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Students interested in pursuing campus and online nursing degrees have more options these days of which to choose. Nursing programs throughout the country are expanding and becoming more innovative, flexible and convenient. They're available at undergraduate and graduate levels and are tailored to those with high school diplomas, as well as undergraduates working toward liberal arts bachelor's degrees, individuals with nursing backgrounds or bachelor's degrees in other disciplines.
The Bureau of Labor forecasts that employment growth for registered nurses between 2008 and 2018 is expected to be much faster than the average for all occupations and is to include some 581,500 newly created jobs and hundreds of thousands of replacement jobs. The fastest rate of growth is to be in physician's offices followed by home healthcare services and then nursing care facilities, according to the Bureau of Labor. Registered nurses with bachelor's degrees are to have better employment prospects, and those with advanced practice specialties, such as clinical nurse specialists, nurse mid-wives, nurse practitioners and nurse anesthesiologists are to be in high demand particularly in inner cities and rural areas, the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes.
While some, such as Vanderbilt University Medical Center, say the nursing shortage in many parts of the country has eased, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employers in some parts of the country and some employment settings have cited a difficulty in attracting and retaining an adequate number of registered nurses - primarily because of an aging registered nurse workforce and a lack of young workers who can fill positions. The Tri-Council for Nursing recently encouraged nurses to recognize entry level nursing trends and advance their careers. Urgent needs exist in occupations such as nurse educators, as well as Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, the Tri-Council suggested.
A shortage of nurse educators, according to what Mountain State University Orlando Executive Director Randy White reportedly told the Orlando Business Journal, hasn't been addressed nearly as much as a nursing shortage itself. Mountain State University itself has added a new master's degree program with a concentration in education, the Orlando Business Journal article noted. In New Mexico, ITT Technical Institute in Albuquerque is one of at least six institutions to have recently added new programs in nursing, according to a May article in New Mexico Business Weekly.
The new ITT Tech nursing program, for one, is an associate's degree program where some non-core courses might be taken exclusively in class, exclusively as distance learning courses, or through combination distance learning and in-classroom instruction, the ITT Tech website shows. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., the School of Nursing webpage shows that it offers an accelerated masters degree program where students can spend blocks of time on campus and receive instruction via distance learning. Regis University in Denver, Colorado, provides undergraduate and graduate offerings whereby students can participate in courses online or on campus.
Regis University also offers a CHOICE (Connecting Health Occupations with Innovative Curriculum and Experience) bachelor of science in nursing where students attend classes on campus twice weekly during evenings and participate in clinical experiences during weekends. Vanderbilt University's nursing school also has arrangements with colleges and universities throughout the country where students can combine a liberal arts degree with studies toward a masters in nursing. Regis University is also one of some 230 institutions throughout the country that provide accelerated bachelor's in nursing programs for individuals who hold bachelor's degrees in other disciplines.
Regis University, along with institutions such as Creighton University in Nebraska and Quinnipiac University in Connecticut as part of these accelerated nursing programs allows non-nursing bachelor's degree holders the opportunity to earn a bachelor's in nursing in a matter of 12 months. Accelerated nursing programs such as these typically include intense, full-time instruction where there are no breaks between sessions, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing notes. Students in second-degree bachelor's-level nursing programs typically don't have to take liberal arts courses, according to the association. Quinnipiac University's accelerated nursing program, for example, concentrates only on nursing courses.
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Innovative and flexible campus-based nursing programs, along with online nursing programs, can make it easier for students to pursue studies without interrupting their careers, income requirements and overall lifestyles. By making it easier for students to work toward their traditional and online degrees, students might also be more likely to complete nursing programs. For registered nurses, an advanced education might also open doors for career advancements. For those just starting out, taking free CNA classes can provide a start to employment and to a lasting and advancing career.
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