1. (a) There shall be written personnel policies for nursing faculty that are in keeping with accepted educational standards and are consistent with the policies of the controlling agency. Faculty policies shall include, but not be limited to: qualifications, responsibilities, performance evaluation criteria, and terms of employment.

   1. (1) Policies concerning workload for faculty and the director or coordinator shall be in writing.
   2. (2) There shall be written plans for faculty orientation, development and evaluation.
   3. (3) There shall be orientation of new faculty members at the onset of employment.
   4. (4) A variety of means shall be used to evaluate faculty performance such as self, student, peer and administrative evaluation.
2. (b) Minimum Teaching Personnel--There shall be a minimum of one full-time nursing instructor for the program. A director/coordinator without major teaching or clinical responsibilities shall not be considered a full-time instructor. Use of part-time instructors is permissible.

3. (c) Faculty Qualifications and Responsibilities.

   1. (1) Documentation of faculty qualifications shall be included in the official files of the program. Each faculty member shall:

      1. (A) hold a current license or privilege to practice nursing in the State of Texas;
      2. (B) have been actively employed in nursing for the past three years. If the instructor has not been actively employed in nursing for the past three years, the instructor's advanced preparation in nursing, nursing education, and nursing administration, and prior relevant nursing employment may be taken into consideration in evaluating qualifications for the position; and
      3. (C) have had three years varied nursing experiences since graduation.
   2. (2) In fully approved programs, if an individual to be appointed as faculty member does not meet the requirements for faculty as specified in subsection (c) of this section, the director or coordinator is permitted to petition for a waiver of the Board's requirements, according to Board guidelines, prior to the appointment of said individual.

   3. (3) Faculty shall be responsible for:

      1. (A) supervision of students in clinical learning experiences;
      2. (B) all initial nursing procedures in the clinical area and ascertain that the student is competent before allowing the student to perform an actual nursing procedure independently;
      3. (C) developing, implementing, and evaluating curriculum; and
      4. (D) participating in the development of standards for admission, progression, probation, dismissal of students, and participation in academic guidance and counseling.
   4. (4) Non-nursing faculty are exempt from meeting the faculty qualifications as long as the teaching assignments are not nursing didactic or clinical courses.
   5. (5) Clinical preceptors shall be responsible for providing clinical instruction and/or supervision when a program faculty member is unavailable in clinical sites. The clinical preceptor shall meet the requirements of Rule 214.10(k)(1).
   6. (6) Substitute faculty may be employed to meet emergent program needs. Substitute faculty beyond ten consecutive working days and/or on an interim basis shall meet qualifications as specified in Rule 214.7(c)(1).
   7. (7) Part-time faculty may participate in all aspects of the program. Clear lines of communication of program policies, objectives and evaluative criteria shall be included in policies for part-time faculty.
   8. (8) Military faculty--Federal laws and regulations regarding licensure of military nursing personnel shall apply to Texas based military faculty members functioning within vocational nursing programs.
4. (d) The faculty shall meet regularly and function in such a manner that all members participate in planning, implementing and evaluating the nursing program. Such participation includes, but is not limited to the initiation and/or change in program policies, personnel policies, curriculum, utilization of affiliating agencies, and program evaluation. Minutes of faculty organization and meetings shall document the reasons for actions and the decisions of the faculty and shall be available for reference.

Source Note:The provisions of this §214.7 adopted to be effective February 13, 2005, 30 TexReg 545.