ST. PAUL — Gov. Mark Dayton supports structural changes in how the Minnesota Board of Nursing is able to discipline problem nurses after meeting Wednesday with board members, Dayton’s spokesman said.

Dayton met with all but one member of the nursing board, which oversees the licenses of more than 115,000 nurses.

“The governor felt the meetings were very constructive,” Dayton’s spokesman, Matt Swenson said Wednesday. “He found the board members to be very diligent.”

Reacting to a Star Tribune investigative series that began in early October, the governor has previously criticized the board, saying that they have been “asleep at the switch” and failed to use their authority to crack down on nurses who commit misconduct.

Dayton told the newspaper last month that he wanted to meet with board members before proposing any specific changes.

Board President Deborah Haagenson said there was no discussion of his past criticisms during her meeting with Dayton.

“He did not express any specific concerns. I got the sense that he really wanted to listen and hear what our thoughts and perspectives were,” Haagenson said. “He shared that ‘I can tell, you really take your work seriously.”’

Swenson said the governor has not changed his position on his previous concerns.

“He’s not giving the board a clean bill of health,” Swenson said. “He’s not indicting them either.”

The nursing board has 16 members, 12 of them nurses, all of whom are appointed by the governor. In an analysis of thousands of nursing board records, the Star Tribune has reported how some nurses have kept their licenses despite neglecting patients, stealing drugs from them or practicing while impaired.

Swenson said after the meetings that the governor believed the problems with the board are “more structural in nature.” Swenson specifically cited communication between the board and a state monitoring program for health care professionals with problems of substance abuse and mental illness.

Dayton plans to meet with Nursing Board Executive Director Shirley Brekken after Jan. 1 to discuss “what changes should be made both administratively as well as discuss any changes that should be presented to the Legislature,” Swenson said.