On July 20, Governor Tony Evers (D) announced that he approved a new state regulation that will allow more qualified nurses to teach clinical nursing courses. This change was one of the recommendations made by the Governor’s Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce. Previously, in order to teach a clinical nursing course to nursing students, a nurse would need to have a master’s degree. According to the Governor’s press release, nursing faculty must now meet the following updated criteria:

• Hold a bachelor’s degree in nursing;  
• Be a current, active, and unencumbered RN with license or privilege to practice in Wisconsin;  
• Have at least two years of clinical experience relevant to the specific clinical area that they would be teaching; 
• Be enrolled in a graduate program and maintain steady progress towards completion, have completed graduate-level courses or education in clinical best practices, or have a national certification in a nursing field specialty relevant to the assigned clinical field they would be teaching; and