The purpose of this study was to describe the differences between traditional-baccalaureate graduates (TBGs) who had a baccalaureate degree in nursing and no other academic degree or diploma and second-degree baccalaureate graduates (SDGs) who had both a baccalaureate degree in nursing and a baccalaureate or higher degree in a field other than nursing. Using a sample of 953 newly licensed regis...

The increasingly complex role of a nurse requires a much higher level of critical thinking and clinical judgment skills than in the past. Opportunities to provide critical thinking experiences in clinical settings are challenged by various factors, including limited clinical facilities and a shortage of nurse faculty. Alternative methods to provide critical thinking experiences in undergraduate...

Nursing education and nursing practice are on the move, and at least some of our progress in recent years must be credited to the increasing numbers of nurses with baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees. A baccalaureate degree is the status quo now in most of the country and, even where progress is slow, we are past the tipping point. This is great and what we said we wanted – to increase...

BACKGROUND Educational disparities in U.S. adult mortality are large and have widened across birth cohorts. We consider three policy relevant scenarios and estimate the mortality attributable to: (1) individuals having less than a high school degree rather than a high school degree, (2) individuals having some college rather than a baccalaureate degree, and (3) individuals having anything less ...

To meet the increasing demand for a more educated nursing workforce, the Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses (RIBN) initiative provides an economically feasible educational pathway between community colleges and universities so that more North Carolina nursing students can achieve a baccalaureate degree at the beginning of their career.

To address the faculty shortage problem, schools of nursing are reexamining how they provide clinical education to undergraduate students to find ways to use faculty resources more efficiently and to maintain student enrollment. We describe a unique clinical teaching model implemented at the New York University College of Nursing. The new model currently being evaluated shifts from the traditio...

This article explores the use of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in undergraduate nursing education. The advantages and limitations of this assessment approach are discussed and various applications of the OSCE are described. Attention is given to the complexities of evaluating some psychosocial competency components. The issues are considered in an endeavour to delineate t...