News release
Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, has introduced Assembly Bill 2015, a bill designed to address the nursing shortage crisis.
Since the start of the pandemic, nursing levels have dropped significantly, a dangerous reality for patients, hospitals, and current nursing and health care workers, said a release from Schiavo’s office.
“One of the ways to address the statewide nursing shortage is to make sure certified nursing school instructors are able to teach as many nursing students as possible — wherever they are needed,” Schiavo said in the release. “I am committed to bringing as many well-trained nurses on line as quickly as possible. I look forward to working with my colleagues in moving AB 2015 forward this year.”
AB 2015 would provide both teaching nurses and their prospective employers greater confidence and freedom in the hiring process by decoupling the teaching credential approval process from the hiring process, allowing nurses to obtain portable credentials from the Board of Registered Nursing, according to the release.
The Board of Registered Nursing is responsible for verifying that prospective faculty meet the minimum qualifications and possess the clinical competency for the subject material they will teach. This is similar to requiring credentialing for K-12 teachers. However, unlike K-12 teaching credentials, the process for verifying that a nurse has the proper credentials for an instructor position is much less efficient, the release said.
