Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers approved an emergency rule July 16 to allow qualified registered nurses without a master’s degree to teach clinical nursing courses, as part of a push to ease the state’s nursing workforce shortage.
Mr. Evers announced the change July 20. Previously, a master’s degree in nursing was generally required to teach clinical courses in the state’s nursing programs, which the governor said was a bottleneck that forced schools to turn away applicants for lack of faculty.
Under the new pathway, faculty must hold a bachelor’s degree in nursing; have an active and unencumbered RN license or privilege to practice in Wisconsin; and have at least two years of clinical experience relevant to the area they would teach.
Faculty must also be enrolled in a graduate program and making “steady progress toward completion,” have completed graduate-level coursework in clinical best practices, or hold a national certification in a relevant nursing specialty. Each must practice under the supervision of a registered nurse who meets traditional qualifications.
The rule follows a recommendation from the Governor’s Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce, which said the change aligns Wisconsin with at least 12 other states, including Michigan.
A growing list of states are rewriting faculty credential rules to widen the teaching pool. In April, Kansas passed a law barring its board of nursing from requiring instructors to hold credentials at least one level above the degree awarded in the program they teach.
The moves target a hurdle flagged repeatedly by nurse educators: U.S. nursing schools turned away 65,766 qualified applications in 2023, largely for want of faculty, clinical sites and budget, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The AACN also reported a 7.8% national faculty vacancy rate, with nearly 80% of open positions requiring or preferring a doctoral degree.
In Wisconsin, the change takes effect as an emergency rule while the state Board of Nursing works toward a permanent version. A public hearing on the draft permanent rule is scheduled for Sept. 10.
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