New York Now Requires Nurses to Have Bachelor Degree

New York Now Requires Nurses to Have Bachelor Degree

At present, most registered nurses have two-year associate's degrees. No state requires a four-year degree for initial licensing or afterward. Under a bill, lawmakers are considering as part of a national push to raise educational standards for nurses, even as the health care industry faces staffing shortages. New registered nurses would have to earn bachelor's degrees within 10 years to keep working in New York. Although other states like New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered proposals similar to New York.

Demand for more skilled nurses is increasing as the population gets older and has more chronic diseases. The "BSN in 10" initiative supported by nursing associations and major health policy organizations aims to attack the complex problem of too few nurses trained to care for an aging population including hundreds of thousands of nurses expected to retire in the coming years.

Supporters say that in addition to improving patient care, a primary reason for requiring higher education is to put more nurses in jobs in administration and in-demand specialties like oncology, and to teach at nursing schools.

As of 2008, about a third of RNs had bachelor's degrees or higher, according to federal statistics. The institute recommended increasing that to 80 percent by 2020 with the proposed bill.

Posted by James Fried on Monday January 02 2012, 6:58 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Nation. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0