Code of Maine Rules
02 - DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL AND FINANCIAL REGULATION
380 - STATE BOARD OF NURSING
Chapter 7 - REGULATIONS FOR APPROVAL OF PRELICENSURE NURSING EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Section 380-7-2 - DEFINITIONS

A. "Accreditation" means a level of quality achieved by education programs which have participated in voluntary evaluation by recognized agencies using predetermined criteria.

B. "Board" means the Maine State Board of Nursing.

C. "Communities of interest" encompasses groups and individuals who have an interest in the mission, goals, and expected outcomes of the nursing school and its effectiveness in achieving them. The communities of interest range from the local to the global and comprise all stakeholders of the nursing programs. Stakeholders include students, faculty, administration, student organizations, and alumni in addition to external constituencies such as prospective students, employers, practicing nurses, other nursing programs, regulatory bodies, the community/public of Maine and beyond.

D. "Continuing approval" means ongoing granting of permission to operate as a school of nursing by the Board.

E. "Direct patient care" means student learning that involves the provision of primary nursing services to patients.

F. "Enrollment" means a student for whom the nursing education program has determined to be qualified, to whom they have sent an affirmative letter indicating acceptance and from whom the nursing education program has received an affirmative indication from the student that the admission offer is accepted, and the applicant is enrolled in classes.

G. "Governing Organization" means the single agency or institution that administers the nursing education program in its entirety.

H. "National Nursing Accreditation" means accreditation by Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) or Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) or other agency approved by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a national accreditation agency.

I. "Nurse Administrator" means the registered nurse responsible for policies, contracts, curriculum and overall administration of the nursing education program.

J. "Preceptor" means the licensed nurse who assumes joint teaching responsibility with a salaried faculty member for a precepted clinical experience.

K. "Precepted clinical experience" means student learning that involves the provision of primary nursing care to patients under the guidance and direction of a preceptor in collaboration with the salaried faculty of the nursing education program.

L. "Salaried faculty" means those nursing faculty designated by the Governing Organization as having ongoing responsibility for curriculum development, and planning, teaching, guiding, monitoring, and evaluating student learning.

M. "Non-salaried contractual faculty" means those faculty who have ongoing responsibility for evaluating student learning in the classroom, clinical and/or lab setting.Non-salaried contractual faculty collaborate with salaried faculty to maintain program policies and course requirements. Also called "part-time" or "adjunct" faculty.

N. "Simulation" or "simulation experience" means student learning that involves interaction with computer generated, or other life-like models of clinical nursing situations including standardized patients, mannequins, and high-fidelity simulation. All simulation experiences shall be under the direction of licensed nursing faculty qualified to oversee and evaluate the outcomes of the simulation experience for the student.

O. "Survey" means the written report; self-study report.