Board of Registered Nursing: workforce planning: nursing programs: clinical placements.

Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of nursing by the Board of Registered Nursing and requires an applicant for licensure to have completed a nursing program at a school of nursing that is approved by the board. Existing law requires the board to determine by regulation the required subjects of instruction to be completed in an approved school of nursing for licensure as a registered nurse and to include the minimum units of theory and clinical experience necessary to achieve essential clinical competency at the entry level of the registered nurse. Existing law requires that the board's regulations be designed to require all schools to provide clinical instruction in all phases of the educational process, except as specified. Existing law requires the board, among other healing arts boards, to collect workforce data from its licensees for future workforce planning on at least a biennial basis. Existing law requires the board to maintain the confidentiality of the information collected pursuant to these provisions and to only release the information in an aggregate form. Existing law requires the board, or the Department of Consumer Affairs on its behalf, beginning July 1, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, to provide the individual licensee data to the Department of Health Care Access and Information, as specified. This bill would require the board to incorporate regional forecasts into its biennial analyses of the nursing workforce. The bill would require the board to develop a plan to address regional areas of shortage identified by its nursing workforce forecast and identify in the plan additional facilities that could offer clinical placement slots. The bill would require the board to annually collect, analyze, and report information related to the number of clinical placement slots that are available and the location of those clinical placement slots within the state, including, but not limited to, information concerning the total number of placement slots a clinical facility can accommodate and how many slots the programs that use the facility will need. The bill would require the board to place the annual report on its internet website.