ALC-Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee
Video
Transcript
3 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
- Processing date
- October 5, 2026
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
0:00
Just a minute or two. All right, everybody. I've got 1.30, So we'll go ahead and get started.
I'll call the meeting to order. So welcome, everyone, to the first Occupational Licensing Review Committee, subcommittee for 2026. If you would, please keep Senator Wallace in your thoughts and prayers. He's a little under the weather, so he wasn't able to join us today. To get down to business here, the first thing we need to do is have a review of the reports from the two that we're going to be doing today.
We've got the Arkansas State Board of Nursing and the State Board of Register, if I can read correctly, the State Board of Registration for Professional Soil Classifier. So we've got two interesting groups today. So we'll go ahead and get started with the Arkansas State Board of Nursing. If you all would come forward,
we're scheduled to have Ashley Davis, David Dawson, and Matt Gilmore. all right thank you all for being here this afternoon if you would when you get settled
please introduce yourselves to the committee and then you're welcome to make any opening statements you might
Speaker 9
1:51
have matt gilmore department health ashley davis director
Speaker 10
1:55
arkansas state board nursing david dawson general counsel for the board
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:58
of nursing okay all right and then began any opening comments you'd like to make on the state of the licensing
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
2:04
well thank you for your time this afternoon um you just heard the director and her general counsel introduce themselves they'll just make a few opening statements and comments about the board and their licensure process we'll
take any questions y'all have thank
Speaker 11
2:21
you well go ahead this is just an update on where we are The Board of Nursing was created in 1913 with the purpose of oversight for registered nurses. In 1948, we added the regulation of LPNs, and in 1995, we added advanced practice registered nurses. Currently, the board regulates 72,000 nurses. There are eight types of nursing licenses, one level of certification that began in 2005, and one level of registration that will begin in 2026.
The protection of the public occurs through the licensure of qualified nurses, setting standards for nursing education programs, setting standards for maintaining competency, and disciplining nurses for violations of the Nurse Practice Act. All states in the United States license all levels of nursing. RNs and LPNs are required to pass a standard national licensure exam in order to be licensed, and advanced practice registered nurses are required to obtain national certification in their area of specialty.
The LPNs in Arkansas receive a certification of graduation. Their program length is about one year, and currently there are 14,000 actively licensed LPNs in the state of Arkansas. Registered nurses received associate degrees or bachelor's degrees, and there are currently 49,000 registered nurses actively licensed in Arkansas. Advanced practice registered nurses receive a master's degree or a doctorate degree, and we currently have 8,000 actively licensed advanced practice nurses in Arkansas.
That's made up of certified nurse practitioners, which we have 6,700 of those, CRNAs, which we have about 1,100, clinical nurse specialists, which we have about 140, and certified nurse midwives, which we have around 60 actively licensed in Arkansas. Medication assistants are required to be a CNA first, and then they must complete a 115-hour course. Their role is to administer medications in long-term care facilities, and currently we have 820 MACs in Arkansas.
We are in the process of launching a registry for dialysis patient care technicians. National data suggests that that number may closely mirror that of the MACs as far as how many we may have in Arkansas. They are required to currently be employed as dialysis techs, have completed or be enrolled in a training course, and they must obtain national certification within 18 months. The board provides regulatory oversight by receiving and investigating complaints against nurses and MACs, and the board receives approximately 2,200 complaints a year.
And that's my update, but I'm happy to take questions. Okay, we've got
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
5:08
a few. Just to make sure I understand, you were saying on the CNA and the dialysis, were you saying max, as in we can only have so many
Speaker 24
5:16
of those, or was I misunderstanding that? I'm sorry. Medication assistant certified, so MAC max. Max, okay. I was
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
5:22
thinking that just seemed kind of weird that we would have a maximum number of CNAs that we can't have in the state. With that in mind, I know in the past Arkansas has faced shortages of nurses in the past.
How are we doing right now in the profession as far as having enough to provide for the
Speaker 11
5:40
needs of our citizens? That's a very complex question because if you were to look at our number of licensed nurses, we do have enough to fill the needs. However, we have shortages in certain areas, and we have a lot of actively licensed nurses who are not practicing as nurses right now. So I would say we have a vacancy issue more so than a lack of licensed nurses, but that's a complex problem that there's lots of people.
The Arkansas Center for Nursing, which is our workforce center, they spend a lot of time looking at
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
6:12
that balance. Okay, so there's room for more, it sounds like. Yeah, absolutely. The next question that I have is, it looked like you said there's about 2,000 complaints in the state based upon nurses. Obviously, we can't go into any one particular case, but could you give us an idea of generally what you're seeing with those complaints? What kind of complaints are we seeing? What tends to be the most typical ones that we
Speaker 11
6:36
see? I do actually have some numbers from the previous fiscal year.
