81(R) SB 790 - House Committee Report version

TO:	Honorable Jane Nelson, Chair, Senate Committee on Health & Human Services

FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board

IN RE:	SB790 by Nelson (Relating to clinical practice hours available for professional nursing educational programs at certain hospitals.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

The bill would implement a recommendation from the report, "Define and Track Clinical Practice Hours for Registered Nurse Education Programs," in the Legislative Budget Board Government Effectiveness and Efficiency Report submitted to the Eighty-first Texas Legislature, 2009.

The bill would amend section 105 of the Texas Health and Safety Code to require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to develop and maintain a small database collecting a limited number of data elements collected from 500+ hospitals. The data collected would be used to report once per year to professional nurse education programs on the availability of clinical practice hours and to report once every two years to the Legislature on the systemic distribution of clinical practice hours.

DSHS indicates it could absorb the costs associated with the bill within its current resources.

The bill would require hospitals to report the projected number of clinical practice hours available to professional nursing educational programs, and the actual number of hours available and used at the hospital to the nursing resource section by August 1 of each year. A hospital may be exempted from the reporting requirement if the hospital is unable to provide clinical practice hours. The costs to hospitals to implement the provisions of the bill are not anticipated to be significant and could be distributed and absorbed within current resources.

LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION


March 27, 2009