{"id":100117,"date":"2026-03-19T10:17:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=100117"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:17:27","slug":"bill-targets-nursing-school-faculty-hires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2026\/03\/19\/bill-targets-nursing-school-faculty-hires\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Targets Nursing School Faculty Hires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tim Carpenter and Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOPEKA \u2014 Supporters in the Kansas Legislature of a bill altering educational expectations of college nursing faculty say they\u2019ve hit upon a possible answer to the state\u2019s persistent nursing shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thrust of Senate Bill 334,<\/a> on its way to Gov. Laura Kelly, would forbid the Kansas State Board of Nursing from requiring a credential for instructors that was more than one level above the degree sought by students being taught. In other words, the holder of a bachelor\u2019s degree could teach community college nursing students. The recipient of a master\u2019s degree in nursing could teach students enrolled in a bachelor\u2019s degree program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an excellent bill,\u201d said Rep. Megan Steele, a Manhattan Republican who has worked as a Christian school nurse and director of an Oklahoma college\u2019s online nursing program. \u201cThere is no reason \u2026 a baccalaureate-prepared nurse cannot work in a community college to teach associate-level degree nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the Board of Nursing mandates faculty complete a graduate degree in nursing, though a bachelor of science in nursing may be allowed if the individual plans to achieve a graduate degree in six years. An exemption allowed schools of nursing to hire a person with a bachelor\u2019s degree in nursing to teach clinical courses when unable to hire a master\u2019s degree-prepared educator, but that teacher must be supervised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill would forbid the Board of of Nursing from enforcing its elevated standard at nursing schools. Individual nursing schools could adopt hiring preferences that went above the Legislature\u2019s new baseline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Kansans in danger\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

About one-fourth of Kansas\u2019 legislators, especially a group of highly vocal House Democrats, said allowing nursing school faculty to be one academic step removed from their students was a prescription for inadequate instruction, ill-equipped graduates and bedside mistakes on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bill potentially puts Kansans in danger,\u201d said Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, D-Overland Park. \u201cThe logic that is allowed under this bill would be like saying, \u2018Because someone had graduated the eighth grade, then they\u2019re qualified to teach seventh-graders.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, the House voted 81-43 to approve the bill. That followed a February vote of 38-2 in the Senate. If the governor vetoed the bill, the Senate but not the House demonstrated it had a two-thirds majority needed for an override.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Kansas Medical Center reported in September 2025 the number of nurses working in Kansas had declined since 2019. The state\u2019s nursing workforce was aging with 22.1% of registered nurses and 20.5% of licensed practical nurses at age 60 or older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ratio of nurses to Kansans hadn\u2019t improved in the past 10 years, the medical center said, and nursing deserts existed in Kansas, particularly in the western and southeast parts of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislators advocating for the bill said resetting the bar in terms of academic credentials for nursing faculty could lead to more student slots, produce more graduates and replenish the state\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoes it really matter who or how the material is delivered?\u201d said Rep. Sean Tarwater, R-Stilwell. \u201cI don\u2019t care if you learned it on YouTube. Let\u2019s get more nurses out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disrespect<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tarwater\u2019s indifference to how colleges provided nursing instruction wasn\u2019t well-received by professionals monitoring the Legislature\u2019s debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy initial reaction was: I have never heard a legislator disrespect a profession on the House floor,\u201d said Kelly Sommers, a retired registered nurse and former executive director of the Kansas State Nurses Association. \u201cIt\u2019s an insult that Representative Tarwater thinks that a nurse educator can be replaced with anyone with a textbook or by watching YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sommers, who testified against the bill in the Senate, said Tarwater\u2019s statement \u201cclearly indicates that nurse education and the role of nurses in health care is devalued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill has been championed for two years by LeadingAge Kansas, an association lobbying on behalf of nonprofit service providers that included nursing homes and assisted living facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Monger, president of LeadingAge Kansas, said the bill would address a bottleneck in Kansas\u2019 nursing workforce pipeline by \u201ccreating reasonable flexibility in nurse faculty hiring standards without lowering educational or quality expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said nursing programs across Kansas were struggling to recruit master\u2019s-prepared nurses willing to accept significantly lower wages in education compared to clinical practice. In addition, she said, the bill recognized degree attainment alone couldn\u2019t define teaching effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018People\u2019s lives\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Melissa Oropeza, a nurse practitioner and Democrat from Kansas City, Kansas, said teachers mattered at every level of education. She said the bill was more about complying with a business model than doing what was best for patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is really a business deal. This is about opening up unaccredited lower-quality schools,\u201d said Oropeza, who serves on the state Board of Nursing. \u201cAt the end of the day, I would prefer a quality, safe nurse who knows what they\u2019re doing compared to someone who has not been trained appropriately. We are talking about people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Barb Wasinger, a Hays Republican who carried the bill on the House floor, dismissed a complaint registered by Rep. Chuck Smith, R-Pittsburg, that the bill would lower academic standards in nursing schools. She likewise rejected the contention by Rep. Kirk Haskins, D-Topeka, that the bill would undermine accreditation at colleges or universities with nursing programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the Board of Nursing affirmed Kansas had a nursing shortage but nevertheless opposed the legislation. She referenced controversy about the state board\u2019s regulation of nurse licensure, which prompted demands among nurses and legislators for overhaul of the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s it amazing that the nursing board, who is under so much scrutiny right now, are the ones that are trying to tank this bill,\u201d Wasinger said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Carpenter and Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector TOPEKA \u2014 Supporters in the Kansas Legislature of a bill altering educational expectations of college nursing faculty say they\u2019ve hit upon a possible answer to the state\u2019s persistent nursing shortage. The thrust of Senate Bill 334, on its way to Gov. Laura Kelly, would forbid the Kansas State Board […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[244,57],"class_list":["post-100117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-kansas-legislature","tag-nursing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}