Some of our highest complaints that we work are nurses who apply to become nurses but have positive criminal backgrounds. We do some investigation into that. Fraud, deception, and misrepresentation is another big one. But I would say misappropriation, drug abuse issues, and criminal investigations are also a very high number. Okay. And then the last question I have,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
7:05
and then I'll see if any of my colleagues have any.
Right now, it looks like you're spending about $4 million a year, have about an $8.5 million fund balance. Of course, the law is three years, so not quite there, but you're kind of getting into that area. I also notice it says you don't really do any kind of training program or outreach. Is there any opportunities to do that to try to help promote nursing in some of those rural areas that we could use some of that fund balance for? Do you all look at that, or is that out of your purview for how we could utilize that extra money?
Speaker 11
7:45
want to speak to that? I think that we have a lot of work with our nursing associations in doing that, and so we support them in doing that. And some areas that we are looking at is with our nurses in our alternative to discipline program. We require them to go to support groups, and we're looking at ways that we might could help them pay for the cost of that, particularly if it's a nurse-led support group. So we are kind of looking at different ways.
Speaker 19
8:12
And I might just add, Director Davis and her staff do go around the state,
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
8:18
work with the schools, and try to provide some guidance, and some that are struggling in different categories of their licensure or accreditation, so they support that
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
8:27
as well. So it's multifaceted. Do you all do
anything with concurrent credits in high schools to try to help with that career path, try to
Speaker 11
8:37
promote that, any? We do not necessarily work with them one-on-one, But the Arkansas Center for Nursing, which is our workforce center, we do give them a grant to do some of that outreach and try to get our numbers of actively working nurses higher.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
8:52
And so they do engage in that. Okay, excellent, excellent. Okay. Representative Bentley, you are up. Thank you, Chairman. Thank
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
9:00
you all for being here today. And I was just a tad bit late getting back here so you may have covered this. But with the high volume that we have of complaints and nurses that have to be investigated, and from what I understand, it's been taken up to two years sometimes to get to those cases completed. Do we need to relook at that system and maybe add more staff or something to get to where it's quicker than the two-year turnaround time, or am I wrong when I was told it takes up to two years sometimes
to get these cases completed? You're not
Speaker 11
9:30
wrong in that there is opportunities for us to be more efficient, and that's been one of my number one things that I have done since I have taken the role is to look for those opportunities. Some of the things that I've identified is more about how we are documenting that. So, for instance, we have nurses who have been charged criminally, and so we open a case when that happens. But they may not have adjudication of that criminal charge for two years, three years,
And so that case is remaining open on our books while we wait for the criminal system to make an adjudication on that case. And so we're looking at ways that we can identify that to where it doesn't count on our open case time necessarily. So there's other opportunities like that for better documentation on what exactly is going on with the case so that it doesn't appear as if all cases take that. I will say that I did, I ran some numbers, and our average length is 191 days.
And that includes those cases that take years because we're waiting on that criminal adjudication. But we are working on processes. We have, with the help of the Department of Health, have added some extra help positions to hopefully increase that efficiency. But that is one of my number one priorities, yes. Great. Thank you for that. So
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
10:48
I think that's all the questions I have for now. Thank you, Chairman. okay
Speaker 5
10:55
all right anybody else going once going twice okay all right saying
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
11:00
done thank you all for for being here without objection well that report will stand as
reviewed second on our agenda for today we have the professional soil classifiers so we have our gentleman from the Department of
Speaker 38
11:12
Agriculture and once you get settled in
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
11:31
if you would please introduce yourselves to the committee and then
you'll be recognized to make any
Speaker 41
11:39
opening comments chris call closure director of the natural Resources Division at the
Speaker 43
11:46
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Matthew Ford, Chief Legal Counsel for the Arkansas
Speaker 41
11:53
Department of Agriculture. Okay, all right. All right, good afternoon, members. What you have before you is the occupational license for the soil classifiers. Soil classifiers were established by the state in 1975, and that has been administered by the Arkansas State Board of
registration for professional soil classifiers that board was later abolished in 2023 and moved to the natural resources commission which is where it's housed right now it's a very small group of individuals a very niche profession in that it has to be focused on being extremely knowledgeable when it comes to soils the requirements to be a soil classifier is that you have to have a four year degree and that you have to have a certain number of hours in biological sciences earth
sciences and soils classes and so those professions across the state typically are going to be folks that design septic systems do wetland determination they can do nutrient management work but obviously very skilled and very knowledgeable when it comes to soils i think we have 29 right now that are registered in the state of arkansas again very niche if you look at other states the numbers tend to be relatively low like that because it is a niche profession so with that be happy to take
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
13:12
any questions so kind of like the last question is 29 enough to handle the the need in
Speaker 48
13:19
the state i mean right now we don't have we don't seem to have a shortage of workers
Speaker 41
13:26
that can do the work I mean, obviously, things can change if you have a boom in, you know, nutrient management, for example, things like that, those sorts of needs, then, yeah, I think you would see a need to increase it. But right now, we're not seeing any major issues with the number that we have.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
13:46
Okay. And then the only other question that I have, it's not necessarily a red flag, but it looks like 29 individuals, you're collecting $600 a year. It looks like you have $20,000 in reserves and, of course, the law three-year fund balance. So, 600 times three would be $1,800. So, obviously, we're 10x that. Now, I understand we're not talking a whole lot of money here, but I'm just wondering, it looks like you use some of it to pay cybersecurity expenses. But I'm just curious, what can we do with that $20,000 to make sure we're in compliance and be productive, you know,
whether it's for educational or I'm just kind of curious
Speaker 41
14:27
your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, there's some expenses that could have been charged over there since it was moved to us in 23. We had some savings in some other areas that we used to assist with this program. If you think about the program itself, it's not super expensive. I mean, we print certificates, so there's ink, there's paper, there's some staff time. We have a very small appropriation, and it's an M&O appropriation. We're looking to maybe expand that so that we can encompass some of the expense related to salaries to administer the program.
