UAPB’s nursing program set back

Officials at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff explained the baccalaureate nursing program’s accreditation status and conditional probation from the Arkansas State Board of Nursing that was a concern among students who held a peaceful protest at the university’s Bell Tower on Thursday.

UAPB Department of Nursing chair Dr. Brenda Jacobs and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Andrea Stewart explained Friday that the Nursing Board placed the department on conditional status through 2025 after failing to have 75% of its students pass the state licensure exam over the past two years. Meanwhile, they said, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education board of commissioners pulled its accreditation from UAPB — which was to expire in 2025 — because at least 80% of students did not pass the licensure exam.

“Accreditation has to do with the body that puts the quality stamp on a program,” Jacobs said. “Without accreditation, if you graduate from an unaccredited program, you’re not able to go on to graduate school, or you cannot apply for a job at a federal institution like a prison or VA, or the military. Licensure is, if all of our students are successful, they complete this program, they go before the State Board of Nursing and they pass the NCLEX-RN [National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses], they are all registered nurses.”

Of the 19 students in the 2022-23 cohort who took the state exam for the first time, 14 passed, Stewart said. Two more retook it after failing the first time and then passed.

The state Nursing Board, Stewart said, presents its data based on the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Eight of nine students passed the exam before June 30, 2023, she said, but 15 students who took it for the first time from 2017-22 retook the exam and did not pass.

“We offered remediation. We offered boot camps for their exam. We were willing to pay for the exam if they came and got training, and they did not,” Stewart said, adding officials didn’t realize they were retaking the exam. “Because those 15 test-takers are added, our score dropped to 53%, and that’s why we ended up on conditional status.”

That was nothing the university could control, Stewart said, adding that all first-time test takers must be allowed to retake the exam. Stewart said UAPB sent out letters and calls to those interested in retaking the exam about available resources to prepare.

“With the accreditation process — because you’ve got to have an 80% pass rate in the licensure exam — even if we go for new accreditation, that’s what we’re looking at, so we really have to get these graduates in 2024 to do well on the exam because they are a part of this new fiscal year,” she said.

UAPB officials are also feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which Stewart said led to shutdown of clinicals at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in 2020.

“So we knew it would take more than two years to bounce back,” she said.

Arkansas does not require students to graduate from an accredited program to be licensed, Stewart said. She added UAPB is not eligible to reapply for accreditation for six months due to CCNE’s withdrawal, but the university will apply with the ACEN, or Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.

UAPB officials met with the state Nursing Board education committee on Jan. 11 to inform them of improvements for better outcomes, Jacobs said.

“They thought the changes we were making were going to be very effective,” Jacobs said. “We’re changing our admission standards, number one. We’re increasing our entrance GPA from 2.5 to 3.0, we are requiring an in-person interview and we are requiring two new prerequisite courses that are foundational, and that’s principles of biology and pathophysiology.”

Jacobs, who became chairwoman last August, said she made those changes in late 2023 into this year.

“I recognized that we needed to mirror other programs, and it was important to make those changes,” she explained. “Those changes are foundational. So, I felt like this is important.”

According to the Commission’s website, its last on-site evaluation of the UAPB program was conducted in September 2021, with its next evaluation scheduled for the fall of 2024.

The Commission accredited UAPB’s baccalaureate program on Oct. 17, 2016, and Sept. 15, 2021, with the latter term to expire June 30, 2025, but that is withdrawn because of the two-year low pass rate.

“We didn’t get cited for anything else,” Stewart clarified.

It was also reported UAPB lost a nursing program in 2013 because of “chronic problems,” among them curriculum, materials and student pass rates on mandatory tests.

UAPB’s nursing program had also been on probation in 1981, 1992, 2005 and 2010, a state Nursing Board executive told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in an April 15, 2013, article.

The 2010 probation reportedly stemmed from an insufficient number of graduates passing the licensure test for each of the next two years. The Democrat-Gazette reported three of 15 passed in 2011 and five of 10 did so in 2012. The state Nursing Board closed UAPB’s program April 11, 2013, after determining the university failed to correct numerous problems.

“I’ve been at UAPB since 1988, and I was dean of Arts and Sciences for nine years. I became dean when we first lost the Arkansas State Board,” Stewart said. “We had the accreditation, but this time we lost board approval.”

A request to interview Sue Tedford, executive director of the state Nursing Board, was not returned as of Friday evening. Professional development, Stewart said, was cited as a need in UAPB’s attempt to regain board approval.

“It’s difficult to find educators,” she said. “You can find practitioners, but educators who are experienced, that’s difficult. I think UAPB has had a lot of problems with hiring practitioners who have transitioned to educators, and we have been fortunate to hire a nurse educator. … That’s a struggle statewide.”

UAPB also offers a registered nurse to bachelor of science in nursing, or RN to BSN, program for nurses who are already licensed.

In a news release, UAPB acknowledged the student protest to express concerns over access to buildings undergoing renovations, access to technology in student housing and dining options, but did not report any concerns students had over the nursing program. A spokeswoman, however, acknowledged students mentioned the issues related to the program.