One of the key points of The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2010 report on the Future of Nursing is advocating that nurses need to achieve higher levels of education and training. This should be a top priority of colleges and universities across the country. One way to ensure that nurses are taking the first step and completing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is by eliminating the Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) programs. Besides providing a stronger, more diverse background for the nurse, research has shown that BSN level nurses increase patient safety and have more job satisfaction than their ADN colleagues. Due to the increasing demands on the health care field, even more is being asked of nurses, which makes those with a BSN better suited to fill those needs by completing even more schooling and becoming an APRN.
To ensure the delivery of safe, patient-centered care across settings, …show more content…
Bachelor’s level nurses are better equipped and have an easier time continuing their education than their Associate level counterparts. Aiken (2011) reports that the number of new graduates from Nurse Practitioner programs has remained constant, despite an increasing demand. She believes the reasoning is simply that it is easier to continue to the APRN or faculty level with a BSN degree. With an ADN, the nurse faces having to acquire two or more additional degrees to reach these terminal level jobs, something she states is not feasible for most practicing nurses. She goes on to state that if the proportion of BSN nurses and ADN nurses had been reversed between 1974 and 1994, there would potentially be more than 50,000 more nurses holding an advanced degree, many of which would be qualified to become faculty, which would again have an impact on the amount of nurses schools are able to
To ensure the delivery of safe, patient-centered care across settings, …show more content…
Bachelor’s level nurses are better equipped and have an easier time continuing their education than their Associate level counterparts. Aiken (2011) reports that the number of new graduates from Nurse Practitioner programs has remained constant, despite an increasing demand. She believes the reasoning is simply that it is easier to continue to the APRN or faculty level with a BSN degree. With an ADN, the nurse faces having to acquire two or more additional degrees to reach these terminal level jobs, something she states is not feasible for most practicing nurses. She goes on to state that if the proportion of BSN nurses and ADN nurses had been reversed between 1974 and 1994, there would potentially be more than 50,000 more nurses holding an advanced degree, many of which would be qualified to become faculty, which would again have an impact on the amount of nurses schools are able to