SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) — A review by California’s nursing board has put hundreds of recent graduates of an online college in limbo as the licensing agency works to determine if the school meets state standards.
“It is impacting my income greatly,” said Rachel Baxter, who already works as an emergency room technician at a local hospital in San Diego.
Baxter said she was ecstatic when she graduated with honors in April from Nightingale College after attending classes for three years.
“I worked so hard for this degree and I was so happy to take my degree and go to the next level and become a nurse.”
Mandatory direct patient care training
Baxter submitted paperwork to the California Board of Registered Nursing and waited for approval to take her licensing exam.
"But over the next 90 days, I would find out that I was not going to be able to test," she said.
Team 10 has learned the board is reviewing the online school's entire coursework, including clinical placements.
“The board has received info that calls into question whether Nightingale’s current course of instruction meets the board’s standards, including the 500-hour minimum for direct patient care training,” Reza Pejuhesh, an attorney for the board, told students at a meeting last week.
Baxter said she had to travel outside of California to complete her clinical hours and each placement was at a skilled nursing facility.
Students used virtual reality headsets
"I did what I do as an ER technician. I took vitals. I changed people's soiled diapers. I fed people," Baxter said.
She said she expected to complete clinical rotations in different specialties and get experience working in maternity, pediatrics, or the ICU.
As part of its review, the board has flagged a potential issue with Nightingale College’s use of virtual reality headsets in its curriculum.
"You wore like a VR headset and you played nurse online with an AI patient," Baxter explained.
At the meeting last week, Pejuhesh told students the headsets would not count toward the 500-hour requirement.
College president: 'Why now?'
The agency also said if it finds problems with the curriculum, students may need to return to school for a semester or longer.
"The program up until this very moment has been licensing individuals, has been preparing people to be eligible to sit for licensure and now why them? Why now? How long will this go on? We don't entirely know," Nightingale College president Jeffrey Olsen said in an interview with Team 10.
Olsen said around 400 recent graduates are currently impacted by the review, but if the board determines there are deficiencies in curriculum that impact the college’s current cohort, that number could rise to 1,000.
“We're doing everything that we can to continue to work with the Board of Registered Nursing to resolve the situation quickly,” he said.
Board working toward resolution
Team 10 asked Olsen if the school will offer tuition refunds if the board requires students to redo classes before allowing them to register.
"That's a question that I'm not fully prepared to speculate on," he said.
The California Board of Registered Nursing said it recognizes the urgency and seriousness of the situation and is trying to resolve it quickly.
"The board has identified some areas requiring further review to determine if the board's standards are indeed met," board spokesman Vincent Miranda said in a prepared statement.
"In the interim, the board is unable to approve applications from graduates of Nightingale College until it verifies that the program's courses of instruction meet California's statutory and regulatory requirements.”
Baxter said she’s on the hook for about $75,000 in student loans she’s about to have to start repaying.
"What I worry most about is that Nightingale is going to lose their accreditation and the past three years of my life will have been for nothing.”
Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish can be reached at austin.grabish@10news.com
