An Overview of the Campaign So Far

I realized recently that this blog may be confusing for new visitors. In order to help clarify this blog's objectives and history I will give a chronological summary of the campaign.

I completed the first 15 months (the pre-MSN phase) of Marquette University's Direct Entry nursing program back in August of 2005, and passed NCLEX and got my Wisconsin nursing license shortly after that. In the spring of 2006 my husband got a job in Mississippi, so we moved there. The Mississippi Board of Nursing rejected my application for RN licensure because I could not provide proof of graduation.

This is when I realized that something funny was going on with Marquette's Direct Entry program. Marquette provided proof of graduation to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing, while at the same time claiming that Direct Entry students do not graduate at the completion of the first 15 months of the program and refusing to provide proof of graduation to any other state.

As I researched the issue further, I discovered that the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act 441.04, a state law, requires graduation from a school of nursing in order to be eligible for RN licensure in Wisconsin. As a student at Marquette, they told us that they had a "Special Agreement" with the State that allows Direct Entry students to become licensed as RNs. But this explanation no longer made any sense: the State of Wisconsin can't simply make a "Special Agreement" with a private university that contradicts State Law.

I sent a letter to Dr. Judith Miller, associate dean for graduate programs in Marquette's College of Nursing, asking that Direct Entry students be granted degrees for the work they do in the first 15 months of the program so that the program will meet the legal criteria for licensure in Wisconsin. Dr. Miller would not resolve the problem.

Next, I sent a letter to Father Wild, President of Marquette University. I didn't get a response, so I sent a letter to each member of Marquette's Board of Trustees explaining the problem, and again asking Marquette to grant Direct Entry students degrees at the end of the first 15 months of the program so that the program would meet the criteria for licensure in Wisconsin. The day after the Board of Trustee's got their letters, Father Wild responded to me, again unwilling to fix the problem.

Meanwhile I requested a copy of the "Special Agreement" from the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing. At first they tried blow me off, but eventually I was provided with the documents I requested. All the "Special Agreement" was was a 1999 letter from Wayne Austin, then legal counsel for the Board of Nursing, to Madeline Wake, then Dean of the Marquette College of Nursing, stating that they would interpret progression from the 15-month pre-MSN portion of the Direct Entry program into the MSN portion to be considered "graduation" so that it would meet the Nurse Practice Act's requirement for "graduation." The whole "Special Agreement" was a farce! Marquette is fiercely adamant that Direct Entry students do not graduate until they have earned an MSN degree.

Next I sent letters to the members of the Wisconsin Board of Nursing asking that they reevaluate the "Special Agreement." I never heard back from anyone at the Wisconsin Board of Nursing, so I thought they they had also blown me off. Several weeks after the fact, however, I discovered that my letter had been discussed at the Wisconsin Board of Nursing meeting on May 17th!

Now things are really getting ridiculous. The Wisconsin Board of Nursing is supposed to uphold the laws relating to the licensure of registered nurses, and here they are making unlawful exceptions to the very laws they should be upholding. I filed a formal complaint with Governor Doyle's office against Colleen M. Baird, legal counsel for the Board of Nursing charging her with two offences: not notifying me that my letter to the members of the Board would be brought up at a meeting so that I could participate in the meeting, and counseling the Board to continue with a policy that contradicts State Law. I have not yet heard back from the DRL regarding the formal complaint.

I was granted a personal appearance before the Wisconsin Board of Nursing on July 26th in Madison Wisconsin. In my presentation I asked the Board to immediately discontinue issuing nursing licenses to individuals who do not meet the criteria for licensure in the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act 441.04; including students who have completed the 15-month pre-MSN portion of Marquette's Direct Entry program because they do not hold a "diploma of graduation." The presentation went well, and the Board seemed very surprised about the situation and perhaps interested in working out a compromise between Marquette and me. The Board wanted to hear from a representative of Marquette's Direct Entry program before making any decisions and so decided that they would revisit the issue at their next meeting on August 30th so that Dr. Judith Miller could attend.

Marquette was informed ahead of time about my appearance before the Board of Nursing, and submitted some materials of their own to the Board. One of the materials that they submitted was a copy of the 1999 letter from Wayne Austin to Madeline Wake (the "Special Agreement"). But this was not the same letter that the DRL had provided to me with several months earlier. It turns out there are two conflicting versions of the "Special Agreement." The version of the letter that was actually sent to Marquette does not say that Direct Entry students are eligible for RN licensure in Wisconsin at the completion of the pre-MSN phase. The letter simply states that graduates of the program are eligible for licensure - and Direct Entry students don't graduate until they have been awarded an MSN degree at the end of the three years.

Meanwhile, my parents (Wisconsin state residents) had contacted their state representatives and asked them to look into the RN licensure of Marquette Direct Entry students without having graduated. Debra Kraft, Interim General Counsel for the DRL, responded to my parents' state representatives with an August 2nd letter riddled with falsehoods. Since Ms. Kraft had sent this letter to many important individuals associated with the controversy, including the Wisconsin Board of Nursing, I responded with my own letter to make sure the individuals who got Ms. Kraft's letter had the facts before the next Board of Nursing meeting on August 30th.

The most important problem with Ms. Kraft's letter is that she based her stance on the licensure of Direct Entry students on the wrong version of the "Special Agreement." I do not know why the DRL had a version of this letter that directly contradicted what they actually sent to Marquette back in 1999.

Now I am waiting to see what happens at the Wisconsin Board of Nursing meeting on August 30th.