Texas Register, Volume 35, Number 40, Pages 8823-9002, October 1, 2010 Page: 8,917

                                
TITLE 22. EXAMINING BOARDS
PART 10. TEXAS FUNERAL SERVICE
COMMISSION

CHAPTER 201.

LICENSING AND

ENFORCEMENT--PRACTICE AND
PROCEDURE
22 TAC 201.3
The Texas Funeral Service Commission (commission) adopts an
amendment to 201.3, Complaints and Investigations, without
changes to the proposed text as published in the July 23, 2010,
issue of the Texas Register (35 TexReg 6427).
The amendment is adopted to give affected persons notice of
the process the commission follows in the processing of com-
plaints; and to comply with the rulemaking requirements imposed
by Texas Occupations Code, 651.202.
The commission received no comments on the proposed
amendment.
The amendment is adopted under Texas Occupations Code,
651.152. The commission interprets 651.152 as authorizing
it to adopt rules as necessary to administer Chapter 651.
No other statutes, articles, or codes are affected by the adoption.
This agency hereby certifies that the adoption has been reviewed
by legal counsel and found to be a valid exercise of the agency's
legal authority.
Filed with the Office of the Secretary of State on September 20,
2010.
TRD-201005443
O. C. "Chet" Robbins
Executive Director
Texas Funeral Service Commission
Effective date: October 10, 2010
Proposal publication date: July 23, 2010
For further information, please call: (512) 936-2469
PART 11. TEXAS BOARD OF NURSING
CHAPTER 216. CONTINUING COMPETENCY
22 TAC 216.1, 216.3
INTRODUCTION. The Texas Board of Nursing (Board) adopts
amendments to 216.1 (relating to Definitions) and 216.3 (re-
lating to Requirements) without changes to the proposed text
published in the August 13, 2010, issue of the Texas Register
(35 TexReg 6914) and will not be republished.
REASONED JUSTIFICATION. The adopted amendments are
authorized under the Occupations Code 301.303 and 301.151
and are necessary to advance the Board's comprehensive ap-
proach to continuing competency in nursing.
The following paragraphs provide a brief summary and analysis
of the reasons for the adopted rules, including a history of the

methodologies and initiatives supporting a comprehensive ap-
proach to continuing competency in Texas.
The Board has studied and evaluated continuing competency
methodologies and national and local initiatives relating to con-
tinuing competency since 2006. The Board first began evaluat-
ing and testing models of continuing competency after Senate
Bill (SB) 617, effective September 1, 1997, was enacted by the
75th Texas Legislature. SB 617 authorized the Board to con-
duct pilot programs to evaluate the continuing competency of
nurses in Texas. Pursuant to SB 617, the Board approved and
funded six pilot studies, including: (i) evaluation of a mandatory
competency evaluation program of an urban county hospital and
the validity and reliability of a 360 degree performance appraisal
system in an urban specialty hospital; (ii) delineation of com-
petencies for nurses working in rural health care settings; (iii)
the use of vignettes for targeted continuing education in psychi-
atric nursing; (iv) assessment of certification in ACLS and PALs
as a valid indication of competence; (v) identification and as-
sessment of competencies of nurses in long-term care; and (vi)
development of reliable and validity information for assessing
home health nurse competencies. Various recommendations re-
sulted from these studies, including a recommendation from the
Competency Advisory Committee that acceptable components
of competency maintenance should not be limited solely to con-
tinuing education hours. The Board reported its findings and
recommendations regarding continuing competency in a 2000
publication, Ensuring Professional Nursing Competency. Shortly
thereafter, ongoing competency evaluation began receiving fur-
ther national attention and review.
For example, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing
(NCSBN) formed a special task force to survey over 20,000 li-
censed vocational nurses and 20,000 registered nurses with at
least one year of practice experience to determine competen-
cies that were required in their work environments. The NCSBN
also compiled state-by-state information about continued com-
petency processes using the APPLE criteria (administratively
feasible, publicly credible, professionally acceptable, legally de-
fensible, and economically feasible) for an analysis of best prac-
tices among states. Around the same time, the following groups
in Texas began evaluating and testing competency models: The
Alliance for Innovation in Nursing Education; North Texas Con-
sortium School of Nursing; Texas Higher Education Coordinat-
ing Board Nursing Innovative Grant Program - Midwestern State
University High Fidelity Clinical Simulation; and Texas Nurses
Association Competency Task Force (Task Force). In February,
2006, these groups formed the Texas Competency Consortium
to share information and coordinate competency development in
the state of Texas.
The Task Force focused on two specific approaches to contin-
uing competency: (i) whether competencies should be devel-
oped that are related to a nurse's specific role/practice in his or
her work environment; or (ii) whether broad-based competen-
cies for all nurses should be developed. The NCSBN also con-
sidered these approaches on a national level, opting to develop
and test a core set of broad-based competencies for all nurses.
Ultimately, this approach was also adopted by the Task Force.
The Task Force spent five years evaluating and testing different
approaches to continuing competency. In July, 2008, the Task
Force issued Continuing Competency: Movement Toward As-
surance in Nursing, in which the Task Force outlined its recom-
mendations for continuing competency requirements in Texas.
Specifically, the Task Force recommended allowing nurses to
meet their continuing competency requirements through either

ADOPTED RULES       October 1, 2010  35 TexReg 8917