Welcome Oakland adjunct faculty. This page will provide you with important information as an adjunct faculty member in the College of Nursing. Please visit the links below, or use the menu to the left to get information on specific topics.
Visit the SMU Campus Locations webpage to view detailed information including specific campus maps, directions, and parking.
For faculty members and staff whose primary campus is Sacramento, or San Francisco Peninsula:
If traveling by automobile, faculty and staff members from any of the Learning Centers can request a parking pass as an alternative to being reimbursed for a full-price ticket at the Summit Parking Garage or Medical Center Parking Plaza at the Oakland campus. Please contact your the Oakland Program Administrative Assistant to arrange to pick-up a parking pass.
In order to promote a safe working environment, SMU has partnered with Alta Bates Summit Medical Center (ABSMC) to provide important documents about safety. Visit the Campus Safety page for important documents and important links.
Quick links:
Faculty Employment Tracking System (FETS)
You can view your personal information with the School of Nursing via the Faculty Employment Tracking System (FETS) by using your SMU username and password.
To change your contact information, please see the information below.
Sutter Health Employee Portal
If you have had a change in contact information including address, phone, personal email, etc., you can officially update your information via the Sutter Health Employee Portal (login with your Sutter Health username and password).
Oakland faculty in need of assistance with general administrative needs such as typing, photocopying, etc. may request support by submitting a form.
Sacramento, and San Francisco Peninsula campus faculty members should contact their campus administrative assistants.
As SMU faculty, you will be assigned your own Samuel Merritt email and Canvas course management system login. Once these have been established, you will forward the login information directly to the personal email address that you have provided to the College of Nursing. If your personal email address is not indicated or is different from what is on your C.V./resume, please contact Jaime Smith, to provide the correct information.
Problems logging in?
If you are having problems logging in, and/or have forgotten your password to access these systems, please contact the SMU Service Desk at (510) 907-2555.
Using your SMU email account
While teaching, it is vital that you communicate with the College of Nursing, the University, and your students via your SMU email account.
Our accrediting agencies and clinical facilities require evidence that all faculty files are complete and compliant.
Submitting required health documentation/immunizations
The following health forms will be required to be submitted prior to the start of your teaching assignment. Health forms must be valid throughout the whole duration of your course. New adjunct faculty should retain a copy of these documents as you will need to present these forms again during your pre-employment physical.
Reviewing your information through the Faculty Employment Tracking System (FETS)
While teaching, each faculty member is responsible for making sure that their health record is up to date. Faculty members should review their record on a regular basis to ensure that their College of Nursing faculty file is complete and that documents are valid throughout the whole duration of the course.
Please review your information under the Degrees/Certifications AND Vaccinations tabs and submit any necessary documentation prior to starting your teaching assignment.
All SMU faculty are required to have a Faculty ID badge. The SMU Facilities Department is responsible for ID badge printing and distribution, and for administering access to SMU facilities.
Visit SMU Badging Services for details including their office location, contact information, hours of operation, for the ID Badge Application, and on how to obtain your badge.
The College of Nursing holds Faculty Orientation a few times per year to assist new faculty (and returning faculty who have yet to attend) with their transition into the College of Nursing faculty role.
Reserve your space
Please contact the Site Orientation Coordinator to reserve your space for the next orientation.
Completing Faculty Orientation
All new faculty are expected to prepare for their teaching role through a process of online and face-to-face orientation with the site orientation coordinator and course manager.
New adjunct faculty who are teaching in the classroom and/or in the clinical area are expected to complete certain webinars on NurseTim. Please see the following documents for instructions on how to log in to NurseTim, and details on the modules as they pertain to faculty teaching in the classroom and faculty who teach in the clinical area.
The webinars will provide you with continuing education units but you need to print the certificates of completion, and send a copy for the administrative assistant for your program.
School of Nursing Orientation & Resource Center
Upon receiving your Canvas system login, you will be able to access the CoN Orientation and Resource Center which includes topics such as clinical teaching and evaluation, CCNE emphasis areas and resources, and general information about the faculty role.
The College of Nursing, in accordance with Title 16, California Code of Regulations (Section 1426 s) is required to assure that the program provides concurrent theory and clinical experiences in geriatric nursing, in addition to medical-surgical nursing, obstetrics nursing, pediatric nursing, and mental health/psychiatric nursing. The program is required to document that all faculty teaching in identified areas are competent to teach in the area(s) in which they are assigned through the Board of Registered Nursing Faculty Approval process.
