MSSU officials caused nursing faculty shortage by firing four suspected whistleblowers 19 days before beginning of fall semester

At a time when they were already aware they had to have eight full-time nursing faculty members, Missouri Southern State University rescinded contract offers to four veteran instructors they believed had provided information to the State Board of Nursing.

The decision to punish suspected whistleblowers forced university officials to scramble to fill the positions and they were still three teachers short when the fall semester opened one week ago.

Under grilling by state board members during Thursday's meeting, neither Paula Carson, (pictured) the university's provost and vice president of academic affairs, nor Lisa Beals, the interim department chairman, was able to provide a satisfactory explanation of why the four instructors, all of whom planned to return, were no longer involved in the program.

The MSSU nursing program had a long history of excellence, often recording 100 percent pass rates, something that changed about the time the former nursing department director Marcia Wilmes arrived in 2016.

Wilmes came to Southern from Cox College of Nursing in Springfield, where she had been chairman of the master's degree in nursing department.

Carson recommended the hiring of Wilmes, who was reportedly the only applicant for the position.

Despite Wilmes' previous position being in charge of the education of future nurse practitioners at Cox, it only took one year for Southern to lose its nurse practitioner program and over the next few years, Carson and Wilmes pushed for the expansion of the university's nursing program to add more students and bring in more tuition money leading to the addition of a spring cohort in the 2017-2018 academic year.

Wilmes explained the decision to MSSU's Crossroads Magazine:

The increase in student numbers is in response to the shortage of professional nurses. “It also decreases pressure on our local clinical facilities. From a healthcare delivery standpoint, it’s very inefficient to have a flood of graduates in May.

In order to add the spring cohort, MSSU had to first receive approval from the State Board of Nursing, which necessitated a site visit to inspect the nursing program.

From State Board of Nursing documents:

The program received seven (7) recommendations; one (1) recommendation was continued from the prior site visit with direction for addition of three (3) full-time faculty positions (2 open positions plus 1 extra full-time position to support the expansion), as projected for January 2018. 

At the time of the 2017 site visit the program had nine (9) full-time faculty plus the program administrator. NCLEX pass rates remained above the required 80% until 2019. The program was required to submit a progress report addressing faculty resources/workloads and current recommendations by the due date of May 31st, 2018. The program submitted the progress report and it was accepted by the Board in July of 2018.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for the department then the board became concerned about the growing workload for faculty members and in October 2019, contacted university officials.

Concerns were submitted in response to growing faculty workloads as well as a stressful environment for teaching and learning. 

A site visit was scheduled for spring 2020, coinciding with the report that the 2019 pass rate for MSSU students had plummeted to 76.5 percent, below the 80 percent threshold.

The university was required to submit a plan to improve the pass rate, which was due March 31, but that date arrived and Wilmes, citing the problems the university was having dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, asked for an extension to April 30.

The site visit had been scheduled for April 29, but the board canceled all site visits due to the pandemic.

On February 24, the board received an anonymous letter expressing concerns about faculty workloads and "program stability," which was reviewed at the board's April meeting.

The board scheduled a virtual meeting with MSSU officials on May 20 and set a virtual site visit for June 11.

A day before the virtual meeting, the board rejected MSSU's first correction plan "due to lack of evidence that all aspects of the program have been analyzed, areas contributing to the unacceptable pass rate had been identified, and that a plan of correction to resolve low pass rates had been fully developed and/or implemented."

Among those attending the virtual meeting May 20 were Wilmes, Richard Schooler, head of the department of health sciences, and Wendy McGrane, associate vice president of academic affairs.

The university officials told the board they planned to fill five full-time faculty positions by August 1.  

MSSU was given until July 15 to submit a plan of recommendation and the board asked for additional documentation, which was received June 2.

The additional documentation included student feedback, which for the most part praised the faculty, but was extremely critical of the program's administration.

On June 4, university officials asked for a postponement of the site visit and it was rescheduled for July 9.

For the rest of June, university officials remained in contact with the board and indicated there would be no fall cohort.

By the end of the month, dramatic changes occurred in Missouri Southern State University's nursing program.

The university severed ties with Wilmes and Schooler was longer head of that department. Officials were put in the embarrassing position of asking to ask the state board for a copy of Wilmes' original plan of correction.

On the day before the virtual site visit was scheduled, interim department chairman Beals, who had been a faculty member since 2018, sent an amended agenda, with the main change being a reduction in the number of people who would participate in the visit.

Eliminated from the participants were faculty members.

On July 15, six days after the virtual visit, the university informed the board it had changed its plans and citing possible "legal ramifications," said it planned to conduct a fall cohort, but would institute a moratorium for the spring semester.

Two weeks later, three weeks before the State Board of Nursing was to make its final decision on the fate of the program and 19 days before the beginning of the fall semester, the four full-time faculty members who were Carson's prime suspects in providing whistleblower information to the state board were fired.