Nightingale College Releases Names of 5 New Enrollment Areas to Offer the RN-to-BSN Program

SALT LAKE CITY, July 17, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Nightingale College has been approved to offer the accredited RN-to-BSN Program in six new states, tripling their current enrollment areas. The online program will now be offered to registered nurses in Texas, Colorado, Nevada, New York, Virginia and Georgia, in addition to the previously approved Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.

"We are very excited for the recent growth we have experienced in the expansion of our RN-to-BSN Program. Through open collaboration with various state boards of nursing, post-secondary education commissions, and national partners such as the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), we are now able to offer a bachelors degree completion program to more registered nurses than ever before," said Blake Halladay, Senior Manager, Partnerships at Nightingale College.

This explosion of new growth is in part due to more research indicating that having more BSN-prepared nurses leads to improved patient safety outcomes. While ASN degree nurses are equipped to handle daily functions as a nurse, the diverse nature of patient care and chronic illness requires more than what is taught at an ASN degree level.

Dr. Kay Haw, an instructor in the BSN program, said, "Some areas that warrant further detail presented in a BSN program are theoretical foundations, critical ethical and legal issues related to the nursing profession and healthcare organizations, research practices and processes, evidence-based practice, governance, project management, population health and leadership."

Through further education, nurses are given skills to better care for their patients' complex needs. Helping nurses to provide better care to their patients is part of Nightingale College's Vision, "Better Health & Better Humanity for a Better World."

"Our goal to improve healthcare across the country has been greatly impacted by our recent growth and we are very optimistic that we will be furthering this goal by offering this program to even more nurses in more states in the near future," said Halladay.

But why now? After recommendations from the Institute of Medicine that 80 percent of nurses be BSN prepared by 2020, more employers are pressuring their nurses to return for a BSN. As a result, registered nurses are flooding back into education, all while trying to balance their work demands and responsibilities at home.

With this in mind, Nightingale College's RN-to-BSN Program is designed for working RNs. While the normal time to completion of the program is 12 months, flexible scheduling allows nurses to take the program slowly, so that they can stay employed without getting overwhelmed. In Nightingale's program, learners can take as little as one class at a time without seeing an increase in price, when at other schools, taking a program at a slower pace would cost the student extra hard-earned money.

The program also involves a Capstone Project in which learners must address a health concern in their community or healthcare facility, making them even more valuable to their employers.

More and more, nurses with a BSN are seen as more valuable to potential employers as well, with some hospital systems even making a BSN a requirement for entry-level positions. Employers encouraging their staff to advance to a BSN level is an attempt to provide better care to their patients. In a 2011 study from the healthcare journal Medical Care, a 10% increase in BSN-prepared nurses was linked to a 4% decrease in patient mortality, and healthcare facilities are trying to improve their patient experience.

Nightingale hopes that by providing quality distance education programs, they will be able to help more facilities develop highly educated nursing staff and better serve their communities.

"We are thrilled to be expanding access to post-licensure nursing education to communities in need," said Jonathan Tanner, Vice President of Partnerships and Business Development. "We know that the areas we enter will benefit from having an increased number of BSN-prepared nurses in their communities, and we look forward to the continued realization of our mission to elevate rural health."

ABOUT NIGHTINGALE COLLEGE
Nightingale College creates avenues to accessible nursing programs with its accredited distance education associate and bachelor's degree nursing programs. Supporting the growing need for nurses and providing strategies to combat the nursing shortage, the College's programs work to not only grow but maintain homegrown nurses with the help of local health care systems. Nightingale College emphasizes graduating nurses who are confident, competent, and compassionate, ready to work in their community. Since its establishment in 2010 in Ogden, Utah, the College has graduated nurses in numerous states. To learn more about the College, its mission, and programs, visit http://nightingale.edu/.

SOURCE Nightingale College