Currently, the pre-licensure programs do not have a separate geriatric clinical course. Thus, achievement of the geriatric clinical performance criteria is accomplished in one or more medical-surgical courses. All faculty teaching clinical in these medical-surgical courses must be competent and BRN approved for geriatrics. SMU College of Nursing recognizes that faculty achieves competence in a variety of ways; however, in order to assure up-to-date evidence-based practice in geriatrics, the following are accepted:
Note: having only clinical experience with older adults does not satisfy this requirement competence.
The SMUSON Geriatric Competency Program
The College of Nursing developed a three-level competency program that supports integration of evidence-based practice knowledge and skill into faculty teaching. The SMUSON geriatric competency program is an on-line course within the CoN Faculty Resource Center Canvas course.
The program offers approximately 36 hours of continuing education credit across the three levels. Each level contains a series of modules that utilize the Hartford Foundation "Try-this" series that was published in conjunction with the American Journal of Nursing. Each module contains an article on a selected topic, an accompanying video, and a post-test.
To access and complete the modules:
CoN Requirement: New faculty are expected to complete the first two levels of proficiency before teaching at SMU. Level three is expected to be completed before faculty begin their second rotation of teaching. Once geriatric competency is verified through this method, the program director will submit a BRN Faculty Approval form. After being returned signed by the BRN, faculty will be given a copy of the form for their records.
Nursing faculty members are required to participate in hospital orientation where they are assigned clinical training and to meet all the same health and safety requirements as the students.
HealthStream’s online programs are designed to educate healthcare professionals and health occupations students, and to enhance safety, competency, and outcomes in healthcare organizations through required regulatory training and accredited continuing education. Nursing faculty who teach clinical and do not have documentation of these requirements through other employment will need to complete four free HealthStream modules.
Requirement:
This online orientation program will need to be completed once each calendar year. After completing the modules with a passing grade, faculty will need to provide a copy to the program/campus administrative assistant. The program/campus administrative assistant will update the faculty member’s Faculty Employment Tracking System (FETS) database.
Before logging in and taking the modules:
If you have problems or issues with logging in, please contact the Sutter Health Service Desk at 1-888-888-6044.
Log in instructions:
Once logged in, while you may see some modules already in your My Learning tab, you will probably not see the ones you are required to complete for the School of Nursing. You will need to enroll yourself in the modules by following these next set of instructions. You will be required to take each of the following modules annually. Allow approximately four hours to complete all of the required modules.
Enrolling in modules:
You do not have to take and complete modules in a sequence or immediately after enrolling in one. You may elect to enroll in all four modules, and then launch any of your modules afterwards. Each module will appear under “Elective Learning” on the My Learning tab, even if you log out and log back in, until you have completed it. If you are in the process of completing a module, and would like to return later, you must click on “Exit” so that the next time you launch the module, you can resume the module at the point where you exited. (Clicking the red X of your browser will not save your progress.)
Module review, transcripts, and certificates:
Completed modules can be reviewed, and your HealthStream transcript and module completion certificates can be viewed and printed from the My Transcript tab.
Click here to to save a downloadable version of these instructions.
Oakland faculty who are in need of office space, a mailbox, and/or a voicemail box may contact Assistant to the Dean to make arrangements. Please note that space is limited and is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
ALL Samuel Merritt University faculty must meet the pre-employment requirements.
Samuel Merritt University Human Resources will contact you upon receipt of your approved Faculty Instructional Assignment (FIA). You will be given instructions at that time on the onboarding process which will include the successful completion of a background check, pre-employment physical and pre-placement drug screening. Please make every effort to respond to HR promptly and to attend appointments as scheduled.
Please be advised that a FIA is a conditional offer of employment, contingent upon your successful completion of the background check, pre-employment physical and pre-placement drug screening. Failure to pass will result in disqualification and the withdrawal of this conditional offer.
The School of Nursing reimburses for expenses for all faculty traveling to clinical sites. You need to enter and upload the relevant documents using the Sutter Ascend program. For guidance in using this program, visit the Faculty Orientation module located here.
