BILL ANALYSIS
SB 139
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 139 (Scott)
As Amended August 20, 2007
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :34-2
Health 17-0 Higher EdUCATION 7-0
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|Ayes:|Dymally, Nakanishi, |Ayes:|Portantino, Horton, |
| |Price, Berg, De La | |Arambula, Beall, Cook, |
| |Torre, De Leon, Emmerson, | |Galgiani, Ruskin |
| |Gaines, Hancock, Hayashi, | | |
| |Hernandez, Huff, Jones, | | |
| |Lieber, Ma, Salas, | | |
| |Strickland | | |
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Leno, Walters, Caballero, |
| |Davis, DeSaulnier, |
| |Emmerson, Huffman, |
| |Karnette, Krekorian, La |
| |Malfa, Lieu, Ma, |
| |Nakanishi, Nava, |
| |Sharon Runner, Solorio, |
| |De Leon |
| | |
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SUMMARY : Establishes the Health Care Workforce Clearinghouse
(Clearinghouse) within the Office of Statewide Health Planning
and Development (OSHPD) to serve as the central source of health
care workforce and educational data in the state. Makes other
changes relating to nursing education and student loans.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Clearinghouse to be responsible for the
collection, analysis, and distribution of information on the
educational and employment trends for health care occupations
in the state. Requires the activities of the Clearinghouse to
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be funded by appropriations made from the California Health
Data and Planning Fund (Fund), as specified.
2)Requires OSHPD to work with the Employment Development
Department's (EDD) Labor Market Division, state licensing
boards, and state higher education entities to collect, to the
extent available, data regarding the current supply,
geographical distribution, and diversity of health care
workers (including data on race, ethnicity and language
spoken), the current and forecasted demand for health care
workers, and the educational capacity to produce trained,
certified, and licensed health care workers, as specified.
3)Requires OSHPD to prepare an annual report to the Legislature
that identifies education and employment trends in the health
care profession, reports on the current supply and demand of
health care workers in California and on gaps in the
educational system that is producing workers in specific
occupations within different geographic areas, and recommend
state policy to address issues of workforce shortage and
distribution.
4)Prohibits a campus of the California State University (CSU) or
the California Community Colleges (CCC) that operates a
registered nursing (RN) program from requiring a student who
has been admitted to an RN program and who has already earned
a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution to
complete general education requirements, and instead requires
that student to complete only the coursework that is necessary
to prepare him or her for licensing as an RN.
5)Allows any college, university or other entity that operates
an accredited RN program to require any prospective student to
provide criminal clearance, as specified, prior to enrollment.
6)Allows a person who is currently employed as an RN in a
state-operated 24-hour facility to be eligible to enter into
an agreement for loan assumption under the State Nursing
Assumption Program of Loans for Education (SNAPLE) Nursing
Faculty but not for SNAPLE State Facilities program
(SNAPLE-SF).
7)Clarifies that if a natural disaster prevents a participant
from completing a year of work required under SNAPLE-SF, the
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loan assumption agreement is extended for the amount of time
equal to the period between interruptions of employment in a
state facility to the resumption of employment. Prohibits the
Student Aid Commission from making further payments under the
loan assumption agreement until specified employment
requirements have been satisfied.
8)Limits to 3% the amount to be used for statewide
administration, program development, program evaluation, and
program accountability under the Nursing Enrollment Growth and
Retention Program (NEGRP).
9)Allows any community college district, regardless of whether
it participates in the NEGRP, to use any diagnostic assessment
tool that is commonly used in RN programs. Authorizes a
community college district to use additional multicriteria
screening measures if after using an approved assessment tool,
a community college district determines that the number of
applicants to its RN program exceeds its capacity.
10) States that funding for the nursing enrollment expansion
programs be funded within the general enrollment growth
funding that is traditionally provided to the CSU during the
annual state budget process.
11)Makes other minor, technical and clarifying changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, special fund costs of $83,000 in 2007-08, $832,000 in
2008-09, $1.3 million in 2009-10, and $1.6 million annually
thereafter to OSHPD from the Fund for the creation and
maintenance of the Clearinghouse.
COMMENTS : According to the author, this bill is a follow-up and
clean-up to SB 1309 (Scott), Chapter 837, Statutes of 2006. The
author indicates that SB 1309 was comprehensive legislation
designed to address the nursing shortage in California.
SB 1309 enacted an array of initiatives and established new
nursing education programs, including an expansion of existing
loan assumption benefits for RNs, a new loan assumption program
under SNAPLE, a new program of grants to attract and retain CCC
nursing instructors, a new program for enrollment growth and
retention of CCC nursing students, a new regional system for
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matching students and clinical placements, exemptions from
existing CCC employment laws, and new nursing enrollment targets
for the CSU and the University of California.
California is experiencing a severe nursing shortage. According
to EDD, California has an annual shortage of 9,900 RNs and this
number is expected to increase over the next five to ten years.
The Health Resources and Services Administration's National
Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects that California
will need an estimated 47,600 RNs by 2010, and will reach
116,600 by 2020. The California Board of Registered Nursing
reports that nearly 60% of qualified applicants are turned away
from nursing programs each year, due to barriers such as a lack
of clinical education sites, limited classroom space, and a lack
of qualified faculty.
Analysis Prepared by : M. Anne Powell / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097
FN: 0002949