Report 2019-120 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2019-120: Board of Registered Nursing: It Has Failed to Use Sufficient Information When Considering Enrollment Decisions for New and Existing Nursing Programs (Release Date: July 2020)

Recommendation #6 To: Registered Nursing, Board of

To ensure that BRN is using up-to-date, accurate, and objective information to inform the governing board's enrollment decisions and to assess clinical capacity for student placements, by April 1, 2021, BRN should do the following: compile and aggregate the information from the facility approval forms into a database and take reasonable steps to ensure that the information is accurate and current.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2023

The BRN continues to work in partnership with the Office of Information Services (OIS) to refine the technological tool that allows BRN to compile and aggregate clinical facility and nursing program specific information obtained from the updated clinical facility approval forms while ensuring data integrity and functionality for internal and external stakeholders. Upon completion of the testing phases by internal and external stakeholders, OIS and BRN will move the tool into production. Documents for training are in development. A CFA flow chart with related training documents has been completed pending any revisions from testing.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From July 2023

The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) continues to work in partnership with the Office of Information Security (OIS) to refine the technological tool that allows BRN to compile and aggregate clinical facility and school specific information obtained from the updated clinical facility approval forms while ensuring data integrity and functionality for internal and external stakeholders. Additionally testing and validation was required which included, but was not limited to, external stakeholder testing. Additional design changes/modifications were required, and further testing was necessary; therefore, a delay in implementation has occurred.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) continues to work in partnership with the Office of Information Services (OIS) to refine the technological tool that allows BRN to compile and aggregate clinical facility and nursing program specific information obtained from the updated clinical facility approval forms while ensuring data integrity and functionality for internal and external stakeholders. On September 27, 2022, the Clinical Facility Approval (CFA) submission/approval portal was released to be tested. Testing was completed on October 21, 2022, by the Nursing Education Consultants (NEC) mimicking both internal and external users. This testing included completing a school submission, facility approval, and NEC approval portions. Screen shots and descriptions of issues were documented as they were discovered. Once updates and any additional testing are completed the next step is to move it into production. Documents for training are in development. A CFA flow chart with related training documents has been completed pending any revisions from testing.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From July 2022

The BRN continues to work in partnership with OIS to refine the technological tool that allows BRN to compile and aggregate clinical facility and nursing program specific information obtained from the updated clinical facility approval forms while ensuring data integrity and functionality for internal and external stakeholders. On May 20, 2022, OIS released part of the tool into a production environment so that both internal and external stakeholders could begin testing. On June 6, 2022, testing commenced for both internal and external stakeholders. Currently, five more areas require testing, and two more areas require development. As additional design changes/modifications are required further testing phases could be necessary.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021

The BRN has made progress towards full implementation and will continue its efforts to compile and aggregate the information from the facility approval forms into a database.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

1-Year Agency Response

The BRN in partnership with OIS developed and implemented a technological tool that allows BRN to compile and aggregate clinical facility and school specific information obtained from the updated clinical facility approval forms. This tool allows for the receipt of faculty data from CDPH and OSHPD. The development and testing of this tool is complete and entry and validation of clinical facility data is underway. Upon completion of the data entry and verification that the data is accurate and current, it will be posted on the BRN public facing website.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

The BRN continues to work with OIS and other internal stakeholders to explore a system that will allow BRN to compile clinical facility and school specific information and receive facility data from CDPH and OSHPD. The first phase requires the BRN to work with DCA Organizational Improvement Office (OIO) to complete a mapping of the current processes and the "could be" processes. The Charter for this project was signed on or about December 4, 2020, by BRN and OIO.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

To ensure that BRN is using up-to-date and accurate information, the NECs will request all approved pre-licensure programs update each of their EDP-P-18s to reflect the current up-to-date information with a goal to be completed by January 2021. The assigned NEC will then run an annual school facilities report for their assigned schools that the Program Director or designee will review for accuracy and provide revisions to ensure that the annual report is up-to-date every December thereafter.

The BRN began discussions with DCA's Office of Information Services (OIS) to inquire about the development of a system that would allow facility information from CDPH and OSHPD to be shared with the BRN electronically. The BRN will continue to work with OIS to explore options for a system that will allow BRN to compile clinical facility and school specific information and receive facility data from CDPH and OSHPD.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2019-120

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.