The Script: Nursing school launches online RN-to-BSN
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
The School of Nursing launched this spring a fully online RN-to-BSN program that fits into the lifestyle of a working professional and integrates a competency assessment for leadership skills already mastered.
The program is designed to equip and empower Registered Nurses with an associate's degree who desire to advance their careers with a bachelor's and is one of the most affordable in the region. The online RN-to-BSN program may be completed in as few as 18 months and is the first such program in the nation to include an assessment that awards credit
Lipscomb’s RN-to-BSN program holds initial approval status from the Tennessee Board of Nursing and is pending accreditation by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing. The program is accepting applications for its first cohort of students to begin in February. The cost is $525 per credit hour, making it one of the most affordable online programs offered by a private institution in the Middle Tennessee region.
In addition to the intentional integration of a Biblical view throughout the curriculum, Lipscomb’s program is also unique in that it offers students the opportunity to earn up to 27 credit hours for demonstration of knowledge and skills already mastered.
The School of Nursing has partnered with Lipscomb’s College of Professional Studies to intentionally integrate key leadership competencies essential for success in the workplace into the curriculum. Students enrolling in the program will have the opportunity to demonstrate such competencies through a professional assessment simulation that mirrors a day in the workplace. Lipscomb’s program is one of the first in the nation to integrate this type of leadership component into an RN-to-BSN curriculum.
“Many registered nurses with two-year degrees have been in the workforce, providing very skilled, compassionate care to their patients,” said Chelsia Harris, associate director of nursing for degree development at Lipscomb. “In developing this program, we have researched and examined what patients, organizations and health care facilities need and desire at the bedside … and that’s a compassionate nurse who can critically think, clinically reason, conflict manage and problem solve as well as maintain their drive and energy.
"This program will not only provide nurses with the professional edge needed to excel in the workplace, but also equip them in preventing burnout and compassion fatigue, two serious issues crippling health care today.”
The benefits of a four-year nursing degree are significant for nurses as well as their patients, Harris said.
“Research links improved patient outcomes, decreased medication errors and lower mortality rates to nurses educated at the baccalaureate level,” said Harris. “Nurses at the associate degree level are wonderful clinicians. However, there is a gap between 
an associate degree RN and an RN with a bachelor’s degree, she said.
“BSN nurses are trained to be critical thinkers, to lead, design and manage patient care. They’re not just doers. They can think at the bedside and make sound clinical decisions that are best for patients and outcomes.”
A bachelor’s level curriculum advances the associate level nurse by equipping them to address issues in community and population health, teaching them to responsibly consume and conduct research and integrate evidence-based practice into their routines, as well as positioning them to become leaders in the profession of nursing, said Harris.
Many health care providers and hospitals are requiring nurses to have a four-year college degree. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine recommended that 80 percent of the United States nurses have a BSN by 2020. According to the Critical Care Nurse Association, many hospitals and other medical facilities are following the institute’s guidelines and strongly encouraging associate-prepared RNs to earn their bachelor’s within five years of graduation.
Also, according to NursingJournal.org more hospitals are seeking the American Nurses Association’s “magnet” designation, which requires that 100 percent of nurse managers and 48 percent of nurses have a BSN or higher.
Harris said the RN-to-BSN program is a natural extension of the School of Nursing’s current offerings.
“Lipscomb University’s School of Nursing has so much to offer. Our new program is not only a response to what organizations and patients need, it’s also what the students need,” said Harris. “It offers them an affordable, accessible, innovative education. Our program is realistic and fits the lifestyle of the working professional. Graduates will leave prepared not only to be nurse generalists at the bedside, but they will be a step ahead of the game positioned to be leaders, designers and managers of care.”
Want to know more about Lipscomb’s new RN-to-BSN program? Visit, https://www.lipscomb.edu/nursing/undergraduate-programs/rn-to-bsn or contact Shelby Lankford at lankfordsr [at] lipscomb.edu or 615-966-5781.
About the School of Nursing
Lipscomb University’s School of Nursing offers a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing program for traditional undergraduate students and transfers. Students have the opportunity to “practice before they practice” in an on-campus facility that includes a state-of-the-art, high fidelity patient simulation lab.
Student nurses learn from faculty who are highly trained in all clinical and specialty areas, who also serve as academic advisors and mentors, looking out for the individual needs and goals of each student. With Lipscomb’s location in Nashville, the health care capital of the nation, students complete nurse preceptorships and residency programs at some of the country’s top medical institutions.
The program holds accreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing and has received multiple superior ratings from the Tennessee Board of Nursing at its regular site visits. The program’s 2017 graduates have a 95.3 percent pass rate on the NCLEX licensure exam and 100 percent job placement.
For more information about Lipscomb’s School of Nursing, visit nursing.lipscomb.edu.