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Take The Fast-Track To A Nursing Career
Students considering obtaining a nursing degree might have some of the widest variety of programs from which to choose. The number of nursing degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels is growing along with anticipated employment opportunities in the field. The types of nursing programs available to students are also diverse, with flexible campus sessions and even online university degree especially designed for those 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.
For the time being, some say, the nursing shortage in many parts of the country has eased. Others have cited a lack of young workers to fill the positions of an aging registered nurse workforce, at least in part of because qualified applicants have been turned away from nursing schools experiencing a faculty shortage. The Tri-Council for Nursing has expressed concerns that a diminished “pipeline” of nurses wouldn’t address the number of nurses expected to retire as they age. The Tri-Council has also encouraged registered nurses to recognize entry-level nursing trends and advance their careers. There are urgent needs, according to the Tri-Council, for nurse educators and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses.
At least half a dozen New Mexico institutions alone have nevertheless added new nursing programs as of late, according to a May article in New Mexico Business Weekly. The new programs include a nursing offering from ITT Technical Institute’s Albuquerque location, the New Mexico Business Weekly article noted. A master’s degree nursing program scheduled to begin at Mountain State University in Altamonte Springs, Fla., in October, on the other hand, is designed to address a rarely recognized nursing instructor shortage, according to what Mountain State Orlando Executive Director Randy White was quoted in an August Orlando Business Journal article as saying.
Some nursing programs allow students to take online courses or to combine online studies with blocks of time on campus. Others offer evening and weekend nursing program formats or the ability for undergraduates to combine bachelor’s degrees in liberal arts with masters degree studies in nursing. Since 1990, the number of accelerated degree programs in nursing particularly has grown from 31 to 230, according to the American Association of Colleges in Nursing.
Students working toward an associate’s degree through the ITT Tech nursing program are able to take some non-core courses online, on campus or by combining online and on campus studies, the ITT Tech website shows. Through an accelerated graduate program offered by Nashville-based Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing, students are able to spend blocks of time on campus and participate in distance learning opportunities, according to this institution’s website. At Denver’s Regis University, nursing programs at undergraduate and graduate levels allow students to take courses online or on campus.
Vanderbilt University also has partnerships with colleges and universities throughout the country, through which students working toward liberal arts degrees can at the same time study toward a masters degree in nursing. Through a Regis University CHOICE (Connecting Health Occupations with Innovative Curriculum and Experience) bachelor of science in nursing, evening classes are conducted on campus twice weekly and clinical experiences are held during weekends. Regis, along with several other institutions, also offers an accelerated nursing program for those who hold bachelor’s degrees in other disciplines.
Through this accelerated, full-time program at Regis, students can obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 12 months. Creighton University in Nebraska and Quinnipiac University in Connecticut also offer full-time, 12-month bachelor’s level accelerated nursing programs for non-nursing bachelor’s degree holders. With accelerated programs, students might expect intense instruction without liberal arts courses and without breaks between sessions, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing notes. Quinnipiac University’s accelerated nursing program, for one, concentrates on nursing courses, its website shows. Entry requirements vary, with some institutions, such as Creighton University, requiring that prerequisite courses be fulfilled in advance. Other options, such as the online degree, won’t have such requirements.
By expanding nursing programs and making them more flexible, colleges, universities and technical institutes are likely to produce more students with nursing degrees. Graduates who move into the nursing profession might find themselves fulfilled by their ability to help others. Registered nurses advancing their credentials through online certificate programs might become more marketable and more able to advance their careers while at the same time filling employment needs.
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