But there's also some training opportunities that we can do with the association. We've also talked to them about potentially looking at upgrading the test and some of the curriculum. So I think we won't have any problems. Some opportunities there.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
15:13
Yes, sir. Okay, excellent. All right, Representative McGrew, you're up, sir.
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
15:18
Thank you, Chairman. And thank you all, gentlemen, for being here. and I'm going to show my ignorance a little bit today, but I've never heard of this classification before as a soil classifier. Can you give me an indication of what would be involved in the job of that
and what the demand is for this? Yeah, so
Speaker 41
15:37
it's going to be those things where you have to classify the soils. And so in most cases, probably the most common is going to be for septic tanks. and so we have a list of those providers on our web page and if folks want to go to them or they can go to potentially somebody with the health department, a lot of times they'll go to a soil classifier and they can assist with laying out that septic tank and that design
and making sure that it's going to perk and those
Speaker 59
16:08
sorts of things. Follow-up. So you're talking about a perk test?
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
16:13
Yes, sir. That's part of it. Thank you.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
16:19
Okay. Senator English, you're next. so what kind of um obviously somebody's going to have to have a college degree yes so what kind of degrees would people get to come into this yeah
Speaker 41
16:32
mostly going to be in the biology earth science
physical science so you think about the geology degrees biology degrees and then you have to have I think 15 hours of soils classes so you have to have 30 hours in the biological physical sciences and then 15 hours and in college yes before you take the curriculum that the natural resources has
Senator Jane English
Unverified
16:51
yes yeah thank you yep okay all right representative per year
Speaker 56
17:00
you're up sir thank you chair so representative
Speaker 64
17:02
McGrew brought up that where someone asked a question makes you
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
17:06
think of a question so i apologize for that but what you mentioned the like the designated representative in the septic world what can what can the what can these guys do that a dr could not do i mean would these guys supersede a dr's decision when they say a place wouldn't perk or just kind of elaborate on the differences
Speaker 41
17:25
of the two i don't know that i can answer that completely as far as the comparison between the two all i know is that if you're going to classify soils in the state of arkansas you need to be a soil classifier and these folks obviously have extensive
knowledge of soils and so i don't know what the difference would be but typically these folks are going to be can be on construction sites when you're looking at you know complex soils if you're building something or establishing foundations wetland determination but really anything dealing with soils i hope i answered that i
Speaker 50
17:57
may not have done a good job i could get in the
Speaker 68
18:02
weeds on that but we'll yeah i appreciate you yeah done asking questions yeah so if someone
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
18:10
was going to come build a new you know multi-acre warehouse complex or
walmart was just finished building their new giant headquarters up there these folks would probably be employed to make sure that the foundations and so
Speaker 48
18:23
forth was all so if if they had if they needed to classify the soils there then they would get a soil classifier
Speaker 69
18:34
that right All right. Anything else? Any other questions, colleagues? All right. Seeing none, gentlemen,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
18:40
thank you for your time this
afternoon. Without objection, the report will stand reviewed. That's the only thing we have on the agenda this afternoon. Our next meeting will be on February 19th, 1.30 in this same room. Have a good afternoon, everyone. Thank you.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by the Co-Chairs
C. Review of Reports from Occupational Authorization Entities:
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 9
Speaker 10
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 24
Speaker 23
Speaker 19
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 5
Speaker 38
Speaker 41
Speaker 43
Speaker 48
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
Speaker 59
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 64
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 68
Speaker 69