Why didn't BSN as entry level work out in ND?

[queenjean]

We are reading some articles about BSN as entry in ND--as in the preparation and work that went into making this a reality. So yes, these articles are from the 80s.

I would like to read some articles that address WHY this didn't work. Was it a legal technicality? Did the BSN as entry level increase the nursing shortage? Why exactly did North Dakota go back to allowing ADNs to sit for boards and practice?

I've been looking around and haven't found anything that details WHY it didn't work. I'd like some fair and balanced articles on the issues. I see a lot of debate about why we should/shouldn't make BSN as entry level; but I want to know why it didn't work in the first state that tried it.

Thanks in advance.

Lori

[Farmer Jane]

Several reasons:

There simply aren't enough BSNs right now, nor are there enough BSN programs. BSNs are less than half of all RNs. Make BSN the entry level with no transition, and congratulations, you just eliminated more than half the workforce.

There are not enough BSN programs to produce that many BSN RNs, and those programs are inaccessible to many, many people. People who are poor and/or live in rural areas quite often can't just go to college full time for four years, and universities are often far away. ADN programs are closer to hope, faster, and way less expensive.

If we want more people to become RNs via the BSN, the BSN programs have to be accessible to those people.

[queenjean]

No one else has any reasons as to why BSN as entry level didn't work out in ND?

I'm a bit surprised. There is such a vehement debate about whether BSN should be entry level, I would have thought some of the supporters in that thread would have been interested in coming over here and stating why any problems that occurred in ND would not occur now, and the detractors would have been able to post why it didn't work then and wouldn't work now.

Does anyone have any links to articles about why ND resumed accepting ADNs as entry level RNs?

Thanks,

Lori

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I wonder if the ND Board of Nursing might be able to point you in the right direction?

I don't know anything about it but I imagine that it led to greater nursing shortages. In order to prevent that from happening if things go to BSN entry only, I think there would need to be a lot of federal and state money invested in funding programs to attract more teachers to increase class size AND in more scholarships and grants to nursing students. My state recently canceled it's nursing loan repayment program, so the opposite is happening in my area.