Dignity/Sutter could be hiring because of many retirements coming up. Transition programs are being planned. Some facilities like Kaiser offer a residency or new grad transition program with an option to hire. Some facilities hire first through their transition program, then train the RNs. At Sutter, there is no guarantee of getting the position you want; RNs are placed where’s a need. Residency programs are very expensive; hospitals spend a lot of money on the program, then students might leave. Some agencies require payback if the student leaves after less than a year.
3.4 CINHC changed its name to Health Impact.
3.5 Chancellor Brice Harris is retiring. CCCCO staffing changes could affect how programs are approved, funding, etc.
3.6 Health Workforce Initiative is doing marketing for community colleges. They have several course offerings coming up including a workshop on how students/graduates can market themselves, an ATI NCLEX Testing Strategy, a hands on training on software, Men in Nursing, and others. Cynthia will send information to Jane for dissemination. CSM will host one of the trainings. Janis can vouch for the excellence of the workshops. She attended the hands on software workshop; the speaker uses free software.
8. Challenges / 4.1 The College President met with nursing faculty, staff, and students to discuss full time faculty staffing issues. There is more optimism now that we are hiring FT faculty. Having a lot of adjuncts and few full time faculty is challenging when it comes to consistency and attending meetings.
4.2 Pediatric placements are difficult to find. We haven’t heard back from clinical agencies. We are hoping to stay at Lucile Packard and Kaiser Santa Clara.
9. Next Meeting / 9.1 April 18, 2016
Submitted by: A.M. Gomez

COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO

NURSING DEPARTMENT