PROBLEM.  Unlike other professional healthcare disciplines, the profession of nursing has multiple levels of entry. Recently, several states have proposed legislation to mandate completion of baccalaureate education after 10 years of nursing licensure. METHODS.  This article examines the proposals, statistics, strategies, and other relevant literature on baccalaureate education for nurses and the positive outcomes associated with a more highly educated nursing workforce. FINDINGS.  The proposal recognizes the entry level preparation provided by associate degree nurses and is an innovative solution that offers a balance between multiple entry levels into practice and continued educational preparation. CONCLUSIONS.  Through a combination of the entry level preparation of associate degree nurses and baccalaureate education, a stronger nursing workforce can be created and patient outcomes and quality of care improved.

Abstract:Current demographic and health care utilization trends strongly indicate a rapidly increasing demand for nurses who are well qualified to care for older adults.

The number of doctoral programs in nursing has been increasing. However, these programs tend to focus on preparing nurse scientists to conduct research, and many spend little time preparing doctoral students for the educator, clinical researcher, or administrator role. Leaders of doctoral programs have identified the need to prepare doctoral students in the functional roles they will assume upon graduation, in addition to the researcher role. This article describes a two-course (six-credit) sequence of courses within a research-focused PhD in Nursing program that provides didactic and experiential knowledge about the role of the nurse scientist in academia and industry settings. Students are highly satisfied with the courses, and report that the experiences have provided them with important knowledge and skills as they assume the scientist role.

This article discusses an interdisciplinary research project in which faculty from nursing and english collaborated in the assessment of students' critical thinking skills as reflected in writing portfolios. Faculty reviewed students' writing portfolios and then corresponded on email from two different universities about evidence of critical thinking in the portfolios. Findings suggest that writing portfolios can provide important evidence of critical thinking outcomes. To do this, however, faculty need to design writing assignments to foster critical thinking skills, helping students to think not only about learning to write, but also about using writing to learn.

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