BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 492
AUTHOR: Conway
AMENDED: May 7, 2009
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: July 15, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Nancy Anton
SUBJECT : Community Colleges: nursing faculty.
SUMMARY
This bill removes temporarily (for three and a half years)
several existing statutory employment restrictions related
to community college temporary clinical nursing faculty,
thereby allowing such faculty who work more than 60% of a
full-time assignment to be employed, essentially, for more
than four consecutive semesters through June 30, 2014.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1) Prohibits California Community Colleges (CCCs) from
employing any temporary faculty who teaches more than
67% of a full-time assignment for more than two
semesters (three quarters) within any period of three
consecutive years.
2) Allows CCCs to exceed the two-semester limitation
cited in #1 above and to employ any clinical nursing
faculty who teach more than 60% of a full-time
assignment for up to four semesters (six quarters)
during the period between July 1, 2007, and June 30,
2014, if the hiring of that person does not result in
an increase in the ratio of part-time to full-time
faculty in that district. After June 30, 2014,
clinical nursing faculty would again be subject to the
two-semester limitation cited in #1 above.
Further, CCCs that employ temporary clinical nursing
faculty beyond two semesters are required to report
specified data to the CCC Chancellor's Office by June
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30, 2012; the Chancellor is required to report such
information to the Legislature by September 30, 2012.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Deletes temporarily (for 3 years) an existing
provision of law which prohibits any one CCC district
from employing a temporary clinical nursing faculty
for more than four semesters in any consecutive
three-year period thereby, essentially, allowing
California Community College (CCC) districts to employ
temporary clinical nursing faculty for an unlimited
number of consecutive semesters through June 30, 2014.
2) Deletes an existing provision of law which allows CCC
districts to employ temporary clinical nursing faculty
for more than two consecutive semesters in any
three-year period, as specified, only if such
employment does not result in an increase in the ratio
of part-time to full-time nursing faculty in that
district.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Two-semesters? Four-semesters ? In essence, the bill
is "relaxing" even further an existing temporary
"relaxation" of the two-semester limitation. The
existing authorization to allow temporary clinical
nursing faculty to be employed for four rather than
two semesters expires on June 30, 2014. It is an
exception currently provided only for clinical nursing
faculty; all other temporary CCC faculty are limited
to working no more than two semesters in any
consecutive three-year period.
2) Premature bill ? The authority to hire temporary
clinical nursing faculty beyond the two-semester
limitation was provided only for a 7-year period
beginning January 1, 2007; it sunsets on June 30,
2014. Prior to the sunset, the CCC Chancellor must
provide specified information to the Legislature.
Should the temporary flexibility provided under
current law be further extended prior to the
Chancellor's report? Staff notes that CCCs continue
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to experience a serious shortage of nursing faculty -
particularly among clinical nursing faculty - and
absent additional legislative remedy some CCCs may
have to terminate employment of temporary clinical
nursing faculty who would like to continue working
without having any viable replacements.
3) Why this bill . California is experiencing a nursing
shortage which, in part, is due to a shortage of
nursing faculty. Recent legislation (SB 1309 [Scott]
of 2006; SB 139 [Scott] of 2007; and SB 1393 [Scott]
of 2008), in addition to focusing on a variety of
factors related to the overall nursing shortage,
attempted to address the shortage of nursing faculty
by providing financial incentives to become nursing
faculty and removing barriers for CCCs to employ
nursing faculty. CCC's prepare approximately 70% of
California's registered nurses (RNs), however, the
CCCs, unlike the California State University (CSU) and
independent colleges have some specific faculty
employment limitations that the other institutions do
not have. One of these limitations is that certain
temporary faculty may not be employed for more than
two-semesters in any three-year consecutive period.
4) What are "clinical nursing faculty" ? In CCC nursing
programs, there are generally two types of nursing
faculty: "clinical" and "theory". Clinical nursing
faculty are those who directly supervise CCC nursing
students while the students are on-site at a hospital
or medical facility during the student's required
clinical rotations (a minimum of four). Generally,
one clinical nursing faculty may supervise not more
than 10 nursing students although some hospitals
require a maximum of only 8 or 6 students per clinical
faculty. Clinical nursing differ from other CCC
faculty in that they often are also employed by the
hospitals or facilities in which they supervise
student nurses. "Theory" nursing faculty are those
who provide direct classroom instruction generally
on-site at the college campus.
5) Similar bill passed . On April 29, 2009, this
Committee passed (6-1) SB 182 (Ashburn) which included
the same provisions as this bill. Although
essentially the same, AB 492 and SB 182 are not
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identically drafted. To avoid future chaptering out
problems, staff recommends that SB 492 be amended so
its provisions conform to the language as drafted in
SB 182.
SUPPORT
California Hospital Association
College of the Sequoias
Community College League
Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program
Kern Community College District
Long Beach City College
Los Angeles Community College District
OPPOSITION
California Federation of Teachers
California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing
Committee
California Teachers Association
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges