Is it True About Florida?

I know of no such requirement at any Shands facility. It is nowhere in policy, my manager is not aware of any such policy, and nowhere on the HR information site is it mentioned.

According to the Florida Center of Nursing's White Paper of April 2009:

"The Florida Center for Nursing (Center) projected in 2008 that the shortage of Registered Nurses

(RNs) would grow to more than 18,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by 2010 and 52,000
FTEs by 2020 if no new actions are taken to resolve the shortage.

"Nursing education programs have the potential to help resolve the shortage by increasing their

output of new graduate nurses, but evidence indicates that our supply pipeline suffers from a
“bottleneck” that limits nursing program expansion. Our 2008 Annual Report and Workforce
Survey of Nursing programs found that Florida nursing programs declined a total of 12,563
qualified applicants in Academic Year (AY) 2007-2008.

9 Pre-licensure RN associate’s degree
programs (ADN) and Baccalaureate degree programs (BSN) turned away more than half of
qualified applicants. LPN programs turned away nearly one-third.
Graduates from pre-licensure programs increased by an impressive 24 percent between AY
2006-2007 and AY 2007-2008, but almost all of this growth occurred in ADN programs (Figure
4). BSN programs were essentially stagnant in both number of graduates and total enrollment,
while ADN programs increased total enrollment by 13 percent. Evidence from our survey
suggests, however, that the growth experienced by ADN programs is not sustainable. The
number of full-time faculty members in ADN programs actually decreased over the past AY,

and the number of students per full-time faculty member increased by three."

What all that means is that the nursing shortage is still here, it's still real, and in 2-3 years will be a real crunch. What that means is that the ADN training programs are here to stay - as is the place of the ADN. Ditto LPN's.

Economies cycle - employers tighten "controllables" to make numbers look better for fiscal year reporting. The projections all look scary in terms of the nursing shortage. Breathe ... the jobs are there, and there will be lots more of them.

It's just really really tough times right now.

Oh, and another note - continuing one's education is strongly encouraged at Shands - it's a Magnet facility attached to a major university, hello - but nowhere is advanced degree pursuit mandatory.

Hospitals in my area are listing postions for both ADNs and LPNs so I doubt it is true.

For the moment it is a facility requirement only and not state. Some of the hospitals in my area are starting to require BSN even to get scheduled for an interview. It's not happening now but I do forsee it in the future. Particularly with todays economy and if it continues the facilities can "pick and choose" as they see fit. St. Augustine requires BSN now. I think if you have time to knock it out now in preparation for down the road - do it. I recently interviewed for 2 different research nurse positions who also now require BSN only.

My mother graduated from LICH with a nursing diploma in 1958. Since she first "passed her boards", there have been rumors that you HAVE to have a BSN and it is just about to happen. She has been retired for years!

My sister did get her BSN in 1983....and it was this week they announced that the hospital was going BSN only for new hires.....(on long island, ny)....my brother got his ADN 4 yrs ago and is making over 6 figures working in oncology in Manhattan. {Prime example of hospital not state policy}

Next, I am in NE FL. In both Baptist dwntwn and OPMC (where I have done clinicals) all the nurses I met were ADNs (with 1 or 2 LPNs and a handful of PCTs). At OP, the one I worked with on Sunday just finished her 1 yr mark after having graduated with her ADN at FSCJ.

Rumors like this fly all the time. As the economy continues to rebound, censuses (sp?) will increase and the need for RNs with it. Hiring will resume even for GNs.

It can't hurt to go for your BSN someday.....but I don't think there is a huge rush. (JMHO)

I don't know anything about Florida in particular, but as I recall there has only been one State that has ever required BSN+ for RN licensure. It was either North or South Dakota. And then they revoked that requirement a few years later as they couldn't staff their hospitals. Their populations are nowhere near that of Florida so I can't imagine Florida would shoot itself in the foot that way. The hospital I worked for in Florida was not near a university and I bet there were only about 10-15% BSN's.

I support BSN only for RN licensure, wish I had gone that route, but lack the inspiration at this point to do anything different. There is no financial incentive if I want to do what I'm currently doing and I don't have aspirations to "climb the ladder".

I work at a hospital that does not employ LPNs. My hospital is applying for magnet status so they are "encouraging" all the nurses to get their BSN. Eventually, they will switch over to hiring only BSNs to be in compliance with the magnet status or so they say. They are currently removing all non-BSN nurses from charge positions.

If someone really implements something like that to just work, my facility will be out of an entire MDS department! Well, I guess no one will have a job then, cause if there's no MDS, there is no facility payment.

There's a difference between individual hospitals requiring BSN and the entire State. The hospital where I work is a magnet facility and they "encourage" BSN, but I would estimate 50% of the RN's are hired with an ADN, though many do go back to school. Many go back to school in part due to the support from the facility.

In addition, very few LPN's/LVN's work in the acute care facility, none in the ICU areas. They are employed in the long term areas. I would venture to say that if we were more rural and further away from the multiple RN nursing schools, it would likely employ more LVN's in the acute care areas.