Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Marathon TSC Board Meeting Marked by Hard Questions About Nursing Program

Tony Cortez, Celia De La Garza Answer Questions
About State of TSC's Associate Degree Nursing Program
The pair pictured on the left, Tony Cortez, the LVN Program Director and Interim Allied Health and Nursing Director and Celia De La Garza, Director of the Nursing Department, were grilled at last night's board meeting about failures of the TSC's nursing program.  

De La Garza explained that, once a student completes the two year couse at TSC, they have four years to take their state nursing exam.  

Trustee Dr. Tony Zavaleta called that "absurd." De La Garza agreed.

"This means," Zavaleta continued, "that students are going out in the work force, not as nurses, but possibly as nurse's aids.  They are getting no where near the income.  That benefits no one, not their families, certainly not the community."

Tony Cortez explained that the longer a student waits to take the test, the less likely he or she will be successful.

"We strongly encourage them to take the test as soon as possible, but we can't force them."

De La Garza stated that a course review is critical, but implied that some students do not take that review seriously.

Texas Southmost College Board of Trustees
When Cortez mentioned modules that, when utilized, result in a "97% success rate" in passing the state exam, Trustee Trey Mendez asked why those modules were not being utilized. Cortez explained that the modules were incompatible with "our current system."

The SACSCOC, and acronym for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will review TSC's Associate Nursing Program in September 2016 to see if the suspension of adding new students to the program will be lifted.  Cortez stated that, of the last 12 students taking the state test, 11 had passed.

During the Executive Session I approached Dr. Tercero:  "Even if the SACSCOC lifts the suspension in September, will you be able to enroll new nursing students in the fall?" I asked.

"We don't know," answered Tercero.  "Possibly, we will have to wait until the spring semester."

1 comment:

  1. They stated that 6 + 7 = 13 have taken the test and 12 have passed. That's a 92% passing rate. Looks to me like the problem is getting fixed.

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