The School of Nursing at Wichita State University has announced the expansion of its online RN to BSN program, which offers advanced placement to registered nurses (RNs) seeking a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree.
In moving forward with Wichita State President John Bardo’s strategic initiative to expand online offerings, the School of Nursing is offering one of the first completely online degree programs offered at WSU. The expansion will help meet the needs of the increasing number of baccalaureate-prepared nurses. Find more information online about the degree.
The new online RN-BSN program builds on the skill established in a RN’s previous nursing educational program. The BSN expands the student’s knowledge base to provide a means for continued advancement in the profession and to meet requirements for pursuing a graduate degree in nursing.
Students who choose Wichita State’s new online offering have the advantages of being able to finish quicker, pay less and gain career-boosting leadership skills with the School of Nursing's flexible RN to BSN Program.
This expansion also aligns with an October 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine (the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences), titled “The Future of Nursing,” which recommends increasing the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020. Many hospitals are also recommending their nurses be baccalaureate-prepared.
In February, The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) issued a press release stating that “patients experiencing complications after surgery are more likely to live if treated in hospitals with adequate nurse staffing levels and higher numbers of nurses prepared at the baccalaureate degree level.”
In the February 2013 Journal of Nursing Administration, Mary Blegen, director of the Center for Patient Safety in the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, reported that patients in hospitals with a higher percentage of RNs with baccalaureate degrees had lower incidents of congestive heart failure mortality, decubitus ulcers, failures to rescue, and shorter lengths of stay.