A Miami-based medical college has filed a legal challenge after the Florida Board of Nursing refused to approve registered-nurse degree programs in three areas of the state.
Dade Medical College filed the challenge against the board last week in the state Division of Administrative Hearings. The medical college sought approval for registered-nurse programs in Jacksonville, West Palm Beach and Homestead that would offer baccalaureate degrees, according to the filing.
But the Board of Nursing said last month it would deny the requests because two of Dade Medical College's associate-degree programs in Hollywood and Miami Lakes are on probation.
In the challenge, the college contends, at least in part, that the board improperly rejected the baccalaureate-degree programs based on the other programs being on probation.
"A baccalaureate degree registered nurse program and an associate degree nursing program are two different programs under the statute and under the procedures triggering probation, and they do not necessarily share the same faculty and do not have the same curriculums,'' the challenge said.
"None of the petitioner's nursing programs in Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, or Homestead are on probation."
Administrative Law Judge J. Lawrence Johnston on Monday scheduled a hearing March 2 in Tallahassee.
