Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
E-mail 
E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2011 > May > 24
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Judge tells nursing board to reconsider revoking approval of Miami-Jacobs nursing program
COLUMBUS - The Ohio Board of Nursing must reconsider the fate of the Miami-Jacobs Career College nursing program after a judge ruled statements made by a state lawmaker and students may have swayed the board’s decision to revoke approval of the program.
Richard A. Frye, Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge, found in a 12-page opinion that while considering whether to continue conditional program approval the nursing board violated the open meetings law and Miami-Jacobs’ right to due process.
Frye ruled the nursing board shouldn’t have allowed State Rep. Clayton Luckie (D-Dayton), two students and a parent to make statements about the college before the board deliberated in closed session about the future of the program. “The appearance of justice was not preserved,” Frye wrote in his decision that sends the case back to the nursing board, which must “reconvene and fairly and impartially reconsider the case.”
The decision is the latest chapter for the college’s health-related programs which have faced a string of problems. In a statement, Miami-Jacobs officials said they were pleased with the decision because it “parallels our own beliefs about the nursing board’s ill-informed decision.”
An official from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office said the nursing board plans to challenge the decision at a state appellate court.
Luckie was surprised the decision so heavily focused on his statements, which he said were made in the public comment period of the nursing board’s two-day monthly meeting. “It makes no sense,” Luckie said. “All I spoke about was the injustice that was referred to my office.”
Frye’s opinion compares Luckie’s unsworn statements to allowing “passersby to drop in to a courtroom and offer unsworn comments” during a trial. Frye goes on to point out that Luckie’s role as a lawmaker and his position on the state controlling board, which makes funding decisions, also could have influenced nursing board members. Frye calls Luckie an “ardent foe” of Miami-Jacobs in the ruling.
Luckie worked to help students who have had problems with the college, he said. “There was no back channel. Everything that went to their office was public record. It was an open book,” Luckie said.
The nursing board voted Jan. 21 to revoke the college’s conditional approval to teach practical nursing after years of uncovering problems with the program. The decision went against the recommendation of the board’s hearing examiner, but noted the repeated difficulties at the college including using unqualified personnel, showing disregard for students and misrepresenting facts in reports to the nursing board.
Officials from both Premier Health Partners and Kettering Health Network, which operate the region’s largest hospital chains, said in January they don’t consider Miami-Jacobs nursing graduates for employment because they are not as qualified as students from other schools.
Miami-Jacobs officials have said they remedied past problems and hired new staff to bring the nursing program into compliance. They called Frye’s decision “positive news” for the college’s students and graduates.
Miami-Jacobs immediately appealed the nursing board’s January decision to revoke program conditional approval and Judge Frye stayed the decision pending the appeal so current students could continue their studies. The college has not enrolled new nursing students in the program since last year as it worked through problems with the nursing board.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Tweet
