HJAR Sep/Oct 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2023 13 low salaries, like those found in Figure 1. 31 In the next three years, Arkansas is expect- ing a great deal of nursing faculty to retire, making the recruitment of new faculty and the retention of current faculty not at retire- ment age critical. 30 Clinical-sector compensation inArkansas is grossly incomparable to faculty compen- sation rates despite higher degree require- ments. Nursing faculty typically hold the highest degrees yet are paid the least when compared to their nurse colleagues. This is repeatedly cited as the number one barrier in the recruitment and retention of qualified nurse faculty in Arkansas (Figure 2). 31 According to the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, the category of “Nurs- ing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecond- ary” continues to have one of the lowest average salaries of post-secondary faculty. 32 In Arkansas public schools and universi- ties, of the 29 types of faculty listed, nurs- ing faculty salaries rank 25th, or fifth lowest, among faculty positions (Figure 3). Solution Bill 298 sample bill language mandated that nursing education programs main- tain base salaries at a minimum of the 50th percentile nurse faculty salary rec- ommendations published annually by the AACN. AACN national recommendations are categorized by institution type, faculty education, and faculty rank. Nursing pro- grams were prompted to apply for initial funding under the American Rescue Plan Act as available. Although this bill did not pass, exploring opportunities to rectify sal- ary inequities for nurse educators inArkan- sas remains a critical need for producing a healthy supply of new nurse graduates. Bill 298 can be found here: https://www. arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/Detail?id=SB298 Act 674: Statewide Clinical Nurse Edu- cation Portal — Passed Problem Student nurses are required to earn a cer- tain number of direct patient care clinical hours to graduate from an accredited pro- gram. InArkansas, there are 63 prelicensure nursing programs, and many are competing for the same clinical placement openings. Programs that struggle to secure adequate clinical placement are unable to determine if there are not enough clinical sites or if there is simply a lack of visibility to those sites with clinical space available. Placing even a single student can become an arduous task as each healthcare facility has its own unique requirements and workflow pro- cesses for student onboarding and compli- ance. Additionally, institutions that would like to begin accepting student nurses for clinical placement do not have a consistent way to communicate availability across broad geographic locations. Arkansas does not have a standardized process for posting clinical site or pre- ceptorship availability, student placement requests, affiliation agreements, compliance verification, regulatory onboarding require- ments, or other documents. Nursing educa- tion programs fund a variety of support staff personnel and software systems to man- age the clinical placement process for each affiliated healthcare organization. Action is needed to reduce operational inefficien- cies, improve resource utilization, improve clinical site availability, support communi- cation, enhance collaboration, and reduce collective compliance management costs as shown in Figure 4. Solution Act 674 allows for the creation of a state- wide clinical education software portal used for requesting, placing, tracking, trending, and reporting student nurse clinical experi- ences. The portal will allow clinical partners using the system to track the placement and onboarding requirements for students. The portal will ensure FERPAand HIPPAcompli- ant communication between organizations and will be accessible to all nursing educa- tion programs and healthcare agencies that accept, or wish to accept, nursing students for clinical placement. Healthcare agencies retain the right to control clinical placement decisions related to availability, approvals, denials, and program prioritizations. Similar statewide clinical placement ini- tiatives have been implemented in other states including Georgia, Tennessee, and California. Nursing workforce and higher education leaders in California have expe- rienced significant improvements since launching the Centralized Clinical Place- ment System in 2005. By 2009, student enrollment in some regions had increased by 47%, and the availability of student clini- cal hours more than doubled. 33 Implementing a universal clinical place- ment software system will provide clini- cal utilization data previously unexplored in Arkansas. Data trends can be analyzed to answer questions about unknown fac- tors impacting the nursing workforce — for example, understanding the timelines or geographical location of clinical placement “Leaders in healthcare postulate that the two biggest challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system will be the recruitment and retention of nurses and nursing faculty for nearly every state, including Arkansas.”