Pima Community College’s once-troubled nursing program has made a full recovery after it was cited for deficiencies, averting a potential program shutdown, the Arizona State Board of Nursing says.
The nursing board, which ruled last year that friction between the PCC faculty and administration was jeopardizing the program, recently voted to accept evidence from the college that the problems are fixed.
The board decision is crucial for PCC because its nursing program — one of the region’s largest producers of registered nurses — could have been shut down for noncompliance if the college had failed to correct the deficiencies.
In a news release Thursday, PCC said the nursing program once again has the state’s “highest measure of confidence.”
The college presented the board with evidence that it has clarified its policies and changed the leadership of the nursing program since the sanction was imposed.
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The nursing board’s “notice of deficiencies” centered on a fractious relationship between former nursing Dean Martha “Marty” Mayhew and the Pima Community College Education Association, which represents full-time faculty members in contract negotiations and other issues.
According to the board, the faculty group repeatedly challenged Mayhew’s authority to the point of interfering with program operations.
For example, the board said, the group tried to get an instructor’s hospital assignment changed and tried to block drug testing for nursing faculty members.
The situation compromised student learning and patient safety, the board found.
A few weeks after the nursing board sanction became public, a different employee group filed a “no confidence” motion against Mayhew and made a formal complaint to PCC alleging that she was soliciting prescription painkillers from subordinates.
Mayhew denied the allegations. She resigned a few months later — the college paid her $44,000 to go before her contract ended — and PCC turned over the results of its complaint investigation to the nursing board, since Mayhew is a registered nurse.
Joey Ridenour, the nursing board’s executive director, said Thursday that the board’s investigation into Mayhew’s conduct is not yet complete and is still confidential at this stage.
The nursing board matter is separate from a two-year probation sanction imposed on PCC last year by its main accreditor over mismanagement and lax governance.
The college expects to find out early next year if that sanction will be lifted.
